Yahoo News If the shoe fits: Local farrier brings equines services to area
Feb. 24—ASHLAND — Growing up, Alyssa Alexander had the experience of frequent horse riding with her best friend.
Now, the 2017 Greenup County High School graduate is making a career of caring for equines.
She recently studied at Casey & Son Horseshoeing School in Villanow, Georgia, to be a farrier and returned to the area to open The Black Rose Farrier Co.
Farriers are not the same as blacksmiths. While farriers work with horses, they need training in blacksmithing to make shoes; blacksmiths work with iron and may never have any contact with horses.
Alexander is certified in Equine Flexion Therapy and Barefoot Trims.
"Barefoot trims are performed on a horse that doesn't have any shoes. It's natural care," Alexander said. "Flexion therapy is similar to physical therapy humans might get if they have an injury. It's stretching the horses' muscles and working with pressure points.
Alexander continues learning to shoe horses with an apprenticeship ongoing via her company. During her days in Georgia, she learned cold shaping, meaning manipulating the shape of the shoes with an anvil and hammer and beating it into shape rather than heating the metal, which make sit easier to shape. It's grueling work, often leaving the farrier with sore muscles.
It's not the only way the work takes its toll. Alexander said
"Some yearlings have not had their feet touched before or had their feet picked up much," she said. "Sometimes it's just a bad attitude, but you can get kicked. It puts enormous strain on the back. I did six horses in one day and I've never been that sore in my life, and I've had two kids."
Given the physically challenging work and the declining number of horse owners in the country (according toe datapaddock.com), Alexander said she's undeterred.
"Farriers are definitely becoming a dying breed," she said. "A lot of the guys around here are getting out of the game and people told me it's a need in the area."
She said she already has gotten plenty of work; as a farrier, she can work on cattle, sheep goats and donkeys, too.
The most important skill to have in patience.
"Horses are smarter than we give them credit for and they're big," she said. "When you meet a horse, you can't just walk up on them; sometimes you can, but not always. They need to feel you out."
She said it's important to develop a rapport and have patience when developing that rapport.
"How you act when you're working on them or just meeting them," she said is crucial, adding the animal has to know it can trust you and you're not going to hurt them.
"Mutual ground goes a long way with horses," she said.
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