# Why oh why do horse owners leave their horses out in the rain



## malinda (May 12, 2002)

...when the farrier is coming??

Seriously, only about 1% of owners plan ahead/are considerate enough to bring the horses inside so as to not leave their farrier getting dripped on and soaking wet. 

Rant over.


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## TheFarmerMommy (Mar 21, 2014)

I imagine a lot of them have no other choice? Not everyone has access to a barn. 

IME most farriers cancel if it's raining, anyway. There's a joke around here:

Q: "how are farriers like cats? 
A: they don't come when you call them and they don't like to go out in the rain!


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## Molly Mckee (Jul 8, 2006)

I don't know, I've heard both vets and farriers complain that people expect them to catch the horses themselves and pick the correct horse out of the pasture. Some people will expect the farrier to wait while they try to catch the horse, then have no safe place to work. Many will just leave. Maybe charge (lots) for the time it takes to get the horse ready to be seen?
A lady talked my SIL into delivering hay. She promised to have help to unload it. When he got there the little babysitter showed him where to put it. She also "forgot" to leave a check. He brought it home. There is a reason why we don't deliver hay.


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## Teej (Jan 14, 2012)

I don't have stalls so no locking them in over night to keep them dry but they are locked in the dry lot with halters on by the time he gets here. Mine will cancel for storms but not if it's just raining.


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## Maura (Jun 6, 2004)

My donkeys had a shelter, but that didn&#8217;t stop them from grazing in the rain. If the weather was bad I&#8217;d just have the donkeys on the covered patio/porch. If it was real bad, call the farrier and ask him if he wanted to reschedule, or rearrange his schedule so he visits us last instead of first. The only time he had to wait for me to get the donkeys was when he arrived early. Never chased them around, they were trained to a whistle.


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## goodhors (Sep 6, 2011)

Guess you need a better class of customer! Perhaps telling customer you won't work on wet horses, they need to be dry and CLEAN for getting done, would help them be better prepared. A simple question, "Would YOU like to be wet to work the rest of the day in this cold or rain?", might get them to see the issue better. Yes you charge for the call to the farm, their choice to make conditions impossible to work in, so you leave.

A Farrier or Vet who is out catching pasture horses is just stupid. The chance of getting hurt working alone is way too big to be doing that. I know career ending accidents that happened when the Service provider was working alone. Not worth the money or risk. Trying to be nice to the owner doing this is plain dangerous. Even the best equine can have bad days and hurt someone. You don't work on animals alone or be out there catching them either.

Owner has responsibilities in having animals ALL caught, ready to work on, being a dry animal (including legs) for working on. Animal needs to be managed by a handler who can control animal while being worked on. Not just tied and owner disappears again. I guess if owner has no dry place to work, call EARLY to cancel the appointment and reschedule.

Farriers around here don't tolerate the treatment you described, charge for the call and wasted fuel. Some might wait for owner to dry horse for working on, but will charge for the time. Better Farriers make money every minute the are working, so waiting time prevent them earning. Same Farriers insist in dry horse legs so they are not wet after leaving. Rookie Farriers have lower Standards of expectation, end up getting treated like c*^#. Usually the older, experienced Farriers will tell owner things need to change for them to work there. They get the "grumpy"reputation. But if owner NEEDS those skills to keep horse going well, owner works to improve working conditions. Farriers DO SHARE names and bad experiences, so bad owners, folks who don't treat Farriers well, are named to be avoided.

I hear "I can't get a Farrier" all the time. There is a REASON for that!


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## wr (Aug 10, 2003)

Molly Mckee said:


> I don't know, I've heard both vets and farriers complain that people expect them to catch the horses themselves and pick the correct horse out of the pasture. Some people will expect the farrier to wait while they try to catch the horse, then have no safe place to work. Many will just leave. Maybe charge (lots) for the time it takes to get the horse ready to be seen?
> A lady talked my SIL into delivering hay. She promised to have help to unload it. When he got there the little babysitter showed him where to put it. She also "forgot" to leave a check. He brought it home. There is a reason why we don't deliver hay.


