Millwater Books In Print 2025...

 

Millwater's Farriery:
The Illustrated Dictionary of Horseshoeing and Hoofcare:
Encyclopedic Reference for Professionals, Students, and Horseowners.

The encyclopedic dictionary of the art and science of farriery, designed for cross-referencing. Well illustrated with appendices of full-page illustrations, historical reference material, and resource guides.
This is the culmination of out farriery lexicon project started in 1994.

Paperback $22.50     Hardcover $36.50    Kindle eBook $9.95
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1466444819/




Shoe Your Own Damned Horse!

 SYODH! is comprehensive but good-humored primer for horse owners who want (or need) to learn how to trim or shoe their own animals, written by a veteran professional farrier and horseman.

Well illustrated, and with emphasis on practical economy.

Sections on hoof and limb anatomy, essential biomechanics, hoof handling, trimming for barefoot, tools and their functions, horseshoe choice/modification and application, cold and hot shoeing, managing common faults and pathologies, and even how to build a forge.  Lots of practical, insider hints sprinkled throughout.

Paperback $9.95
https://www.amazon.com/Shoe-Your-Own-Damned-Horse/dp/B0DGF3CZVD





The New Dictionary of Farrier Terms and Technical Language.
The 9th and final "New Dictionary" of the series before the jump to MILLWATER'S FARRIERY. 

Paperback $18.12
https://www.amazon.com/Dictionary-Farrier-Terms-Technical-Language/dp/1449594689/






The New Dictionary of Farrier Terms and Technical Language.
The tenth anniversary edition, coil-bound, no-less.  For the completionists out there.

Coil bound $13.42
https://www.lulu.com/shop/dave-millwater/new-dictionary-of-farrier-terms/paperback/product-1k9gr6.html




MILLWATER'S FARRIERY:
Deluxe Hardcover.
The AMAZON hardcover is a bit less expensive, and pretty nice.  But, as of the production of my proof copies, the LULU production quality was a little better.  (Amazon's hardcover printing might have improved, it was in beta then.)  Though they did manage a humorous SNAFU by sending me one copy with our cover wrapped around a completely unrelated book.  They make good on such errors quickly though.

Hardcover $50.00
https://www.lulu.com/shop/dave-millwater/millwaters-farriery-the-illustrated-dictionary-of-horseshoeing-and-hoofcare/hardcover/product-1wzpq4rz.html


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Guild of Professional Farriers Publications.

   The Guild has been dormant for some time now, but was an influential player in American farriery in the '90s and first part of this century.  These booklets are maintained for historical reference.  The .PDF downloads are free.  (Sorry about the hassle of checkout.  That's the PoD service's hang-up.)  The printed versions are at the PoD production cost.

   Note:  URLs an mail addresses in these old publications are out of date.




Registered Journeyman Farrier Exam Guide

$4.72 Paperback
https://www.lulu.com/shop/dave-millwater/rjf-exam-guide/paperback/product-1zdrpk.html

Free Download
https://www.lulu.com/shop/dave-millwater/rjf-exam-guide/ebook/product-1rgy5d8v.html

New Guild Chronicle #1

Includes the content of the RJF Exam Guide, other Guild material, and articles from Guild President Henry Heymering on the Strasser barefoot trim fad and weight-bearing mechanisms of the hoof.
 
$7.53 Coil bound
https://www.lulu.com/shop/dave-millwater/guild-chronicle/paperback/product-1jzpw6.html

Free Download
https://www.lulu.com/shop/dave-millwater/guild-chronicle/ebook/product-1qzp6zjn.html

New Guild Chronicle #2

Includes the Guild's constitution and bylaws as they stood in 2005.

$5.88 Paperback
https://www.lulu.com/shop/dave-millwater/new-guild-chronicle-2/paperback/product-1qvwjr.html

Free Download
https://www.lulu.com/shop/dave-millwater/new-guild-chronicle-2/ebook/product-1gv6rnwd.html

. . .

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Black Friday Coming...

 

   Okay...  The big political circus has wound-down a bit, now we look-up and see that the holidays are coming at us fast!

   So let's get a head-start on Black Friday sale pricing by knocking Millwater Publishing's newest release "SHOE YOUR OWN DAMNED HORSE!" down to $11.50 on Amazon.

