Hickory Ridge Farrier

A LITTLE ABOUT US
After completing his Associates Degree for Recreation and Wildlife with a major in Horsemanship at Hocking College, Josh worked at Drowsy Water Ranch in Granby, Colorado for several years.  After his first year there as a wrangler, they were so impressed with him that they offered him an education at The Kentucky Horse Shoeing School in early 2001.  He then spent the next two seasons keeping full shoes on their entire herd of 106 horses with the help of one other farrier.  In January of 2003, he returned to southern Ohio to start his own business, Hickory Ridge Farrier. 

Kelly also completed her Associates Degree for Recreation and Wildlife with a major in Horsemanship at Hocking College.  After she graduated, she returned home to live with her parents and started a breeding program for Gaited Ponies and Spotted Saddle Horses that spanned 8 years.  She averaged a 25-30 head herd (all of which she performed hoofcare on) with 2 stallions and produced 4-6 foals each year.  During that time she also owned a Tack Shop, gave beginner riding lessons and boarded horses.  She also provided training, specializing in ground work, "horsey attitude adjustments", owner training and confidence building for horse and rider.  Currently, along with managing Hickory Ridge Farrier, LLC, she is also a Real Estate Agent with Coldwell Banker King Thompson in Newark and is an Apprentice Auctioner with Auction Ohio.

OUR REQUIREMENTS
We are accepting a limited number of new clients in and around the Licking & Franklin county areas.  We are happy to work new clients in the same geographical area into our schedule.  Please contact us to see if we can come to you. 

• You MUST have a clean, safe, flat place for us to work that is out of the weather.  We no longer accept clients that expect us to work out in the field.
• You MUST stay on our schedule.  All of our clients stay on a consistant 6 week maintenance schedule throughout the year and have been very happy with the results.  During the winter months, we typically will go to an 8 week schedule.  A few clients are on 4 and 5 week schedules depending on their horse's hoofcare needs.  When a horse has more than 6 weeks worth of growth on their hoof, that is when small problems begin and can turn into large problems that take months to grow out.  Josh's two favorite sayings are, "If it looks like your horse's hooves need trimmed, than you waited too long." & "Just because it doesn't look like they need trimmed, doesn't mean that they don't." 
• If your horse is experiencing any lameness causing abnormalities in a severe form, you must provide current radiographs upon our first visit.  Examples would be severe founder, navicular, club foot/feet, etc.

• If your horse needs "special" angles, excess toe, weighted shoes, packages, etc., Josh is not the farrier for you.  Those types of "gimmicks" to make the horse move in a certain fashion that is pleasing to the trainer/judge/etc. are detrimental to the horse's joints and long term use, health and happiness.  Any time that Josh works on a horse, his whole focus is on the health and well-being of the horse.  Josh would rather pass up the extra money made by those procedures and sleep easy at night knowing that he is not causing any long term damage on any of the animals he works on.

A NOTE ON BAREFOOT
These days, the majority of our clients keep their horses barefoot and we recommend it whenever possible.  It is much more natural for the horse and builds a better hoof.  However, a horse that spends the majority of its day in a stall, usually does not do well barefoot.  Adequate turnout is required for the hoof to function properly on a barefoot horse.

If your horse has shoes on and you are interested in possibly going barefoot, we would love to work with you in assessing your horse's hooves to determine the best method of transitioning.  Horses that are ridden on terrains uncommon to their living area may benefit from boots.  If you only ride on the weekends or mostly ride in an arena and occassionally trail ride, as long as your horse has turn out and is not stalled most of the time, it is highly likely that your horse can go barefoot.  It will be better for his hooves and more economical for you. 

Many horses will have a transistion period when they first go barefoot and some horses take longer than others for the bottom of the hoof to develop callous and toughen up.  Most horses are fine within a couple of weeks.  Once a horse develops a thicker, tougher sole, riding them on varied terrain usually is not a problem. 

We also suggest putting different terrain in your pasture areas such as 2" to 4" round river stone around hay areas and watering areas and larger gravel in front of run ins and stall doors.  This helps to aclimate your horse to different terrain and toughen their feet up. 

For owners who want to go barefoot but still want the added protection for riding, Josh recommends a boot of some kind.  He will measure the horse's hoof for you so that you can find the correct size in the boot that you are considering.  There are several good boots on the market these days and we have heard good things about most of them.