The Complete Guide to Farrier Hand Tools and Accessories
Hooves are the literal foundations on which all horses stand. Their condition determines overall horse health, ensuring mobility and preventing the risk of leg and other bodily injuries. Healthy hooves mean healthy joints, and a healthy horse in general – this is achieved with a balanced diet, periodic trimming to prevent cracks, chipping and splaying, and daily cleaning. Moreover, shoeing hooves is crucial for working horses as the practice prevents injuries and the likelihood of abscesses, debris, punctures and infections.
Professional farriers are tasked with trimming and shoeing horse hooves. This ancient craft dates back centuries, and involves comprehensive knowledge of horse anatomy and the ability to work with specialized hand tools for hooves. Having the right tools means a job done right and doing what’s best for the horse to ensure the animal is comfortable, its hooves are healthy, and that shoes fit perfectly.
Trimming Tools

Hoof Pick
Picks are good at removing debris, stones, dirt and mud from the hooves. Frequent cleaning, especially if the horse is ridden or worked, significantly lowers the risk of infections, thrush and abscesses. Most hoof picks are made of stainless steel and can include brushes to better clean out the clefts.
Nippers
These hand tools are used to trim the hood walls. They resemble pliers, and are essential in trimming the length of the hoof. A good pair of nippers will be sharp, durable and able to make clean and precise cuts. The tools come in various sizes and designs, including standard, half-round and race nippers to trim hooves of different shapes and sizes. Those with ergonomic handles improve grip and comfort.
Rasps
Rasps are essential for proper movement, reducing the risk of injury and shaping and smoothing hooves to ensure correct weight distribution. They resemble large nail files with coarse teeth. The tools take gradual amounts off the hoof edges to get the smooth finish needed for shoeing.
Farrier Knife
Hoof knives remove excess hoof sole and trim the hoof frog, allowing exposed tissue to breathe. To prevent bacteria buildup, abscesses and thrush, ensure you use a sharp knife. The tools come in differing designs, such as curved, straight and double-edged knives and left and right-hand variants to suit farriers with varying needs.
Shoe Pullers
Pullers of pulloffs are larger pliers that allow farriers to get shoes off without damaging the hoof. They’re also used to remove nails and spread shoes to required widths. Farriers can use smaller nail pullers to remove nails and shoes from horses with delicate hooves, one at a time.
Shoeing Hand Tools

Shaping and applying shoes also requires a dedicated set of tools and equipment. Serious farriers will want to invest in gas or coal-fired forges to heat the metal that is to be shaped into shoes. Look for heavy-duty builds with hot-rolled, thick gauge steel, single or dual-valve burners, push-button ignition and forges able to sustain high heat for longer.
The molten metal is then shaped on an anvil. This needs to be heavy enough to stay put while hammering and shaping shoes but light enough that it can fit on a stand or can be moved when needed. Most anvils are stainless steel, have a smooth flat surface for hammering and a rounded “horn” to precisely shape and bend shoes. A quality anvil should last years of daily use and is one of the most basic farrier hand tools for sale.
Other necessary items in shaping horseshoes are tongs, with the narrow ends used to remove the molten metal from the forge, and the wider end to press it onto the hoof. Shoes gradually assume their desired form when hammered on the anvil with straight pein or cross pein hammers used to make nail creases, draw clips, and flatten or cut metal as needed.
Hammers used to get ready shoes onto hooves are called driving or nailing hammers. These are shaped like regular claw hammers but are compact and light enough to give farriers the required control when nailing shoes onto the horse’s hoof. The claws are used to break off excess or protruding nails and ensure a smooth and secure fit.
Specialized Farrier Tools and Accessories
Pritchels are a type of punch used to make nail holes in shoes. The tool also helps to widen holes or remove stuck nails, either from the horseshoe or those embedded in the hoof wall. Setting the shoes and nails is aided with clinches and clinch blocks. Clinches resemble pliers and are used to bend nails over the hoof wall, ensuring shoes stay firmly in place.
Other tools and accessories in a farrier toolkit are gauges and rulers, used to measure the width and length of the hoof, creasers used to create grooves in the shoe for nails, and hoof stands that support the horse’s foot in the final shoeing stage. To keep items sharpened, invest in a quality sharpening tool (knife sharpeners, files, sharpening wheels) and have all tools secure, easily accessible and organized in portable and compact farrier tool boxes.