   All Amazon Prime delivery, reward points, and other discounts apply.

https://www.amazon.com/Shoe-Your-Own-Damned-Horse/dp/B0DGF3CZVD

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Handy Tool for Farriers!

 FARRIERS!

   Do you have some of 'those' clients?  Always thinks you're doing it wrong, because of something a trainer, vet, riding instructor, Social Media expert, or random person at the tack shop said? 

   Here is a succinct way to reply...

   Hand them a copy of, or at least forward them a link to...

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DGF3CZVD

   Maybe they'll take the hint.  ;)

#farrier  #hoofcare  #horsecare
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Why would you want or need to shoe your own horses?

 Excerpt from Shoe Your Own Damned Horse!

Why would you want or need to shoe your own horses?

   I'd be the first to agree that a good, professional farrier is worth twice his fee.  But, with things going the way they are, a lot of horseowners are liable to have trouble coming up with half of what a pro farrier has to charge to stay in business, or may not have the option of hiring one at all due to career shoers needing to consolidate their services to the most lucrative stables.

   It's been said that equines are a luxury in modern times.  So, if folks can't afford to pay for essential things like hoof care, they just shouldn't have horses at all.  But I'm not too crazy about the idea of restricting the Horse World to just the wealthy elite as the Middle Class withers away.  Heck!  With petroleum prices as volatile as they've become, ordinary Americans might just be back to horse and buggy anyway.

   Even during the boom years of the 1990s, when I was an officer of a national organization of professional farriers, I frequently received calls from horseowners telling me that there were no real farriers available in their areas.  Sometimes what these callers really meant was "Nobody wants to come shoe for beer money."  But often their claims proved true and I couldn't find a decent journeyman taking on clients within a hundred miles of them.

   The ever-increasing standards of pro farriery, as well as the advancements in the science, have since contributed to the stratification of the trade between expensively equipped, trained hoofcare technicians and jackleg shoe-horsers. 

   So horseowners may find themselves with few options:  Expending considerable effort and treasure to haul their horse to the nearest qualified farrier willing to take them on...  Settling for the local Cheap John horseshoer and hoping for the best...  Or resorting to one of the magic barefoot trim or horseshoe alternative fads.

   Or you could learn to do it yourself.  Of course, no collection of printed pages can teach you to do that without some real world training.  But this book may give you some idea of what you're getting into.

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How SYODH! Came To Be...

 

   Okay...  It may seem strange that, after so many years of promoting farriery as a proper profession with a high standard of practical competence, I would publish a primer for horseowners wishing to shoe their own animals.

   This project actually didn't start out that way.  You see, one of my primary interests for decades has been "doomsteading".  Basically, setting up and living on a rural farmstead designed to withstand the various social, economic, and natural disasters that happen from time-to-time.  I was part of some of the Internet's discussion forums on the subject of coping with broad collapse, and was bemused by how much nonsense some "Doomers" were throwing around.  Especially when it came to hippie-dippy wishful thinking about self-sufficiency from a tiny garden and reliance on a "community" of similarly clueless people.  Especially (and irrationally) optimistic was the notion that they could wait until AFTER some apocalyptic, civilization-ending event to start their doomsteads.

   Having been on our own doomstead since Y2k was the upcoming End Of The World threat (no, we weren't really worried about that one), we'd figured out a good bit of what did and did not really work.  So I decided that my next book would be on low-nonsense doomsteading. 

   I soon realized that the book was becoming a full set of encyclopedias.  Real world derailments and health crises made me realize that it was likely that either myself, Western Civilization, or both, were going to go belly-up before I could get the thing finished and published!  So I scaled the project down to my general field of expertise, horse keeping...  Then again to my professional bailiwick, horseshoeing.

   It doesn't take a nuclear war type KABOOM to create a situation where lots of horseowners will be unable to hire competent, professional farriers.   You don't have to be too geriatric to remember times when folks simply didn't have the money to pay fair prices for horseshoeing, and journeymen farriers couldn't afford to drive all over the countryside doing small-time stops.  It is probably no coincidence that magical "barefoot horse trimming" snake oil  blossoms in popularity when there is even a moderate economic downturn.

