BreederHQ Marketplace
Find a Farrier
You Can Trust With Your Horse
Routine trims, full-shoeing rotations, corrective and therapeutic hoof work, and performance shoeing. Every farrier on BreederHQ Marketplace shows their certifications, coverage area, and the kind of work they accept, so you know what you are booking before you reach out.
Search by location and specialty. Message providers directly. No phone number required until you are ready.
Why finding a good farrier matters
"No hoof, no horse" is not a slogan. It is the operating reality of every horse program in the country.
A good farrier does more than swap out a shoe every six weeks. They protect soundness. They read conformation. They adjust angles to keep growing horses balanced. They spot a brewing abscess, a thrush problem, or a quiet case of laminitis before the rest of the barn does. On a working breeding farm, the farrier sees every animal more often than the vet does, and frequently catches issues first.
Bad hoof care is expensive in slow ways. Long toes and underrun heels load the deep flexor tendon and quietly cook navicular changes into a horse over years. A foal trimmed too aggressively or too rarely can lock in an angular limb deformity that no amount of later work fully undoes. A performance horse on the wrong package will start refusing or coming up sore, and the rider will spend a season chasing a saddle fitter, a chiropractor, and an MRI before someone looks down.
The right farrier is also the cheapest insurance policy on the property. Worth booking carefully.
Featured farriers
Certified providers who have completed the BreederHQ verification process.
Featured Provider
Featured farrier listings will appear here as providers join the marketplace.
Featured Provider
Featured farrier listings will appear here as providers join the marketplace.
Featured Provider
Featured farrier listings will appear here as providers join the marketplace.
BreederHQ Marketplace is in early access. We are building the farrier directory provider by provider, so every profile is real.
What to look for in a farrier
A short, honest checklist before you hand over your horse.
1. Verifiable credentials
AFA certification (CF, CTF, CJF, TE) is the most widely recognized US benchmark. Apprenticeship lineage under a respected journeyman counts too. Ask. A good farrier will tell you exactly where they trained and who they trained under.
2. Reliability
Shows up on the scheduled day. Returns texts. Books the next visit before they leave. On a multi-horse program this matters more than almost anything else.
3. Calm, methodical handling
Especially with young horses and broodmares. A farrier who rushes, jerks legs, or escalates with a difficult horse is teaching that horse to dread every future visit. Watch the first appointment.
4. Honest scope
A farrier who refers a true corrective case to a colleague with a Therapeutic Endorsement is doing right by your horse. So is one who tells you the horse does not need shoes when other farriers would have shod it.
5. Works with your vet
For lameness workups, laminitis cases, navicular management, and pre-purchase exams, vet-farrier communication is the difference between a fixed horse and a chronic case. Ask if they take radiograph-guided work and how they prefer to coordinate.
6. Insurance
Professional farriers carry liability insurance. It protects you, the horse, and them. If a farrier cannot answer this question, that is your answer.
AFA certification, decoded
The American Farriers Association is the largest professional farrier organization in North America. Its certification program is voluntary, but it is the closest thing the US trade has to a recognized credential ladder. Here is what each level actually tests.
CF: Certified Farrier
Entry credentialVerifies a baseline of anatomy, hoof balance, and shoeing knowledge through a written and a practical exam. CF is the floor: a farrier who has earned CF has demonstrated they are not improvising.
CTF: Certified Tradesman Farrier
IntermediateAdds a forging and shoeing practical above CF, including hand-shaping a shoe to spec. CTF is a meaningful step toward journeyman work.
CJF: Certified Journeyman Farrier
Industry benchmarkThe credential most owners are looking for when they say "certified farrier." CJF tests a full shoeing on a live horse against precise criteria, plus a written exam, plus forging. It is the working professional standard in the United States.
TE: Therapeutic Endorsement
Specialty add-onSits on top of CJF. Tests corrective, therapeutic, and pathology cases (laminitis, navicular, club foot, contracted heels). If your horse is a corrective case, you want a TE in the rotation.
E: Educator
Mentor / instructorRecognizes farriers who train apprentices, teach clinics, or instruct at farrier schools. Often the people pushing the trade forward.
American Farriers Association certifications are awarded and verified by the AFA. BreederHQ Marketplace shows the credentials each farrier reports on their profile.
Farrier specialties
Most farriers do more than one of these. The ones who are best at any single specialty usually say so.
Corrective and therapeutic
For horses with conformational issues, lameness, club foot, navicular, laminitis, contracted heels, sheared heels, or quarter cracks. Often works in close partnership with a vet and may use radiograph-guided trimming, pads, glue-ons, heart bars, or hand-forged therapeutic shoes.
Look for: CJF + Therapeutic Endorsement
Barefoot trimming
Trim-only work for owners who keep their horses unshod year-round. A good barefoot trimmer reads wear patterns, manages flares and event lines, and is honest about which horses can stay barefoot and which need a shoe for the job they are doing.
Look for: Documented trim-focused practice and a steady client base of bare horses in real work.