We have a trucking company and have one lady who is notorious for wasting driver time. What should be a 3 hour job can take up to 10 or more and she always got away with it to a certain degree until I wrote up her last invoice for 15 hours at standard rate for truck and driver. 

She was stunned that I would do that because she 'only used the truck and driver for 'a couple hours' and couldn't grasp the idea that the same truck to decline several other jobs for the 15 hours she had them tied up. 

I figured she'd never call us again but the big invoice seems to have taught her to be a lot more respectful of other company's time.


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## where I want to (Oct 28, 2008)

My farrier is pretty reliable. I am pretty reliable. But my girls have only individual run ins with individual small paddocks attached for holding. Uptown for my area. One will keep out of the rain, the other won't. But at least it's pretty mud free from there to the cover where they get their trims. 
Around here horse keeping is pretty rough and ready and, if a farrier demanded a dry horse, he would have little work. Mine told me not to bother when I went to wipe mud off a leg. 
But if he asked me to do so, I would try to have them at least dried before he gets there.


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## aoconnor1 (Jun 19, 2014)

I always reschedule my farrier if it is raining or has rained in the day or two before he's scheduled out. I have had to catch horses when he showed up two hours early once, but usually I keep them tied until he arrives. He comes very early generally, my horses are at least tied, but i can't guarantee each one is spotless, dry, or each hoof has been picked. My guy never complains, he makes nearly a thousand bucks off me every 6 weeks, I think we both appreciate each other as it is. He has no problem shoeing or trimming alone, he tells me to go if I want or need to. I love that guy!


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## Ziptie (May 16, 2013)

Question, if a dogs is barking it's crazy head off on its own property and a person is riding a horse next to the property and gets bucked off and hurt. Who is a fault the owner of the dog or the horse?
I am guessing it is the horse owners. Correct?


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## wr (Aug 10, 2003)

Our weather is volatile and even with a barn, it's not always comfortable for farriers so I prefer to give my farrier the option of rescheduling.


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## malinda (May 12, 2002)

Muddy, wet, and slimy legs are not conducive to a good shoeing job. Also, if I had a client who does not have a barn, shed, or someplace to work out of the rain, they are eventually weeded out because I cannot simply or easily reschedule, especially during the crazy busy season.


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## malinda (May 12, 2002)

goodhors said:


> Guess you need a better class of customer! Perhaps telling customer you won't work on wet horses, they need to be dry and CLEAN for getting done, would help them be better prepared. A simple question, "Would YOU like to be wet to work the rest of the day in this cold or rain?", might get them to see the issue better. Yes you charge for the call to the farm, their choice to make conditions impossible to work in, so you leave.


While I trimmed your typically verbose reply, you'll note in my original post I never said anything about this being MY client.


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## arabian knight (Dec 19, 2005)

malinda said:


> ...when the farrier is coming??
> 
> Seriously, only about 1% of owners plan ahead/are considerate enough to bring the horses inside so as to not leave their farrier getting dripped on and soaking wet.
> 
> Rant over.


 The same reason why some seem to think a farrier is there to 'train' their animals. They are not. The owner is responsible for that. Guess some don't think so. LOL


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## wr (Aug 10, 2003)

malinda said:


> Muddy, wet, and slimy legs are not conducive to a good shoeing job. Also, if I had a client who does not have a barn, shed, or someplace to work out of the rain, they are eventually weeded out because I cannot simply or easily reschedule, especially during the crazy busy season.



This is true but that doesn't resolve everything up here. Muddy and wet is the part of the problem we can resolve but -40 with bone chilling wind is not resolved by barns and heated are not common up here.


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## gracielagata (Jun 24, 2013)

Our farrier is great. On time, usually even a bit early; calls if he needs to change. He is an old school, decently older than I cowboy type who loves to share his knowledge with me and my husband on horse care.
My horses live in a field with trees and a run-in only. They hardly ever use the run-in. So I can't control how they are on the day he gets here. 

I always pre-catch them and put them in the corral to wait for him, as this is my job. Then I sit and listen for him to arrive. 
Like most people out here where I live, we have no real barns we can stand in when the weather stinks. He is fine with that, as am I. Somehow we have always been lucky in that the weather has never been buckets of rain on trim day. 

