Networking with farriers is always a smart choice. They present great opportunities to learn something new or reaffirm that you’re on the right path.

Such was the case for Lexington, Ky., farrier Bobby Menker while spending the day with Goshen, Ky., farrier Conrad Trow.

“We got to talking about a Tho­rough­bred shoer who takes his thumb and puts it at the end of the frog and he wants that to be touching the inside edge of the shoe,” Menker recalls. “That’s his general guide. On a bigger horse, there might be a little bit more space.”

A short time later, Menker read about the same practice in an article. The more he thought about it, the more it dawned on him that he had been placing shoes with the same distance between the toe and apex of the frog all along.

“I didn’t realize I was doing it,” Menker says. “There are some times that I catch myself when the shoe is a little bit more forward and I have a little bit more distance between the toe and apex of the frog. But, I’ve found that a nice thumb distance between the end of my frog and the inside edge of my shoe is a good practice.”

For more tips from Bobby Menker, read “No Bells And Whistles, Just Keep It Simple” in the May/June 2018 issue of American Farriers Journal.