The Farrier and Hoofcare Resource Center located at www.horseshoes.com, is one of the largest equine-related Web sites in the world, says the site’s webmaster and owner, Baron Tayler.   

The site was officially launched in November,1995. “At my last count we had 35,000 to 40,000 pages,” he says. “We receive about 45,000 visitors a month from about 100 countries.”  

According to Tayler, about 33 percent of the site’s visitors are farriers and the remaining 67 percent are horse owners interested in hoof care. The average visitor downloads 12 pages per visit and about 25 percent of the visitors come back more than once a week, he adds. 

Horseshoes.com includes nearly 30 forums. Ten are strictly devoted to farriers and veternairians and only postings by the two professions are allowed. Another 10 forums are dedicated to horse owners and farriers, where owners can ask questions and receive answers from farriers regarding hoof care. 

The other forums are owned and paid for by companies and manufacturers. Typically, these forums are used for questions and answers regarding specific products, Tayler says, who reviews the forums at least twice a day to avoid multiple postings.   

Besides the forums, horseshoes.com offers a variety of farrier-related topics and information, much of which may also be of interest to horse owners. 

The Farrier Educational Resources section contains numerous subsections containing educational material for farriers. The farriery articles section is an invaluable collection of articles covering basic subject matter to advanced and in-depth topics.

The site also includes links…