What draws farriers to their calling? For many, simply the love of horses. There also is the draw of a career that lets you determine your path — something many professions forbid. And after acquiring enough knowledge and ability, the satisfaction that comes from having helped a horse improve. 

Whatever the reasons, they also sustain a farrier to persevere through a career that will present frustrations and humbling lessons. All of these and others have fueled Mike Wharton through his 50-year career. In his mind, Wharton is entering a retirement phase — but not in the traditional sense of leaving the workforce. The Wellington, Fla., farrier says 2022 is his last show season, but he doesn’t want to permanently hang up his apron. Instead, he will maintain a couple of accounts and become very selective on which particular horses he’ll work with. Eventually, his “retirement” will likely be 2 days a week being under horses.

Wharton credits his wife Kay for her support and help in his career. Through planning, they are set up well financially, so an uncertain future isn’t the motivator preventing his full retirement. Instead, he still loves the challenge of keeping sport horses in the show ring. After deciding to step back, Wharton has begun notifying clients of his decision — and whether he’ll remain their farrier. 

Being able to dictate the terms of working with high-level show horses isn’t achievable overnight. Wharton has come a long way from where his career began. On this “Shoeing for a Living” day, Wharton shares what helped him find success and how he remains motivated as a farrier.

A Turning Point 17 Years into His Career

 Driving to the only stop of the day, Wharton says his family has a lengthy horseshoeing history — both paternal and maternal sides have farriers. After his decorated service in the United States Marine Corps during the Vietnam War, Wharton returned home and started working as a farrier in the early 1970s in Lancaster County, Pa. His first mentor was Bob Charles, who later would join the University of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton Center as the resident farrier prior to Rob Sigafoos. They primarily worked on Amish road horses, shoeing seven per day for $15 a head for four around with Borium, $16 with Drill-Tech (about $87 and $93, respectively, in today’s dollars).

“When Bob raised the prices to $18 and $19, we really heard about it,” he laughs.

Wharton continued working in that shop for a few more years after Charles left for Penn’s Vet School. Having built his southeast Pennsylvania practice over the following dozen years, Wharton recalls at the time he believed he was a good horseshoer. Today, Wharton sees things differently.

“I was a good enough horseshoer not to cripple them, but not good enough to help them move up,” he says.

In 1990, a turning point came to Wharton’s career when he traveled to South Carolina to pick up a shoeing body at Monetta Farrier Specialties. It just so happened that the supply shop was holding a clinic, so Wharton stuck around to attend. This decision altered the course of his practice.

“Purchasing that truck body from Jack Schwartz changed my life,” he recalls. “Jack introduced me to the clinicians. It was like the scales fell. For example, I used to think to myself, ‘Why am I cropping heels on my shoes?’ Then I found out that it was because I wasn’t dressing the feet correctly. Or I was making handmade shoes and thought I was doing alright when I competed in local contests. But when I compared myself with those Monetta clinicians like Grant Moon, Jim Poor, Craig Trnka, Andy Snell, Greg Davis, Bob Davis, Eddie Watson and Mark Milster, I realized they were in another league.”

Mike Wharton says working with younger farriers like Mike Orlando (left photo) and Hector Goico (right photo) aids in longevity by sharing the workload and allowing him to give his knowledge to enthusiast shoers.

Before that clinic, Wharton had won a Pennsylvania contest, which he admits inflated his confidence. But through conversations with the clinicians, he came to realize where his deficiencies were.

“I called my wife from South Carolina and told her that truck body cost more than we expected,” he says. “I left there with a new forge, anvil, tongs and so on. Had I not gone to Jack’s clinic, I’d be a broken down horseshoer, and probably never charged more than $65 for shoeing a horse. 

Schwartz held those clinics every few months, and Wharton began attending religiously. Through these and getting to know Moon, Wharton traveled to the Isle of Man in 1993 to work with the Welsh farrier for 10 days.

“The same principles of trimming that Grant taught me is another reason I’m still here today,” he says, adding that he still uses many lessons from what he learned from Moon.

Education is available through the sharing of knowledge with other farriers. Take full advantage, but Wharton adds you’ll only learn from others by first dropping your ego.

“You have to swallow your pride,” he says. “When you do, this industry is willing to give you anything. And once you are given an idea, you own it in your toolbox.” 

As his skill set and knowledge improved, Wharton was drawn to the circuit, and would split his time between his home in Pennsylvania and Wellington, Fla., during show season, as well as traveling around the country. He is permanently in Florida now, and hasn’t traveled to shoe a horse for about 2 years.

Managing Interruptions

Wharton pulls up to Ots Dressage, a barn of the Grand Prix rider and trainer, and also one of the two accounts the farrier will keep after whittling down his book. His two helpers, Mike Orlando and Hector Goico, are already there and start setting up his work area. 

Before he begins, Wharton checks in with Carolyn Hordum, the barn manager and a trainer. There is a gelding that had a high spot in the hairline that was brought up to the veterinarian in between the shoeing cycle. The vet deferred to the farrier.