   Considering how much some people vying to rule the country loathe fossil fuels, it might not be a bad idea for folks to learn to shoe their own damned horses.  Just in case they become involuntarily Amish!

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'Tis the Season...

   Well, the Thanksgiving Feast is done.  Hope this season found y'all well and in good company!

   Now it's for those turkey sandwiches, midnight pumpkin pie raids, and (of course) the start of the holiday shopping season!

   For those of you with tech-inclined horse-folks on your shopping list, Millwater's FARRIERY, the encyclopedic reference of hoofcare and horseshoeing, is now available in Kindle Edition for less than half the trade paperback price.  This ebook version includes all the content of the print edition, and has hyperlinks for cross-referencing with a tap or click!

   For the Christmas season, I'm activating Amazon's "Matchbook" feature that allows folks who buy the paperback to add the Kindle Edition for $2.99.

   For Black Friday / Cyber Monday you can also get the trade paperback version of Millwater's FARRIERY for one-third off the list price by ordering direct and using code ZT7855DA .  This code only works for direct order, not on Amazon.

   Of course, Amazon will be running various promotions of their own.

   You can follow Millwater Publishing on FaceBook and Twitter for the various discount sales of the Hardcover Edition and eBay promo copies.

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Millwater's FARRIERY: Horseshoe Repair for Horseowners.

   Hope you're all having a very merry Christmas season!

   Over the years, I've heard from many horseowners that their access to truly competent horseshoeing is limited because the quality farriers are too far away and don't want to make the trip for small barns.

   What people may not comprehend is that pro farriers build their practices on providing reliable service to their customers, and that goes beyond just the scheduled shoeing days.  No matter how well a horse is shod, there will occasionally be a loose or thrown shoe.  (In fact, shoeing approaches that sacrifice proper support and protection to make the shoes harder to lose are a major source of the "evils of horseshoes" concept.)  So the farrier isn't just thinking about whether he should drive out to you place to shoe your horses, but also whether he'll be able to get out in a timely manner to do patchwork.

   One thing that makes it easier for a farrier to say "yes" to a remote client is the knowledge that he won't be asked to warp his schedule out of shape to come tack one shoe back on.  Horseowners capable of doing their own patchwork are not only attractive clients for dedicated farriers, but also can travel with their horses knowing that they won't have to rely on some stranger if their horse manages to hang a shoe away from home.

   And patching a shoe doesn't require a professional farrier's rolling shop.  A simple, inexpensive kit is sufficient...

   Nor does the task require the skills of a journeyman farrier.  With the hoof already trimmed and balanced, the shoe already fit, and the nail paths through the wall already established, flattening the iron and tacking it back on is well within the layman's capability.

   This sample from MILLWATER'S FARRIERY: The Illustrated Dictionary of Horseshoeing and Hoofcare is assembled from several of the book's encyclopedic entries, and gives an overview of how to fix that thrown, loose, or bent horseshoe for horseowners.

   Of course, the book is designed for cross-referencing, so you don't quite get the full effect here. And the illustrations are much higher resolution in print (downgraded to keep the online file smaller).

.PDF files at links.  

Fixing Loose & Thrown Shoes...

Alternate Link if Above Fails...

   Be forewarned though...  This is the kind of capability that can make one perhaps a little TOO popular around the stables or group trail ride.

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Millwater's FARRIERY: 20 Years of the Farrier's Dictionary...

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   Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving, and are progressing into a merry Christmas Season!

   2014 marks the 20th anniversary of Millwater Publishing's dictionary of farriery publications. It started with just a humble, saddle-stitched glossary with pen and ink diagrams and daisy-wheel generated master copies...

   Since then, there have been many updates, expansions, and upgrades in production.  Now it's a perfect-bound trade paperback or glossy hardcover with photographic illustrations. The content has evolved into more encyclopedic form, with extended articles and lots of cross-referencing for efficiency.  Covering ground from basic horsemanship to advanced farriery, with a focus on practical application. 

   It makes me a little embarrassed to look back at some of the early editions.  But they do serve as interesting markers to the eras in which each edition was published.

