New Farrier in town

There's a new local Farrier in town, Broken Bits Farm Farrier Service will now be servicing the area of Raymond. Owner Glen Halberg is originally from Sedro Woolley. Halberg lists that he does hot and cold fitting, as well as therapeutic shoeing. "With hot shoeing you get the shoe hot and it sears the bottom of the foot and it closes up the tubular in the foot; so it sort of cauterizes the foot," said Halberg. There are pros and cons to each of the practices, cold fitting consists of hammer leveling a horseshoe as well as "rasp-leveling" a horse's hoof to create a seal between each, with the majority of this seal being one of friction. Often times horse cannot tolerate hot fitting and so must opt for cold fitting. Hot fitting is the process of using the heat of the shoe to imprint the shoe to the hoof of the horse. Hot fitting can be more dangerous to the horse if the farrier is not skilled enough. Hot shoeing regularly requires more skill, because hot shoeing takes working knowledge of each individual horse's hoof to determine if hot fitting can be tolerated by the horse.

Another common practice for farriers to perform, and that will be available to the Raymond area due to Broken Bits Farm Farrier Services, is therapeutic shoeing . "Therapeutic shoeing is for horses that have something wrong with their feet; so if they're abscessed or if they have a broken bone in their foot, there's a certain way you can shoe them," said Halberg.

There are a multitude of problems a horse can have with their feet, ranging from degenerative disease, to irregular wear called an "Under-run heel", which is a condition in which the horse's heel is more sloped than it should be. "It depends upon what was wrong with the foot," explained Halberg, "you can put a wedge in there, or a medicine plate, a plate that goes across the whole bottom of the shoe so you can unbolt it and work on the foot without taking the shoe off.

Halberg is new to the area, and has just freshly moved to Raymond from Sedro Woolley. "Originally we are from Minnesota. We started doing horseshoeing when we moved out here in 2008," said Halberg. It was due to the unreliable service of the existing farriers that Halberg found interest in horse shoeing.

If you are in need of farrier services, or have any questions call 360-941-3986 for the Broken Bit Farm Farrier Service.