Suspension for farrier who held horse still to hit him in the head with a hammer

A farrier who struck a young gelding he was shoeing in the head with his hammer has been suspended from shoeing for six months – but there is nothing to stop him trimming other horses during that period.

The Farriers Registration Council disciplinary committee found Paul King guilty of serious misconduct in a professional respect, on 15 January after a hearing.

Nicola Mitson told H&H she bought DJ as a three-year-old and Paul, whom she has known for years, had shod him three or four times before the incident, on 1 April last year.

“I was there initially and he was fine and very well behaved, so Paul said I didn’t need to be there,” she said. “I always asked him after shoeing how they’d been and he said fine, really good.

“That day, he messaged to say I needed to come up as DJ had been playing up; when I got there, Paul said he’d been rearing and striking out and he couldn’t get the shoes on. I thought that was odd as he’s a laid-back Irish Draught but he said as soon as he walked towards DJ, he reared. He said his behaviour had been escalating, and I said ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ I’d have done some groundwork with him if I’d known.”

Wanting to understand what had happened, Nicola watched the CCTV on the private yard. She saw DJ move away more than once, as Paul was trying to shoe a hind foot, then, after the last time, Paul walking to his head and hitting him with the hammer.

“It was the way he walked to his box, walked back, held his head still and then hit him,” she said. “He was just shuffling, like baby horses do. And then he lied to me about his behaviour.”

In the FRC report of the hearing, it states that the day after the incident, a groom noticed that DJ was showing some unusual behaviour. When she checked him, she found a swelling about 10cm in diameter.

Nicola messaged Paul and told him she did not want him to shoe for her any more. They spoke on 5 April; he “apologised and said his conduct had been in the heat of the moment”, the report states, adding that he agreed to cover vet fees arising from his conduct.

The vet who examined DJ found “no clinical effect of the hammer”.

The FRC report includes Paul’s initial comments on the complaint: “…I am ashamed to say that I did hit DJ with my hammer, it was a spur of the moment out-of-character error of judgement”. He admitted hitting DJ with a hammer constituted unnecessary force.

Paul’s representative at the hearing accepted on his behalf that his behaviour amounted to serious misconduct in a professional respect.

The committee considered there was “recklessness” and an “element of premeditation, in that there was a brief time in which the committee considered that the respondent would have had the opportunity to walk away but instead held DJ’s head and struck him with a hammer”.

The panel considered in mitigation that it was a “single and isolated incident”. It was noted that he had submitted 12 “impressive” references from clients, who were all aware of the FRC proceedings, that he had a “previously unblemished career of some 38 years as a farrier”, and that he had been open and frank and at no time had tried to minimise his conduct.

He had also taken steps to reduce the risk of repetition, including having a second person there if a horse was being “awkward”, and the committee considered him sincere and genuinely remorseful and ashamed.

The committee suspended Paul for six months, during which time, under the Farriers  Registration) Act, he may not perform “any work in connection with the preparation or treatment of the foot of a horse for the immediate reception of a shoe thereon, the fitting by nailing or otherwise of a shoe to the foot or the finishing off of such work to the foot”.

“But he can still trim, as that’s not regulated by the FRC, as long as it’s not trimming in preparation for shoes,” Nicola said. “And there are no recommendations; if I discipline in HR, I provide recommendations so in this case it might be to seek some continuing professional development in this area but there’s nothing.

“DJ was fine but if it had been my other horse, it would have been a different story.”

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