HORSE & HOUND

Oddly satisfying: 270 million people watch video of farrier trimming horse’s hoof

A video of a farrier cleaning and trimming a horse’s hoof was the most watched UK upload on TikTok in 2022, amassing more than 273 million views.

“That was pretty wild!” Sam told H&H. “I didn’t think it would do that well – it exceeded our expectations, by millions.”

“At a lot of yards I go to, there are people who have never seen what I do,” he said. “They might know horses have shoes but have never seen the person who puts them on, or what’s involved. I had people saying ‘Wow, that’s interesting’, so I thought I’d give this a go and see how many other people were interested.”

“A lot of comments are ‘what a trade’, or asking how you get into it,” Sam said. “But there are always a lot asking if it hurts the horse. I’m trying to educate people who aren’t in the industry; a generation is so far into city life, they’ve forgotten about country life, and this is just a small snippet of life with horses.

“It’s very simple; I’m not trying to teach people about bone growth or formation of the hoof capsule, just trying to educate the general public. They think it’s bad or it hurts the horse but once they understand, they know it’s fine, and it’s to benefit the horses’ welfare.”