chris bunting wrote:
It has nothing to do with being "superior", though, certainly many farriers demonstrably know more about the equine lower limb and equine lameness than many vets.

Veterinarians treat the animals which are our food and the pets that live in our homes. The regulation of veterinarian medicine is for the purpose of protecting people from the improper practice of veterinarian medicine.

There may or may not be other effects but the value is the restraint of one person from harming another. In other words, it serves to safeguard the unalienable rights that our Declaration of Independence says are given to people by their creator...namely LIFE, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. If your food is contaminated by inproper medical practices, you may be deprived of your life.

I don't know how many different ways I can say this. We restrict individual liberty (restrain from causing harm to people) to protect the right of individuals not to be harmed. We don't do it to protect the standards of horseshoeing.

so as a person who puts horseshoes on horses you are saying the horse does not matter . or is it you are afraid of being tested to a set basic standard determined by your peers ?
chris

chris bunting wrote:

Horses are livestock. You can love them, use them to do your work, use them for recreation or you can EAT THEM.

It's not the place of our government to restrict the liberty of people in order to insure that livestock wear nice shoes. Livestock doesn't matter as people matter.

Afraid of being tested? My work is tested every day by people who's opinions matter to me. Do you want to test me? If so, we might be able to arrange something but I'll make it a test of you also. If you're concerned with my courage, by all means, step up and test it yourself. Lets keep it between the two of us though so as not to inconvenience any one else.

What I really fear is the tyranny that's spreading at such an alarming rate and I fear my neighbors and peers who seem content to yield to that tyranny.

boring
chris

chris bunting wrote:
If a country is big enough, they will eventualy be asked/expected to "help". Some will give praise and others will see it as "imposing their rule". Seems to me that England, as well as other european/asin countries have done their fair share of "imposing".

As horseshoers we deal w/ those on the fringe of society. All that live and work in the "country" (agriculural) have very little say in our goverment. Our representation is small due to the large # of people in cities overwhelming our vote in our regions.

I believe/live as Mike does,"live and let live". I don't force my beliefs on my neighbors but will damn sure make my views known. Not as an effort to change anyone, but so they know to leave it(me) alone.

There's been a fair amount of comparison between vet's and farriers here.The primary difference is that 95% of the time a farrier doesn't deal in "life and death" senarios while vets do. Even a mis-guided shot or a math error concerning mg/kg with injectables can result in death. Happens all the time w/ humans, are they under-regulated?

Vet's are over-regulated as well. Some states have reciprocasy(sp) while others require you to re-test in order to be licensed in their state reguardless of how long you've been a vet. Even this doesn't ensure you a quality vet.

This is like a wicked,twisted road. It just goes on forever.

chris bunting wrote:
Like heck it is.

Clint Burrell wrote:
The primary difference is that one profession can pose a danger to people and the other is extremely unlikely to but your point is still a good one.

I get the impression that some farriers think their work is a lot more important to the horse than it probably is. As you said, it's rarely a life or death situation.

We work on dead stuff on the end of a leg that was designed to work on non-flat hilly ground. So what happens if you're a little off? I look out the window here and it occurs to me that there's no way to trim my horse so that he stands in "balance" no matter how you'd like to define it because my pasture is all lumps and hills. If you could trim him in perfect balance (whatever that is) he would only stand in perfect balance if you stood him on a carefully constructed artificial surface.

I'd like to pose the question, what mistakes are we likely to make that the horse won't get over in pretty short order if it even needs getting over at all?

How many farriers are doing work that isn't an improvement for the many horses who stand in the pasture growing foot and braking it off themselves (if they're lucky) with no foot care at all?

In other words, what's the real problem and what's the real risk?

I'm sorry but I think the call for regulation is nothing but an attempt to use the force of law to limit competition.

mike i think if big brother pushes it it will be a source of revenue for them. you know how greedy big brother is

whip n drive wrote:
You got that right. The revenue is for them. Our politicians (and their families) live like rock stars and we slave to pay for the party...their party.

whip n drive wrote:
Problem is that they'll still lose their @ss on it. No matter what they charge, they'll hire way more people than needed to do the work and pay them way too much for that work. Gov. has no buisness sence, if they did we'd not be in the shape we're in now.

Clint Burrell wrote:
correction...We would lose our @ss. They risk nothing!

Mike Ferrara wrote:
We've already lost our @sses, working on grand/great grand (or more) kids @sses now.

I hear ya though.

mike is right because they will up our taxes and fees on the business and lics end to cover the cost of these newly hired beancounters win win for them and its a screwing for us. but when the gov gets involved it becomes snafu. situation normal all f$%ked up

chris bunting wrote:
What Americans are you talking about?? Most Americans dont want to do any of that.

SlowShoe wrote:
It would also do well to remember that the southern half of this country is only America due to being defeated, occupied and tyranized by America, not by choice.