   The current edition is designed to be a handy reference for horseowners, students, farriers, and other equestrian professionals.  

   I usually post promotional discount codes for the hardcover version on the Millwater Publishing FaceBook Page and Twitter feed.  (I don't make those up.  I just report 'em!)  

   Right now, Amazon is doing 30% off the trade paperback if you use checkout code HOLIDAY30

   And, to celebrate 20 years of the lexicon project, I'm going to do them one better for Black Friday through Cyber Monday with 50% off the trade paperback when you ORDER DIRECT and use check-out code RXYKQG6P

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Millwater Publishing: 'Tis the Season...

   Hope you all had a fine Thanksgiving!  Now that it's Black Friday, let's see what kind of holiday specials we've got going on...

   You can order Millwater's FARRIERY trade paperback directly at this link, and enter the code: YPLFZ3CT for a 25% discount.

   Amazon has the trade paperback at 10% off.  Even lower through some of their independent resellers.

   Promotional copies of both the trade paperback and deluxe hardcover are usually available on eBay at a great deal.

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Millwater's Farriery: Barefoot Movement Revisited...

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   Scuttlebutt over on the Facebook is that a horse magazine article has the whole Barefoot Horse cult back in the spotlight.  Of course, we'be been around this track a whole lot of laps over the years, so I'll just give us a quick round-up...


On this very blog-

On the Barefoot Movement...

A refutation of the BAU-definition of the "traditional farrier trim" and the whole notion that the "barefoot experts" can accomplish some magic via horn removal that farriers are somehow to ignorant to comprehend.

Barefoot Movement II...

How all the claims of special trimming techniques (complete with endless diagrams and critiqued photos online) on horses left barefoot are inherently silly given the fundamental limitations of unshod hooves.

Barefoot Movement III...

Horseshoe Alternatives, and the ridiculous lengths the BAU will go to avoid conceding the value of conventional farriery.

On Doug Butler's blog-

The “Shoeless Experiment” Cripples Horses...

Leading farrier educator, internationally credentialled author of the foremost textbook of farriery (Principles of Horseshoeing 1974, expanded editions 1985 & 2004) gives his take on the whole barefoot movement.

On Click & Trim-

Barefoot Uber Alles...

Barefoot horse enthusiasts concede some of veteran farrier Rick Burten's points with good humor.

Moldy Oldies-

The Barefoot Cult...

My go-arounds with the Barefoot Movement from over a decade ago.

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Millwater Publishing: 2014 Project...

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   Well, since the Mayans came-up short with the whole End Of The World and all, I suppose I may have to get a publishing project for '14 underway.

   But which one?

   Two possibilities come to mind...

   The 2010 New Dictionary of Farrier Terms and Technical Language has done okay in Kindle and other digital formats.  I could focus on formatting the Millwater's Farriery encyclopedia for digital publication...  It'd take some doing, because this time I'd want to do it right, with hypertext cross-referencing throughout.

   While doing the historical reference appendix of Millwater's Farriery, I became fairly adept at reproducing pages from old texts...  I have the ability to put entire books back into print in both hardcover and paperback now.  While they are in Public Domain, and may be available in digital versions online now, that's not quite the same as an actual, printed book to many readers.

   So, do I take the new book from paper to digital, or get an old book or two back onto paper?

   If the latter, which book(s)?  Centaur did a fine reproduction of Dollar some years ago, but I believe it's been out of print for a while.

   Or is the whole 'dead tree' thing hopelessly obsolete?

   Opinions welcome!

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Millwater's Farriery: Project Lexicon...

Project Lexicon... About Millwater's Farriery.

"The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms."

-Socrates.

   Many years ago, when I was stumbling up the path from being a 'guy who shoes horses' to becoming an actual farrier, I started taking the trade journals, attending clinics, and doing the best I could to expand my understanding of art and science. Problem was that writers and speakers often threw around references and expressions, assuming that everyone was already familiar with them. ...Some of us weren't!

   I wire-brushed the devil out of the bottoms of a lot of hooves trying to get them clean enough so that I could see the "dot" that Duckett fellow had discovered, which some magazines mentioned, but didn't explain.

