Someone who is new to horse ownership likely lacks extensive experience with horses. They will turn to you for advice on matters beyond footcare.

Regardless of the level of horsemanship that clients possess, they inevitably will ask you hoof-care questions. But the less experience a client has with horses, the more that volume of questions will grow. This is especially true of those who are new to ownership and are learning with a backyard horse.

Don’t make the mistake of viewing inexperienced and incessant questioning from these owners as an annoyance. Instead, it can equate to job security. Certainly, you need to be able to maintain a schedule in your workday without holding court for an hour or 2 to answer questions about horses’ feet. However, the more a novice owner learns about horses, the more that client understands the critical need of quality hoof care. And hopefully from that, the owner will realize only a qualified, informed farrier can supply that help.

We conducted a survey with the readers of American Farriers Journal’s weekly e-newsletter in which we asked farriers what are the most frequent questions that they receive from novice backyard horse owners. The 103 farriers who contributed to this survey have a combined average of 66% of backyard horses on their books.

Here are the four most popular questions received by farriers from novice backyard horse owners in order of frequency. The farriers contributing their insight to each have a minimum of 50% backyard accounts. 

1. How