I'm only giving Dale Blomquist one star because zero stars isn't an option. Here's the scoop: I bought a QH gelding (sound as a dime) in the beginning of October 2012. He has a club foot (RF) which hadn't given him any problems and wore front shoes only. I moved this horse to Lakeview Farm in Hugo, MN and when it came time for his trim (~7 weeks from when the previous owner had him done) I was told I HAD to use Dale Blomquist as my farrier; he was "so good." So he trimmed my horse on November 20, 2012. My family's always pulled our horse's shoes for winter -- we don't ride them much and we don't want them slipping on the ice -- so when I told this farrier, "we need to pull his shoes & give him a trim," I thought that would make sense. I also told him about my horse's club foot and Dale assured me he knew about club feet since he has a mare that has one, too. Super. Then he proceeded to trim my horse's feet. I wasn't paying attention, since I was chatting with the barn owner, etc. All of a sudden he's fitting my gelding for new shoes -- I said, "wait a minute, we're not putting new shoes on him; we're pulling for the season!" He looked surprised and said, "oh, well I didn't know that. I took liberties and trimmed him for shoes." Puzzled, I thought "what does THAT mean?" Then Dale proceeds to tell me I might want to purchase "casts" for him and have them put on right away (by him, of course). Me, "why?" Dale: "because he'll most likely be a little sore." I'm thinking this guy's just trying to get me to buy more stuff since I said I wasn't getting shoes. I told him no, we weren't putting casts on him (I'd never heard of those before or a horse needing them). While I thought my horse's front hooves were MUCH too short, I'm no expert and when my horse walked off just fine I didn't think anything else about it. Until 3 days later when I made it back out to the barn and my horse was DEAD LAME on both front feet. I've never seen a horse trying to hobble along on 2 front feet before, but it was pitiful. My beautiful, happy-go-lucky, people-loving gelding was now a sullen, sorry sight. He wasn't eating & didn't come up to people in the pasture anymore -- he was in so much pain. I immediately called Dale and told him the situation; he said he'd come right out, which he did. At that point he put casts on my gelding's feet. Still lame, but better on soft ground in the arena (it had rained/sleeted & frozen so the ground was hard outside), I realized this horse needed to be in a stall until he felt better. At this point I'd paid $35 for the trim, $35 for the casts & now I had to pay stall board. My gelding would periodically get better and then worsen, to the point he started to lose weight since he was stressed and not eating because of the pain in his feet. Today it's December 29, 2012 and my horse is STILL lame. Right now we're not sure whether we're dealing with an abscess (or MORE!) or merely massive bruising on his soles. While all this is unfortunate and COULD be construed as "miscommunication" and an "accumulation of events," I come to find out from the barn owner -- by repeatedly talking to her about this situation and the farrier that lamed up my perfectly good horse -- that this farrier, Dale Blomquist, trimmed one of her horses for the first time and the horse ended up with an abscess. Also, the same day he trimmed my gelding, he'd trimmed one of the barn's miniature horses -- that pony ended up so lame on all four feet he didn't do anything but lie down for over 3 weeks. So, this isn't the first time Dale Blomquist has lamed up a horse with his extreme trimming technique -- which is to evidently take off as much hoof as he possibly can, regardless of whether that's what the horse needs. Also, I had my vet out -- again -- yesterday to ascertain where my gelding's at (she ended up taking x-rays, just in case we're dealing with more serious issues, since he's been lame for over a month) and she measured the angle of both his hooves. The right front (club foot) was at 60 degrees; the left front was at 55 degrees. Now, I realize no one's perfect and a slight variation between hooves is "normal," but 5 degrees of difference, and hacking off the toe of the CLUB FOOT that much? His heels were so long he was putting all of his weight on his toes -- which obviously isn't good. At this point I'm wondering if this Dale guy is really qualified to do anything farrier-related! Long story even longer -- don't use Dale Blomquist for your farrier if you don't want a lame horse. I haven't ridden my gelding for over a MONTH. And he's STILL lame, even though he's in a stall, fetlock-deep in bedding, with cushioned, protective wraps on his feet & getting Bute every day. At this point the "hoof trim" has cost me a LOT of money in vet visits, slushy boot ingredients, extra stall board, gas money & my time. NOT WORTH a $35 trim! You'd be crazy to let this "farrier" trim your horse's hooves. read more