More than 30 years ago, Roy Bloom set his sights on making the American Farriers Team. He spent a great deal of time in the fire to improve his skills, efficiency and time, all while shoeing full time. Then he felt it.

“I was practicing hard and shoeing a lot,” recalls the International Horseshoeing Hall of Fame member. “When I tried to drag a hoof knife through a foot, I would get a sharp pain on the inside of my right elbow.”

Bloom certainly isn’t alone. According to a recent American Farriers Journal internet poll, 26% of shoers say they experience elbow pain. Another 20% have wrist pain, while 43% experience both elbow and wrist pain. Just 11% do not have pain.

Each doctor who examined Bloom recommended cortisone injections, which didn’t sit well with the Drummond, Wis., farrier.

“No, I’ll just live with it,” he told them.

A chance conversation with a client about the painful arm changed his life. The client suggested that Bloom visit a naprapathic doctor, who evaluates and treats muscles, tendons and ligaments, as well as the alignment of the body’s skeletal structure. The visit opened his eyes.

“He looks at me and starts telling me every little thing that I’m doing when I’m out in the course of the day,” says the owner of Bloom Forge. “I wondered if this guy had been following me. He told me that I worked with my right hand too much and my left was underdeveloped. He said my left shoulder was dropping my right arm. When I told him that the pain was in the inside of my right elbow, he told me that it had nothing to do with my elbow. It was coming from my shoulder blade.”

The doctor put Bloom on a table and massaged various connective tissues. When it was time to address the shoulder blade, he warned Bloom that he was going to work on three different lumps — and it was going to hurt.

When he walked out of the doctor’s office, the pain was gone.

“I squeezed my hand into a fist as hard as I could trying to duplicate the pain,” he says. “I couldn’t do it. The muscles along my shoulder blade had contracted enough that they were pulling on my arm. Once he released them, the pain was gone.”

Get a Handle on it

Wrist and elbow pain is potentially preventable, as Bloom can attest. One of the easiest ways to do so is to modify your hammer handle. Simply put, when a handle is too large or too small, one must squeeze it harder to maintain control.

“You have to make that tool fit you,” says Chris Gregory, owner of Heartland Horseshoeing School in Lamar, Mo. “When I travel to a clinic without my tools and I’m looking for a hammer for a demonstration, I’m really shopping for handles more than hammerheads. I’m looking for a handle that fits me. So many people’s hammer handles are too long and too heavy. A lighter hammer and a shorter handle will make a big difference.”

How do you ensure that a handle fits your hand?

“When I lightly squeeze a hammer handle with my thumb on top, I should have about ¼ of an inch between the tips of my fingers and my palm,” Bloom says. “There should be a little gap in there. If there’s more gap, it’s too heavy. If I can come all the way around and touch my hand, it’s too thin.”

While the size of the handle can influence your grip, some might have formed a habit of squeezing tightly long before becoming a farrier. It’s a habit that could lead to a world of hurt.

“Whether it’s a hammer handle, your hoof knife or tongs, you do not grip or squeeze,” he says. “It should be very loose in your hand. At any time, somebody should be able to walk up and slip it right out of your hand. The minute you start squeezing or tensing up, that’s when you start wrecking your elbow, wrist or shoulder. It can get pretty tough.”

Before modifying your hammer handle, it’s important to remember how you should use it while forging. When swinging for power, the end of the hammer is typically used. Precision blows are achieved by choking up on the handle.

“When you’re working with tools like that, there are so many instances when the handle slides back and forth through your hand for different purposes,” Bloom says. “If you’re just gripping in one spot and that’s the only place that you’re doing it, then that’s probably wrong. You should be all over that handle.”

A sharp hoof knife enables the blade to come through the foot with no effort, reducing the stress on your wrist and elbow.

A farrier’s preference in comfort is as individual as the person. Most handles are round or oval. Bloom’s handles are egg-shaped, a preference he picked up from fellow Hall of Fame farrier Dick Becker of Lapeer, Mich. The handle is not only comfortable for Bloom, it indicates which way the hammer head is facing without looking at it.

“The narrower point of the handle is always toward the flat of the head,” Bloom says. “When I pick it up, I know immediately which side is down on the handle.”

At one time, Gregory would modify his handles with the rough side of his rasp, char them in the forge and then use a coarse brush on them. He would rub it down with a linseed oil and turpentine mixture to treat it.

