“For seven years in a row, I’ve been voted the world’s worst shoer,” joked world-renowned clinician Pat Parelli at the 16th annual Bluegrass Laminitis Symposium Jan. 16-18 in Louisville, Ky., to begin a discussion on “Anvil Side Manner.”

“Why do you guys want to shoe horses, anyway?” Various attendees answered that they began horseshoeing because they couldn’t afford a shoer for their own horses, did it better than another shoer, they would rather shoe a horse than hold him, and/or they thought it would be a good way to help horses while paying for veterinary school.

With that established, he moved on to shoer stereotypes. “Why do you guys have a reputation for being late?” he asked. “Are you lazy? (Disbelieving laughs from the audience.) Or is it that the last stop took longer than scheduled?” Universal agreement met that one.

“I’ve got a lot of respect for farriers–you guys showing up on the scene are often in the world’s worst scenario,” he said. “Let’s say your first appointment is at 6 a.m. When you get there, what if the horse isn’t even caught? Prior proper preparation (PPP) prevents p***-poor performance, but you haven’t gotten any PPP from the owner. And if you aren’t part of the solution, you’re part of the problem. It’s the owner’s responsibility to ensure that the time you spend shoeing a horse is the only time you spend on the horse.” Otherwise, the farrier’s schedule is stretched later and later throughout the day