My farrier has done their trims with wet muddy legs. I always provide towels and such, and do try to get them a bit clean before he gets here. 
But I don't think he cares. In fact he has verbalized exactly that when I ask. He knows his job entails being outside with animals who don't always choose to be dry or clean, and he is good with that. 
I always pay at the time of service, and I usually try to tip him $5 each visit, just because I can.


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## offthegrid (Aug 11, 2009)

malinda said:


> ...when the farrier is coming??
> 
> Seriously, only about 1% of owners plan ahead/are considerate enough to bring the horses inside so as to not leave their farrier getting dripped on and soaking wet.
> 
> Rant over.


1%? Really? I find that pretty hard to believe if the owners are actually going to be holding the horses for the farrier. My farrier won't do horses if the owner is not present, so maybe that helps.

I guess I must be the exception. Not only do I bring them in, but I towel them off. 

My farrier does have some clients that don't have a nice barn, or any barn...so in those cases, there isn't much he can do but plan to get dirty. Not fun, but better than -25F or 100F and humid.


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## RideBarefoot (Jun 29, 2008)

arabian knight said:


> The same reason why some seem to think a farrier is there to 'train' their animals. They are not. The owner is responsible for that. Guess some don't think so. LOL


I used to run into this problem until I started giving the speech:

It is MY responsibility to do the best possible job on your horse's feet; it is YOUR responsibility to present an animal to me that allows me to do my job. Failure to do so is expensive, very expensive.


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## wr (Aug 10, 2003)

RideBarefoot said:


> I used to run into this problem until I started giving the speech:
> 
> 
> 
> It is MY responsibility to do the best possible job on your horse's feet; it is YOUR responsibility to present an animal to me that allows me to do my job. Failure to do so is expensive, very expensive.



My vet has similar rates. He charges an hourly rate for an on site call, double his hourly rate if he has to use a rope or a twitch (on billing, this is his cowboy rate) and he charges double that rate if he has to deal with bad manners, which is billed out as training time.


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## malinda (May 12, 2002)

offthegrid said:


> 1%? Really? I find that pretty hard to believe if the owners are actually going to be holding the horses for the farrier. My farrier won't do horses if the owner is not present, so maybe that helps.
> 
> I guess I must be the exception. Not only do I bring them in, but I towel them off.
> 
> My farrier does have some clients that don't have a nice barn, or any barn...so in those cases, there isn't much he can do but plan to get dirty. Not fun, but better than -25F or 100F and humid.


Yes really. Even when the owner is holding the horse. Have you shod for the general horse-owning public? As a full-time profession? Across the U.S. and some of Europe? Ok, I won't even count Europe. Im talking upwards of 10,000 horses over 20 years. 

And you're wrong, slimy muddy legs and feet are not better than extreme heat or cold. Especially because slimy, wet horses can be prevented, or at the very minimum, remedied by the horse owner.


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## Hdunc20 (Mar 13, 2015)

I would never leave my horse out in the rain they must get really cold if they don't have a rug on


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## offthegrid (Aug 11, 2009)

malinda said:


> And you're wrong, slimy muddy legs and feet are not better than extreme heat or cold. Especially because slimy, wet horses can be prevented, or at the very minimum, remedied by the horse owner.


Not if you don't have a barn. Unless, I suppose, you just cancel. I wouldn't want to work outside without a barn in the rain, or subzero temps, or over 100F either.

I realize you said you were venting, but I'm not sure why you're venting here. Most of the posters said they either don't expect their farrier to work on wet horses, or they can't help it because they don't have the facilities to bring them in.

No, I'm not a professional farrier, and have not shod horses across the world. Why don't you simply ask your clients to bring in the horses and dry their legs?


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## goodhors (Sep 6, 2011)

Malinda asked ME why I thought the wet horse was her client? I presumed the wet horse was her client because she was irate in posting the topic! So then it appears she does NOT have wet horse clients. Now she won"t let the wet horse topic go. If horse has slimy legs, owner can"t prevent the problem, then owner needs to have plenty of towels to dry legs before Farrier works on horse. She can as mentioned just fire the customer if things are not done to suit her, it happens with Farriers.