“It gave me a very nice hammer handle,” says the Hall of Fame farrier, “but it isn’t as nice as when the handle is wrapped.”

While many farriers use a vet wrap on their handles, Gregory finds handle wraps such as Lizard Skins or Head that are used by tennis players are optimal.

“It’s important to use a high-quality wrap because they are not all equal,” he says. “The $3 wraps are a waste of your time and effort. When we’re swinging a hammer, we will sweat we regardless of whether it has a wrap. The wrap is designed for tennis players who swing their rackets while sweating. It allows me to hold the handle better when I am sweating, so it’s a huge advantage.”

Before applying the wrap, Bloom suggests modifying the handle first.

“You might have to reduce the handle width before putting on a wrap,” he says. “As soon as you put it on, you could be adding ¼ of an inch to it. If you don’t sand it down before applying the wrap, you could have a big old bulky thing and it didn’t accomplish anything.”

Tongs should not only fit the stock that you’re using, but the anvil height should be adjusted for the comfortable use of your tong hand.

Tool Use and Maintenance

Proper tool use and maintenance will go a long way toward ensuring that you have a healthy arm. There’s one word that Bloom uses more than any other.

“Smooth,” he says. “Everything needs to be round and smooth. The smoother, the better. You can’t have any scratching or sharp edges on your hammers or knives.”

A dull knife blade might seem more like an annoyance while trying to finish up your day, but taking the time to sharpen it will be beneficial to both you and the horse.

“When the knife is sharp, the blade comes through the hoof real nice and pretty,” Bloom says. “There should be no effort. When the blade is dull, you’ll have to pull through it. I guarantee that you’ll feel it in your wrist or elbow.”

Another tool that can cause arm problems when used incorrectly is nippers. Gregory suggests a less aggressive approach to removing hoof wall to avoid injury.

“Folks that have nipper trouble tend to take big bites,” he says. “The secret to making nipping easy is to run your nippers ¼- to ½-inch of the blade. If your nipper blades are an inch wide and you nip an inch every time, then you’re using maximum force to cut every time. When you cut ½ inch, not only is it easier to stay in line, but you use a lot less force. I can trim a draft horse with racetrack nippers as easily as I can a Quarter Horse because I’m only going to move just a fraction, so I don’t have the excessive force involved.”

Excessive force can be detrimental when using other tools, as well. Something as seemingly innocuous as a piece of stock that doesn’t fit tongs could lead to long-term consequences because of the effort that’s necessary to control it and get the job done.

“When you use the wrong tongs, not only do you have the potential danger of getting burned but you have to hold them at weird angles to get the job done,” Gregory says. “If you work various sizes of stock, you need tongs that fit each of them.”

There are more considerations than tongs fitting your hand and bar stock, the Missouri farrier contends. He suggests adjusting the height of your anvil to your tong hand rather than your hammer hand.

“Your hammer doesn’t care if it stops 2 inches higher or 2 inches lower,” Gregory says. “I like my anvil to be 3 or 4 inches taller than a textbook height would be because it’s comfortable when my tong hand puts materials flat on the anvil.”

How you swing a hammer can influence arm health as much as, if not more than, any other factor. Whether it’s golf, hitting a baseball, martial arts, or forging, you need balance to successfully perform. Balance and strength are found in the center of your body, also known as your core.

“When swinging the hammer, the head should be as close as possible to the centerline of your body,” Bloom says. “When the hammer head is off the centerline, your elbow starts to drift away from your body. When you swing a hammer at an angle with your elbow stuck out, it’s guaranteed that you’re going to lose your elbow. It can’t take that kind of pressure.”

Deviating from a balanced, center-driven swing not only increases the risk for injury, but it also has a negative effect on your forging.

“You also lose a lot of accuracy and power,” Gregory says. “Clipping a shoe requires a lot of accuracy and focus. The people who have the hardest time doing it are those who spread their elbows away from their rib cage.”

Most farriers use a hoof knife, swing a hammer and hold a set of tongs every day. Proper use can produce effective results, improve your efficiency and promote a healthy arm. If you have a negative experience, it’s important to re-evaluate what you’re doing.

“If you’re hurting, then something is wrong with your tool or you’re not using it right,” Bloom says. “The only incident I ever had was that one back in 1988. I haven’t had a problem whatsoever since then, and I swing a hammer every day. Pay attention to your tools, modify the fit and use them right, and you’ll do well. Otherwise, after nearly 50 years, I should have fallen apart a long time ago.”

November 2020