Brad Elmir says the secret to farriery is connecting with horses.
Photo by
Djembe Archibald
Brad Elmir has always loved horses.
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It runs in his family, he said.
Now he works with them every day as a farrier, a job he began to shoe and trim on his own horses’ hooves.
“Farriers are a dying sort of industry, so finding a farrier was going to be hard and myself being into horses, I wanted to have that skill set to do my own horses and not rely on on a farrier to come out,” Mr Elmir said.
But his path to being a full-time farrier wasn’t straight and narrow — taking a detour to break, train and breed horses — but he said that experience has helped in his current work.
“It has 100 per cent helped me because it makes you understand what to expect with a horse you’re working on,” he said.
“Whether they might strike and when to back off, when to sort of proceed and push through it.”
Farriery is a dying profession and Mr Elmir said it could be due to the physical toll the job takes on a person.
“It takes a lot on the body holding up those legs, holding up, you know, 100 kilos of muscle between your legs while trimming them,” he said.
“I believe a lot of farriers do get burnt out.”
When it comes to people joining the industry, Mr Elmir said it was a very specific type of person who can take it on.
“Unless you've been in horses from a young age, you wouldn't think of farriery,” he said.
“No-one sort of comes out of school and goes ‘I want to be a farrier’ and it's not a job that's ever sort of spoken of.”
Brad Elmir works on a horse, trimming its hooves.
Photo by
Djembe Archibald
But he said that once you’re in the profession, it’s a rewarding job to have.
“The job satisfaction is what keeps me in the job.
“You can obviously rock up to a place and see a horse with horrible feet and then walk away after an hour and see the transformation.
“The horses are happier and so are the clients.”
The real secret to being a good farrier is an ability to connect with horses and an understanding of how they operate, Mr Elmir said.
“Someone can go through the course and then go to the job on the first day and not know how to act around a horse.
“So that's why it's so rare to find farriers around that's gonna stick with it.”
He made the move to the Goulburn Valley recently and is ready to immerse himself in his work, servicing any horses in the region.
Although it’s tough on the body, Brad Elmir is passionate about horses and their health.
Photo by
Djembe Archibald
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