by F. Thomas Breningstall, CF
Rural Heritage Videos
produced by Video Makers Unlimited
1-800-825-8433
$32.95 + $4.00 s&h
Reviewed by Danvers Child
This 90-minute, professionally produced video features Tom Breningstall, an American Farriers Association Certified Farrier who, with some cooperation from a draft mule named "Joe," walks the viewer through routine shoe pulling, trimming, and shoeing. As the box notes and the content indicates, the video is aimed at the mule owner who chooses to do his/her own work.
Breningstall does a fine job of speaking to the specified audience, starting with an overview of basic farrier tools and equipment, shown first at a workbench and then demonstrated both on a specimen foot and a live foot. Although some hoof anatomy and function is necessarily incorporated into this section, these concerns are - for the most part - dealt with separately, using the specimen hoof.
Building upon these basics, Breningstall proceeds to the main topic: walking the viewer through the entire shoeing process. Not only is the shoeing process shown in detail; there are some useful visual references back to the individual tools as they are used for the first time. Likewise, there is also a well-timed digression which deals with nail and shoe sizes, styles and shapes.
Shoe shaping and fit is stressed throughout the video, and Breningstall does a fine job of showing the appropriate methods of shaping a shoe both cold and hot, explaining the benefits and detriments of each approach. The shoeing demonstration ends with a discussion of pad application and a demonstration of cutting and fitting a pad.
Although Breningstall primarily demonstrates by using the tools and methods of the professional farrier, he caters well to the intended audience (owners) throughout the video, showing them tricks such as tracing the hoof for shaping a shoe, using the old shoes as a shaping pattern, and using a section of railroad track in lieu of an anvil.
For the last portion of the video, the work is done and Breningstall moves to a chatty, more relaxed, but very informative segment where he passes on lots of informational tidbits and covers some basic, but necessary, concerns. He makes some useful distinctions between shoeing mules and horses, discusses when, why and how often to shoe, and suggests what to do when your mule loses a shoe as well as how to recognize and treat thrush. He also addresses a few lameness issues.
Overall, this video presents good, basic, no-frills shoeing. Although it's neither slick nor glitzy, it's certainly a well executed professional production: efficient, organized and informative. The material is solid, well thought out and presented at a level appropriate for the intended audience.
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