Performance horses
Sport-specific shoeing for dressage, jumpers, eventers, reiners, cutters, barrel horses, racehorses, gaited breeds, and endurance horses. Different jobs ask for different shoe packages, traction, breakover, and rehabilitation between competitions.
Look for: CJF and verifiable show or track clients.
Drafts and heavy breeds
Draft horse work is its own discipline. Bigger feet, heavier shoes, hot-shoeing in many cases, and the physical conditioning to do five or six head in a day. Many lighter-horse farriers will not take drafts, and that is fair. If you have Percherons, Belgians, Shires, Clydesdales, Suffolks, or Gypsies, find someone who explicitly says so.
Look for: Stated draft specialization. Hot-shoeing capable.
Foals, weanlings, and yearlings
Young-horse work is balance work. The window between birth and roughly 18 months is when conformation can be shaped, and after that window it largely cannot. Breeders should book farriers who are patient with babies and who understand growth plates.
Look for: Breeding-farm experience.
Multi-horse barns and breeding programs
A farrier who does eight or ten horses in a barn visit is doing a different logistical job than one who does a single backyard horse. Schedule blocks, predictable routines, and the ability to work efficiently with handlers matter on a working farm.
Look for: Provider profiles that explicitly accept multi-horse stops.
Browse farriers by region
Regional directory pages are rolling out as providers join. State-level pages live below; the regional links route into the live marketplace and filter by state group.
State-level directories
More state pages will appear here as provider coverage grows.
By region (marketplace search)
Northeast
NY, PA, NJ, MA, CT, VT, NH, ME, RI
Mid-Atlantic
VA, MD, DE, WV, DC
Southeast
FL, GA, SC, NC, TN, AL, MS, KY
Midwest
OH, IN, IL, MI, WI, MN, IA, MO
Plains
KS, NE, ND, SD, OK
South Central
TX, LA, AR
Mountain
CO, WY, MT, ID, UT, NV, NM, AZ
West Coast
CA, OR, WA, AK, HI
Regional links route into the live marketplace and filter by state group. State-level landing pages will follow as farrier density warrants them.
Frequently asked questions
Straight answers for horse owners and breeders comparing farriers.
How often should a horse see a farrier?
Most horses are on a 5 to 8 week cycle. Trim-only horses on soft ground often stretch toward 7 or 8 weeks, while shod performance horses, growing youngsters, and corrective cases usually need work every 4 to 6 weeks. Hoof growth slows in winter and accelerates in spring and summer, so the same horse may need a tighter schedule in warmer months.
What does AFA certification actually mean?
The American Farriers Association (AFA) administers a tiered certification program that tests both written knowledge and live forging and shoeing skill. Certified Farrier (CF) verifies entry-level competency. Certified Tradesman Farrier (CTF) adds a more demanding forging and shoeing component. Certified Journeyman Farrier (CJF) is the most widely recognized working credential. The Therapeutic Endorsement (TE) and Educator (E) credentials sit on top of CJF. AFA certification is voluntary in the United States, but it is one of the few objective trade benchmarks a horse owner can rely on.
What is the difference between a farrier and a horseshoer?
In everyday usage they describe the same trade. "Horseshoer" emphasizes the shoeing side of the job; "farrier" is the broader trade term that covers trimming, shoeing, and corrective and therapeutic hoof work. A barefoot trimmer is a farrier who specializes in trim-only work and does not apply shoes.
How much does a farrier visit cost?
Pricing varies significantly by region, by specialization, and by the work required. A routine trim is usually the least expensive service, a four-shoe reset more, and corrective or therapeutic work with pads, glue-ons, or hand-forged shoes more again. Pricing on BreederHQ Marketplace is set by each provider and is shown on their profile or quoted by inquiry.
Should my breeding stock and foals see the same farrier as my performance horses?
Often yes, as long as the farrier is comfortable with young horses. Foal first trims, yearling balance work, and growing-stock conformation management are different skill sets from competition shoeing, but most experienced farriers handle both. If you have a true corrective case (severe limb deviation, club foot, contracted heels), look for a farrier with a Therapeutic Endorsement or documented corrective experience.
What should I have ready before my farrier arrives?
A clean, level, well-lit work area, horses caught and groomed (especially legs and feet), water available, dogs and loose stock secured, and a flat hard surface where the farrier can set up an anvil if shoeing. For multi-horse barns, having horses in a clear order saves real time and is appreciated.
How do I find a farrier near me on BreederHQ?
BreederHQ Marketplace lets horse owners and breeders search farriers by location, specialty (trim, shoe, corrective, therapeutic, performance), and species or breed focus. Each provider profile shows certifications, coverage area, and the type of work they accept. You can message providers directly through the marketplace without sharing your phone number until you are ready.
For Farriers
List your farrier business on BreederHQ Marketplace
Horse owners and breeders are searching for trimmers, shoers, corrective specialists, and performance farriers in their area. Your profile shows your certifications, coverage radius, specialties, and the work you accept. Free during early access.
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How verification works
What a verified provider badge actually means.
Why BreederHQ Marketplace
How the marketplace is built differently from generic directories.