Gimmicks and fads never last. What will always remain is a process of thought based in the basics of farriery. Grant Moon calls this being a thinking farrier — always evaluating what one sees and does when working with a horse. 

This thought process yields a system that is repeatable and applied to every horse. For the performance horses he works with, Moon calls this goal “shoeing in the normal zone.” He shared a survey of his process at the 2019 International Hoof-Care Summit during the Delta Mustad Hoofcare Center Friday Lunchtime Panel.

Building a Picture

It is important to have a repeatable process of evaluation before you work with a horse. Moon likes to begin with a static evaluation. During this, it isn’t just the observations he notes regarding the horse’s conformation or changes in the hoof capsule, but he also wants to gather overall information from the client, especially if he has never previously shod the horse.

“I’m going to ask how long the shoes have been on, if I haven’t shod the horse before, because that can be really indicative of some of the problems the horse has,” he says. “My shoeing looks good at 4 weeks, but at 12 weeks, it’s not so pretty.