   Then there were the articles and lectures from veterinarians and academic researchers. They like to use a lot of ten dollar words just to show-off. But, when you think about shoeing horses, even simple terms like "up", "down", "right", "left", "front", and "back" can be confusing due to the fact that we look at things from so many different points of view. Sometimes the fancy terminology really was more precise.

   Even 'plain old' horseshoeing language caused confusion. I recall an early contest where there was a rather heated argument between the judge and a contestant over "heel calks", "corks", and "blocked heels"... Then there was a clinic where I found myself exchanging confused shrugs with a few other tarheel farriers as the lecturer explained that "Over eighty percent of the pleasure horses in the show ring speedy-cut at the passing gait."

   By the early 1990s, it had gradually dawned on me that there ought to be a glossary of farriery.   I'd successfully written for several major equestrian magazines by then, so I decided to give it a go.   In 1994 I published The Pocket Dictionary of Farrier Terms and Technical Language.  It sold-out pretty quickly, even as better authoring tools became available to me, and a lot of new terms that needed to be included became apparent.  So, the following year, The New Dictionary of Farrier Terms and Technical Language was published.

   There wound-up being eight editions of the New Dictionary between 1995 and 2010.   Each featuring new terms, refined and expanded definitions, more and better illustrations.

   Initially, the focus was on the sort of scientific and specialized jargon you can't look-up in Webster's.  But, over the years, I realized that there were a lot of horseshoers with impressive technical knowledge and skills who had somehow managed to skip over some fundamental basics.   I also discovered that many of my readers were other equestrian professionals and horseowners.   So I began expanding the scope of the Dictionary to include the "foundation" terms needed to support the advanced material.

   Terms evolved into topics.   Definitions into articles.   With the tenth print version of the lexicon, it has grown into something new.  An encyclopedic dictionary.  A cross-referenced collection of interlocking entries designed to allow readers to come in at any level from prospective student or interested horseowner to established professional, and go up, down, or sideways as their reference needs dictate.

   It was on the advice of two veterans of farrier publishing that I added my name to the title of the tenth lexicon.  I was a little reluctant.  Even my hubris has limits...   But it ultimately made sense.  The transition to an encyclopedic format, centered on articles rather than mere definitions, meant that the book would reflect my own experience and approaches more than the previous works had.  This will probably elicit some criticism, as I do tend to develop some unusual techniques...

   As I was finishing-up with shoeing a rather tricky therapeutic case, I mentioned to my wife that I was going to have to work on finding a way to explain a "trick" I'd used for an article.

   She said "You can't tell other people how to do that!"

   "Why not? You know it works."

   "Yes," she allowed. "But nobody but you can make it work right."

   I'm pretty sure she's mistaken on that point. But she made me put-in a disclaimer anyway.

...

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Millwater's Farriery: Discounts...

   'Tis the season...  Wood stove cracklin' Nat King Cole and Bing Crosby on the radio, and Christmas Season discount time for Millwater's FARRIERY: The Illustrated Dictionary of Horseshoeing and Hoofcare...

AMAZON has the trade paperback version at 15% off, free super-saver shipping also applies!

Or you can order direct and get a 25% discount by entering code "YPLFZ3CT" during check-out.

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Millwater's Farriery: Horseshoe Repair...

   Well, we're now in Thanksgiving week, so the holiday season is fully upon us.  So how about I get a little generous with this entry and post a sample that the equestrian set might find useful...  Especially when they're getting ready for a nice Autumn ride and find ol' Dobbin has done a mischief to one of his shoes!

   This sample from MILLWATER'S FARRIERY: The Illustrated Dictionary of Horseshoeing and Hoofcare is patched-together from several of the books encyclopedic entries, and gives an overview of how to fix that thrown, loose, or bent horseshoe for horseowners.

   Of course, the book is designed for cross-referencing, so you don't quite get the full effect here. And the illustrations are much higher resolution in print (downgraded to keep the online file smaller).

   For starters, here's the "tool kit" all horseowners should have handy for hoof maintenance between farrier calls...

   And here are the sample pages on horseshoe fixing from the book. (.PDF file.)

Fixing Loose & Thrown Shoes...

Alternate Link if Above Fails...

   Wishing y'all a fine feast, and hoping you've plenty to be thankful for.

