In pictures: An age-old profession that won't gallop away
A farrier shows how horseshoes are forged and fitted
For nearly 30 years, Leon Bergen has been fitting shoes on horses. It’s a craft he went to school to master, to become what’s known as a farrier. The image of someone standing over a hot forge, casting steel to fit a horse’s hoof was commonplace 100 years ago, but Mr. Bergen says there are more farriers out there now than most people think.John Lehmann/The Globe and Mail
“There are still many horses all over and they still got to get their feet looked after,” he says. Mr. Bergen says there is a horseshoeing school in the Fraser Valley, B.C., one in Cloverdale, B.C., and many scattered across Canada and the United States.John Lehmann/The Globe and Mail
On a sunny afternoon at Hastings Racecourse in Vancouver, Mr. Bergen goes through the fitting process. With a pair of tongs, he heats up a steel horseshoe using a propane forge. The premade horseshoes he uses come in all shapes and sizes, but Mr. Bergen must shape the shoe to the exact specifications of the hoof to get a perfect fit. After heating up the shoe, Mr. Bergen takes it over to an anvil he uses as sturdy base. Then he shapes the shoe, using what’s called a shaping or rounding hammer.John Lehmann/The Globe and Mail
But the process is more intricate than simply shaping the horseshoe. He also has to trim the horse’s hoof. He uses a tool called a nipper, which essentially nips off the bottom edge of the wall of the hoof as well as the adjoining sole. A tool called a rasp is used to file the hoof.John Lehmann/The Globe and Mail
Mr. Bergen checks on the repair made to a horseshoe before attaching the hammered-out shoe to the horse. Racing horses wear aluminum shoes that are much lighter than steel, and these type of shoes can be cold-moulded with a hammer. Heavier steel shoes, such as the one Mr. Bergen is working with, are used for riding horses because they don’t wear as easily.John Lehmann/The Globe and Mail
Mr. Bergen then places the horseshoe onto the hoof and hammers tiny nails through small holes in the horseshoe to keep it in place. It is a delicate process: “You’re working with the dead part of the foot, but you have to know what parts you can work with and what parts you need to leave alone,” he said.John Lehmann/The Globe and Mail