Wharton uses a contour gauge to illustrate the shape of the coffin bone in relation to shaping his shoe to fit.

Wharton notes how the horse toes out from the knee, adding there will be the tendency to have the medial heel sit underneath and the lateral toe run out.

“That outside toe hits first, followed by the medial heel, which creates the interruption,” he says. “As farriers we want the hairline to be parallel to the ground, so when you have a high spot in the hairline — that’s an interruption. Our job is to understand why. Is this something caused by the horseshoer? Is the horse loading in a different way to create this interruption? That is the result, but understand what is the reason to then determine how to address the problem.”

Wharton pulls the shoes and says he’ll reevaluate the horse later today. Sometimes he will give the foot a day to settle before coming back to it. He acknowledges this is dependent on the client giving you that time. Environment also plays an important role. A wet environment may produce quicker results. In an arid environment, you might pull the shoes, but then should soak the feet.

Training and Keeping Help

 While Wharton was looking at the first horse, Goico pulled the shoes on another warmblood gelding. Typically, he will pull and clinch for Wharton, and sometimes handles trims and nailing. Orlando has more experience, so he begins pulling the shoes of another horse across the aisle and can work independently of Wharton, allowing him to check the work. Goico works every day with Wharton, and Orlando less frequently. Both maintain accounts of their own.

Working to train young farriers aids longevity two-fold. Obviously, they can decrease the amount of work for the lead farrier. By training and building mentees into skilled farriers, it can be enriching and bring motivation to both parties. 

“Both of these guys are good horseshoers,” he says. “I look back at many of the outstanding farriers I had — I’m proud of those who are still shoeing.”

Many farriers have trouble finding help. And if you can find apprentices, can they match the standards of their practices? 

Wharton says first understand your own program so that you can teach it. Wharton’s ideal candidate has the same values and some horse sense. Farrier experience isn’t as necessary. He wants apprentices who are polite and present themselves well to clients. He warns young farriers that they only have one chance to make a first impression, and that view is how clients will see them going forward. They need motivation to show up daily, but Wharton says it needs to be the right motivation.

“They must be interested in the work because of the horse,’’ Wharton says. “Yes, we want to be paid for our work, but if they are only driven by money, apprentices and helpers will burn out because this is too hard of a job to only be in it for the money. Keep the horse as the focus.”

On many of his horses, Wharton finds it helps create more surface area by starting his trim angled outward at the medial heel before straightening his nippers.

As for keeping talent, Wharton says that you have to realize that every helper will eventually leave. He’s had helpers last as short as 6 weeks, and up to 13 years. To keep help around, Wharton says the key is to maintain their interest and motivation.

“Keep them hungry, encourage them to continue education or pursue a goal like certification. Give them a personal challenge,” he says. “How you communicate is also important. Encourage, don’t discourage, your help. Don’t talk down — remember where you started in this profession.”

Wharton enjoys seeing his help mature and take on accounts of their own. Even one horse at a barn can make a huge impact.

“You can gain an entire barn through one horse, but you can also lose an entire barn through one horse,” says Wharton. 

Mirroring the Coffin Bone 

Wharton has worked with this Warmblood for 4 years, and discusses how he maintains it. As he trims the gelding’s front left foot, Wharton notes the minimal sole depth, adding that he tries to leave as much as possible so the horses don’t end up sore.

“It is like what Eddie Watson told me when I asked him why he was successful with horses,” Wharton says, referring to the late Hall of Fame farrier from Virginia. “He said, ‘Mike, it’s not what I do, it’s what I don’t do.’”

Wharton is meticulous in evaluating the horse and trim, adding that he finds the “12 Points of Reference for Evaluating Limb Balance” by Hall of Fame farriers Roy Bloom and Dave Farley an incredibly useful system. You can review their criteria  AmericanFarriers.com/0522.

With the feet trimmed, Wharton looks at the front shoes. He won’t get a reset with the Kerckhaert Meister shoes, and needs more width medially. He uses his fuller to widen the heel quarter for the horse, giving it more support. For his shoe selection, Wharton says he doesn’t use square toe shoes often. 

“I try to shoe tight to the coffin bone,” he says. “As far as setting back a shoe, half of the thickness of the wall is fine. With that said, there are always exceptions to the rules. At this barn, I only have one horse with a blunt toe and the shoe set back. That’s because his conformation and age dictate that shoe being more underneath.” 

To demonstrate his philosophy of why he sets up most of his horses this way, Wharton takes a contour gauge and places it about 2 inches below the hairline. He then compares it with the shaped shoe.

“That’s the shape of the coffin bone,” he says. “There are always exceptions, but I ask myself why would I square something when that isn’t the shape of the coffin bone? Look at the shape of the hinds. I want this horse to use its motor.

“That’s what I go by in shoeing my horses. If the toe doesn’t fit, the nailing won’t fit. The center of the heel should intersect with the first nail hole. We are going to get as close as we can to an equal load-bearing. In many cases, you can’t do that by squaring the toe and pulling the shoe back. This changes the nailing pattern and forces the farrier to pitch the nail out — otherwise, they will quick the horse.”