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MILLWATER'S FARRIERY: 2012 Wrapping-Up...

   Hard to believe the holidays are almost upon us again.  Impending Mayan Apocalypse Doom notwithstanding, it's been a pretty good year.  Our home dairy project has worked-out, and the raw milk has me healthier than I've been in many years.   We're getting ready for the big draft horse sale.  (Always more exciting when you're actually looking to buy one.)  And MILLWATER'S FARRIERY has done nicely in it's first year.

Not the first year for the Dictionary in general, of course.

Just for the new, encyclopedic version.

      It's kinda' funny in this era of modern distribution to see royalties coming in Euros and Pounds instead of just plain old Dollars.  I reckon it really is a global economy now.  

   I'd like to thank all the readers on both sides of the Big Pond who've made the book a success.  I hope you have found it useful.

   I'll be posting the discount codes for the holiday sales here and on FaceBook as they become available.  But those of you who want the hardcover version can get a deal on the promotional copies that are usually available on eBay.  Even the holiday e-coupons probably won't match the price there.  Come to think of it, the trade paperback is also there at a discount...  

   For those of you who like to stick with Amazon, they have the paperback at a 10% discount right now as well.  (I have no idea how long it'll stay that way.)

   Finally, although I've been seriously distracted and busy in meatspace lately, if anyone out there has a farriery topic they'd like to have addressed or revisited on this blog, just let me know!

. . .

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Millwater's Farriery: Default Horseshoeing...

   Okay.  Obviously no real farrier shoes every horse the same way.  Each animal is an individual with different conformation, soundness issues, and performance needs.  But most farriers do evolve a baseline shoeing approach, then adapt from there to suit the case at hand.

   I developed a preference for rim (full swedged) shoes early-on.  They provide good traction on a wide array of surfaces without the ligament and joint punishing effects of calks.  When the St. Croix Rim Lite came onto the market, it soon became my 'go-to' keg shoe, and remains so despite about a zillion fancy new shoes that have been introduced since. (Although I do use some of these on occasion.)

   The St. Croix Rim Lite has some pretty handy features.  One of which is that it is... well... light.  I've always tried to keep shoes as light as would get the job done in a practical manner, and this shoe is just about right.  Thick enough to last for one reset on most horses who actually need shoes.

   The shoe also has a sort of rolled outer edge, especially at the toe.  This makes it work like a hybrid of rim and half-round shoes.

St. Croix Rim Lite horseshoes...

Center = Fresh out of box.

Left = Shaped for typical fore w/ rockered toe.     Right = Hind shaped.

   Something most don't notice is that the St. Croix Rim Lite isn't a true rim shoe out of the box... It's a barrel shoe, with the outer edge being more pronounced than the inner.  But, if one hammers the hoof-facing side of the shoe while leveling, the inner edge gets pushed down to the anvil face, level with the outer.  This leaves the hoof side of the shoe sloped away from the sole, making it easier to apply the shoe without needing to trim away extra horn to prevent sole pressure.

   Front shoes I usually fit plenty full from the heel quarters back, well-boxed to prevent being stepped-off.  Unless there is a particular reason not to do so, I like to fit front shoes on riding horses* with rockered toes.  This improves efficiency of movement, decreasing stress on the hoof capsule, as well as the tendons and ligaments of the foot and limb.  It also provides much the same utility as a clip, keeping the shoe from being driven-back on the hoof.

   One complaint about keg shoes in general is that most of them are designed so that the fourth nails back are behind the widest point of the hoof, especially when the shoe is shaped for a front foot...  Fortunately, there's no rule requiring farriers to use every nail hole.  I often go with six (on riding-size horses), and omit the rear holes.  In other cases, I'll use seven nails, including the medial fourth hole.  The way I shoe, few horses will pull shoes while going forward.  But they will sometimes step on the medial heel quarter of one front shoe with the other front hoof while stomping or shuffling around.

   On most horses I apply the Rim Lite more-or-less with a flat perimeter fit to the rear hooves.  Usually rather long at the heels for extra support, like a more subtle form of extended heels.  Horses produce their forward impulsion by driving off the toes of the rear hooves, so it is generally counterproductive to ease breakover too much in the hinds, especially in performance horses.  But for animals with short-body, long-legged conformation, it may sometimes be wise to fit a squared and/or set-back toe, sacrificing a little drive power to avoid damage to the front feet from forging or overreaching.

