Aaron Carraway, Carraway’s Horseshoeing (Camden, S.C.)
As a committed horse owner, I am pleased to submit my farrier, Aaron Carraway, for recognition as an outstanding professional.
In July 2014, I adopted a 7-year-old OTTB as my forever horse. I began riding again after a 40-year break and had many things to learn/relearn. I was just a teenager when I rode out of hunter/jumper show barns in the northeast before eventually moving south in retirement and setting out on my grand second-time-around adventure as an adult fully responsible for the well-being of an equine partner. My horse, "PG," spent most of her life in pasture after racing only three times and retiring uninjured. She simply had not found her special person before I began a serious quest for the right horse last year.
She is a beautiful mare, but can be opinionated. (I was told she could even seem a bit intimidating in her younger years.) She also has slightly upright conformation, tends to toe-in on one front foot and is prone to shelly, brittle hooves if not cared for diligently. When she arrived at my barn, her feet had suffered from major wet/dry pasture cycles at her rehoming organization and were badly cracked. She also had a hard time keeping one of her front shoes on.
The regular barn farrier advised that her feet would always be a major challenge and suggested I return her. I did a lot of research, however, and continued doing what I could for her feet. But it became clear the barn's farrier was not as committed to her as I was, and I began looking for a farrier who was willing to take her on and ensure she has the professional care she needs.
Aaron Carraway and PG on the first visit, November 2014
I interviewed several farriers by phone before asking Aaron, on a friend's recommendation, to come look at my mare. One thing I really liked about him was that he also asked me a lot of questions before agreeing to consider taking us on. He immediately found a little seedy toe in one of her front hooves, which accounted for the problem keeping her right shoe on, but also said he saw nothing seriously wrong with her and began a thoughtful approach to improving her feet.
Aaron works to keep her toes a little shorter while encouraging her hooves to widen some. He is never defensive about my asking questions (I am still learning), and has shown me little things to look for and ways I can help in between 5-week trims, including trying to slightly round off any rear hoof flares before they lead to larger splits. While Aaron has a heavy client load, he arrives on time or lets me know if he'll be delayed. He also treats PG as if she were the most expensive performance horse he has to work on, not simply a fun, low-key project horse. He always takes his time in getting everything balanced and is kind in working with her even though she can become a little impatient at times.
PG was adopted out for a few months before I found her, but was returned because the adopter thought she just didn't seem happy after she had worked for a while and that her conformation might be limiting her, even though she has never been lame. I had a similar experience with her several months after I got her, and it took a couple months to work through it, but today she is thriving and becoming a more awesome horse every day. I believe carefully balancing her on a short cycle has made a major difference in her ability to work comfortably.
I will never ask her to be a serious performance horse, but she does participate in a full range of activities daily at a lower level, from jumping and beginning dressage, to trail riding and just goofing off. If Aaron had not become her farrier, I do not believe PG and I would be having the active, grand time we enjoy today and might not be looking forward to the very full future we have planned. The saying "no hoof, no horse" is too black and white based on what Aaron has done for my horse; maybe it's not as pithy, but I'll go with "hooves not optimized, horse not optimized."
—Kalli Norton (Little Rock, S.C.)