One thing about being a Farrier, there are ALWAYS more horses to work on. Taking the 10,000 horse number over 20 years, is about 500 a year. I asked my favorite Farrier how many horses he handles a year, trims and shoes. He said he does about 2000 yearly, though he never went to Europe to shoe.
He has high standards and doesn't work in the rain or on wet/muddy horses. Owners do dry their horses for him! He does excellent work on all types of horses both shod and bare footed, been a Farrier for many years. He is hard to get to work for you, can do "the magic" needed to keep horses going well that other Farriers have not been successful doing. That is worth paying for so your horse can be used and enjoyed, not just be a yard ornament with "issues".


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## wr (Aug 10, 2003)

malinda said:


> Yes really. Even when the owner is holding the horse. Have you shod for the general horse-owning public? As a full-time profession? Across the U.S. and some of Europe? Ok, I won't even count Europe. Im talking upwards of 10,000 horses over 20 years.
> 
> And you're wrong, slimy muddy legs and feet are not better than extreme heat or cold. Especially because slimy, wet horses can be prevented, or at the very minimum, remedied by the horse owner.



I'm very sure that slimy, muddy legs would be a nightmare to deal with and mud really isn't a problem that is a huge issue in my area outside of monsoon season but I do know that not every horse owner in my area owns a barn and not every ranch horse is even interested in going in a barn so other than a wipe down, I'm not sure what else I'd be able to do besides offer my farrier the chance to reschedule.


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## Farmer Jayne (Oct 21, 2013)

I would expect my farrier to let me know if he has expectations that aren't being met. We've had a couple of wet springs the last couple of years where you either work in the mud and the rain or you don't work at all. I've never thought to offer towels and he's never asked. We don't have a barn. My farrier actually lives a bit away and only comes to my area every six weeks. He calls me in the morning and I try to be there to hold the mule. Twice I've not been able to be there and the gate was locked. He told me he was ok climbing the gate if it was ok with me, and he could handle the mule himself. When he was done he texted me a picture of him and my mule along with his address to send him a check. He's pretty awesome, and one of the few farriers around who will deal with a mule. I trust that if he had any problems he would be mature and professional enough to talk to me about it, and I with him. There's nothing like letting a person know when you need something like a towel, a dry horse, or help. Maybe the clients just don't know what you think they should be doing.


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## bergere (May 11, 2002)

I only have run in sheds, but I do try to towel dry my horses off as best I can and I open up the garage so my farrier can do hooves out of the weather.


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## starjj (May 2, 2005)

I understand and also call a day ahead if the weather is going to be bad. I give the option of the farrier cancelling. This happened last week in fact. I called 2 days before because of all the rain and he told me he was trying to call me also (phone service spotty out here). 

We rescheduled for this past Saturday. I got the horses ready by washing their legs (lots of mud) and picking their hooves. He called and told me he would be an hour late (truck transmission blew) The horses were NOT happy to keep them tied so long but I understood.

The other part of the story is my last farrier, an Amish man (who works for my neighbor) scheduled me and I had the horses tied and ready and he drove his carriage right past my place down the road. After him not showing up several more times I got someone else.


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## Tiempo (May 22, 2008)

bergere said:


> I only have run in sheds, but I do try to towel dry my horses off as best I can and I open up the garage so my farrier can do hooves out of the weather.


I've always had clients from the super wealthy with barns like palaces, to those with a couple of modest paddocks and a run in (like myself).

Though it is a pain I have never minded too much working on damp horses as long as the owner has no other choice and has made a good effort to have them as clean and dry as possible.

The ones that pull them out of a quagmire as I arrive and present me with a mess of mud without making any effort at at all..they won't last long as clients.


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## brody (Feb 19, 2009)

our farrier gets dry legs - even if it means i'm catching horses in the dark ...I bring them in at least 2 hours before he's due - he's often early 

he also gets butter tarts and is as spoiled as I can spoil him 

he is worth his weight in platinum as far as I'm concerned


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