   As with fores, I often go with just the front six nails in hind riding horseshoes.  When I opt for seventh, it's usually the lateral heel nail.  This seems to counter most problems with horses who tend to torque the foot and shift the shoe side-to-side.  I rarely find clips necessary with flat Rim Lites on horses with reasonably normal limb conformation.


   * Draft horses working in harness are a different story in both the way they move and shoeing needs.

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Livin la Vida Amish...

   As with the old Chinese curse, we are living in interesting times.

   Between rising prices, and the proliferation of grossly unhealthy additives, substitutions, and GMO Frankenfoods in grocery store "food" products, a lot of folks are looking towards some level of self-sufficiency.

   Fuel and equipment upkeep costs are motivating some small farmers to revisit really old-school approaches...

   Our latest distraction here has been getting old-fashioned production of real, unadulterated milk flowing.  (Once you discover fresh, creamy, raw milk from a grass-fed Jersey, you'll want to punch the grocer right in the nose for passing-off that bleached and boiled, watered-down sewage in plastic jugs...)

Around here, THIS is a milk "by-product".

   Draft horses seem to be gaining in popularity in recent years.  This may have started-out with folks wanting to breed them to performance stock to develop American sport horses.  But more and more, folks appear to be gaining an appreciation of draft horses for what they are...  Which means even veteran horsemen have to learn a whole new world of things, like collar fitting, harness types, and so forth.  And, of course, farriers have to become conversant in these new things as well.  Farriers have always been expected to know a good bit more about horses than how to mount them on iron.

   This is why some fundamental draft horse and harness information worked its way into Millwater's Farriery: The Illustrated Dictionary of Horseshoeing and Hoofcare.  The big critters are part of the scene on our farm too, and doing what they were bred for.

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Millwater's Farriery: In Review...

   Bob Smith of Pacific Coast Horseshoeing School was kind enough to review Millwater's Farriery: The Illustrated Dictionary of Horseshoeing and Hoofcare for the recent issue of the American Farriers Journal.

   The blurb from the review is "An excellent reference for shoers, owners and farrier students..."

   He also observed that the dictionary had evolved into a "mini-textbook" of farriery.  Something I realized myself as I was putting it together. 

   This actually gave me pause at the time...  After all, we are blessed with some really great, full-on farrier textbooks in this day and age.  It was certainly beyond the intended scope of the lexicon project to 'compete' with them.

   But the massive textbooks from Butler and Gregory are designed for dedicated students going through training at the better farrier schools on the way to careers as professional farriers, and retail for several times the list price of my book...  I know a lot of people interested in farriery aren't starting-out at that level.  Especially in times like these, I figured there was a place for an entry-level primer rooted in the fundamentals.  Something to get the prospective hoofcare provider (or horseowner who has to resort to doing their own) started so they can find out if it's really for them, then they can move-on to the more advanced training and texts appropriate to their chosen career paths.

   Smith did bust my chops on the "selected resources" appendix of the book...  And not without justification.

   I included Crudoir on the "periodicals" page.  At the time the review was written, all there was of the magazine was a webpage announcing the upcoming launch...  Since then, that has been replaced with an announcement that they've given-up on the plan for a new magazine as-such, and are going "another direction".

   Well, that's the peril of reference book publication.  Even in this modern age of fast publishing tech (and believe me, it's like greased lightning compared to the 'good old days'), I still had to put the content to bed and shift to formatting and set-up long before the actual release.  I'd been in-touch with the intended publisher of Crudoir, and she was in-earnest about making the magazine a reality...  I didn't have the option of waiting to see if it caught-on, so I included it.  Actually, I figured that even if it didn't fly, it'd be an interesting footnote in the future.  Henry Heymering's bibliographic history tome On The Horse's Foot cites a number of publications that are only known due to their being mentioned in old reference books.

   Then there was the fact that, with the folding of so many other farrier periodicals, the American Farrier's Journal is effectively the Last Man Standing.  Frankly, I had to stretch a little bit just to keep AFJ from being completely alone on the page! 