Wharton adds a slight rocker to the front shoes, which is a common modification for most of his shoes.

Discipline is a Key for Longevity

Goico clinches and finishes the feet on the warmblood, which gives Wharton a chance to share more about his longevity and drive as a farrier. Passion may fuel a farrier, but longevity in a tough profession requires discipline in maintaining body and spirit. For Wharton’s physical and spiritual health, he wakes up 5 days a week at 3:45 a.m. and reads scripture for 30-45 minutes. He then works out for up to an hour. Wharton adds that diet is an important part of maintaining health and prolonging a career. At 74, Wharton is in remarkable shape.

By limiting his scheduling, Wharton’s goal is to remove frustrations that take away from the enjoyment of work, chiefly what he views as the lack of professionalism among some riders,  trainers and other equine professionals. This can extinguish a farrier’s motivation. 

“You may have 50 years of experience, but you can come across someone who tells you how to shoe the horse — something they’ve never done,” he says. “Our experience counts, and experience is just a sweet way of saying we learn from our mistakes.”

A Valuable Lesson 30 Years Later

Goico has another warmblood gelding in the cross-ties and pulls the shoes. As Wharton begins to trim the front left foot, he notices the horse seems sore. He takes hoof testers and runs them around the foot, finding a pain response in the lateral sole toward the bar. It doesn’t take much for him to uncover and drain a small abscess in the area. Wharton talks to Hordum, who isn’t aware of a cause. Orlando gives her Green Hoof Salve, made by Palm Beach Farrier Supply. They find the paste useful for helping a sore-footed horse. Hordum smears a thin layer on the sole and wrap it. Wharton has previously used Keystone leather pads on the front feet of the horse, but will leave them off this shoeing so the client can soak the foot or treat the abscess area.

To help this dressage horse, Wharton gave it more support with fullering the medial branch to the heel.

Moving the left hind, Wharton says this horse is another case of wanting to increase the bearing surface of the medial heel. For this, he uses a technique Grant Moon taught him back in 1993. By initially tilting the nippers at more of an angle beginning in the heel and then straightening as he comes around, Wharton says he will gain about  of an inch in bearing surface in the area with this horse.

“An  of an inch may not seem like much, but we’re headed in the right direction,” he says. “I don’t care if it is smaller than that because we’re moving outward, not inward, and not allowing the heels to fold in. These are the challenges that keep me wanting to shoe horses.”

As he rasps the foot, Wharton notes he pulls his rasp for better control than pushing. He’ll switch to Mustad Liberos on the hinds and keep Meisters on the fronts as resets. Goico gets the shoes in the forge so that they are ready to work with when Wharton finishes his trims. 

Having shaped his shoes, Wharton heads over to hot fit the right hind. He says a few farriers have commented that he leaves too much foot prior to his burn. 

“I’m going to set a rocker and burn, but more importantly from the time I leave the shoeing floor, go to the forge and return to the horse, I want time so the foot settles. Now I can make another adjustment and get more out of that shoeing. But if I take the horse to where it is, I can hardly burn. Then I’ll have to deal with the consequences of that.”

Reevaluating the Foot

The first horse of the day is back in the cross-ties. A few hours after pulling the shoes, the hairline settled and the medial heel expanded slightly. He will use the same technique of titling his nippers at the medial heel to make a slightly broader plane.

“When you pull the shoe and look at the medial heel, you can see a fibrous area where the heels have been beaten up,” he says. “The horn is not solid. That is trauma and the horse is taking a beating from the outside to the inside. If we don’t address it immediately and think we’ll catch it next time, the problem will catch us next time. If that interruption starts to dissipate and smooth out, that will tell us we’re headed in the right direction.”

Having trimmed the horse, Wharton goes to the anvil to shape new shoes for the horse.

Wharton notes that a common flaw for some farriers in forging is poor posture and execution at the anvil. He says for basic everyday shoeing that the anvil should be a farrier’s rest time.  

“You don’t want to come away from the anvil with a stiff back,” he says. “The hammer and tongs do the work, so don’t beat up your body shaping shoes. You aren’t making roadsters all day. Leave the shoeing floor with a photo in your mind of the shoe shape. Take the shaped shoe back from the anvil. This time also lets the foot settle. Using this time wisely keeps you fresh.”

The Horse as a Teacher

With the last horse of the day back in its stall, Orlando and Goico pack up while Wharton completes his notes on the horses. Orlando and Goico will head out to see horses on their own. It wasn’t a full day compared with other farrier practices. Some days they shoe more horses, but the number of horses isn’t important to where Wharton is in his career as he looks to downsize. He says he’s come a long way from that Lancaster County road shop. In addition to his faith, he gives credit to others and the horse for where he is today.

“I’m blessed to have known excellent farriers,” says Wharton. “I’ve surrounded myself with those willing to share their knowledge. Also, the horse will teach us if we are smart enough to listen. As long as I can stay in this profession, I want to keep learning.”