Making the shoe fit becomes a career goal

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The king of sports provides some of the most thrilling entertainment opportunities for people in Hong Kong. Horses, as well as their owners, trainers and jockeys, enjoy a great deal of limelight. But perhaps unseen to the eyes of most pundits is another group of dedicated professionals who quietly play a major part in the sport – the farriers, who make and fit the horseshoes with unerring precision.

Some 40 professional farriers at The Hong Kong Jockey Club take care of 1,200 thoroughbred racehorses and 650 equestrian horses, with each horse needing four new shoes – known as ‘plates’ in the case of racehorses – each month.

This highly specialised profession combines blacksmith’s skills with some veterinary expertise. To provide hoof care for their equine patients, farriers remove the old shoes, trim the hooves using tools such as rasps and nippers, measure new shoes exactly to the hooves, then fit and adjust them.

A horse’s foot is delicate and only three-eighths of an inch in depth, so there is little to aim at. If a nail punctures the soft tissue it would make the horse bleed and prevent it from working for anything from a couple of days to upwards of a week. Conversely, a good horseshoe helps the horse run more smoothly and protects the hoof from wearing down. A farrier’s skills and experience are thus crucial to the performance of a horse, especially a top racehorse.