   As to the weakness of the "Internet resources" page, he's got a point there.  In truth, that section is almost vestigial.  Left-over from earlier dictionaries before Google was built right into all our browsers, when you actually needed to know a URL to get to a resource.

   I certainly didn't intend to snub the AFJ website in this section.  Since a URL was included on the "periodicals" section, where AFJ was at the top of a far less crowded page, I figured putting it in the "Internet" section was kind of redundant. 

   With the ever shifting sands of the Internet, I'm also a little reluctant to reference new Internet documents, as they have a nasty tendency to get moved or gone as websites get 'updated' and redesigned.  My personal favorites/bookmarks lists attest to this with tons of now '404' links.


   On a side-note, I included contact information with the Press Release which was really intended in-case the folks at AFJ needed to touch base with me.  (Sort of traditional PR format.)  Unfortunately, I apparently didn't make that clear, as my farm land line and snail mail address got published with the review...  I rarely use the land-line, and can barely hear incoming messages due to interference from the electric fences...  And all orders are ultimately processed over the Internet anyway.  (I do not have a warehouse of books and mail packaging like the not-so-good old days.)

   If someone really hates to order over the Internet, they can ask at a brick and mortar book store.  They're not likely to have Millwater's Farriery in stock (as it's a specialty kind of book), but it is available through regular distribution channels, so they can order it.

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Millwater's Farriery: Founder Frustrations...

    A recent posting over on the American Farriers Journal refers to "Hitting the Wall With Chronic Laminitis"...

   I can dig it.  Just worked on one I've been doing for many years.  They can be quite frustrating.

   The problem is that the malady isn't really in the hooves.  Heck, I can fix the hooves.  And have fixed them time and again.  Pushed the bone column back up off the ground.  Built-up a solid, thick sole.  Got the dorsal surface of the wall parallel to the front of the coffin bone.  Better feet by all measurements than many 'sound' horses are wearing...  Back to regular shoes or barefoot, and all is well for a while.

   Then "kersplat!"...  Sole goes flat.  Abscesses all over.  Hoof capsule warping all out of shape... 

   So I fix him again.  And again...  In time it becomes apparent that he's still stilt-legged, even when his feet are in good shape.  And he's starting to look like a skinny wooly mammoth in the Summertime.

   There's the rub.  The source of the problem is ultimately in the endocrine system, and the flexor muscles and tendons.  Put perfect feet on the legs of a horse whose flexor muscles are drawing up into balls, and with a pituitary sending out haywire signals to have the horse essentially poison himself, and the feet won't stay perfect long.

But people get a little upset if you try to take the nippers to these bits.

   Brain surgery to get rid of a pituitary tumor isn't really plausible with most horses.  Various drug, supplement, diets, and hormone treatments are tried, but they only work 'sometimes', as the nature of the condition is constantly changing.

   Deep flexor tenotomy can help... But vets are often reluctant to try it.

   So I just keep fixing the feet.

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Eagle-Eye Revisited...

   I covered this once before, but the recent passing of J. Scott Simpson prompted me to bring it back.  In this day and age of endless argument over relatively academic aspects and vague philosophies of hoofcare, I really appreciate solid, practical solutions to the challenges of better shoeing, and few are more useful than the Eagle Eye system developed by Simpson.  This is why the system and each of the five patterns have had individual listings in the Millwater lexicon since the first version in '94, with attribution to Simpson, of course.

This sample has the Eagle Eye definitions gathered together.

As usual, italic boldface terms in the entry are defined in their own entries.

(Alternate Link if above fails.)

   In other news, Amazon is running a sale on the paperback version of Millwater's Farriery.  At $16.20 (eligible for free shipping if included in an order over $25), they even beating the best I can do on eBay.      But that's fine with me.  The eBay listings are honestly just there to point the web-bots to the Amazon and MillwaterPublishing pages.  I'm better off having copies sell through Amazon.


   The current Amazon deal actually makes the encyclopedic Millwater's Farriery less expensive than its predecessor, The New Dictionary of Farrier Terms and Technical Language in its final (2010) edition...   Which is still available out there, so make sure you get the one you intended.

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