Slide 2:
As I tell you of my experience with Jerry Linker I will not use my name nor my horse’s real name. The reason I will do this is that my sister still uses the Farrier that was working on “Brownie” for 4 years before I moved to North Carolina. I do not wish to cause difficulty for he relationship with her Farrier.
I bought Brownie as a young horse in PA. About the time this story begins I had owned him for 14 years. He was truly a great friend. 4 ½ years ago Brownie developed a lameness issue that would not go away. Our Farrier was doing all he could to try to make him comfortable. We had countless visits with the Veterinarians in PA with no success in fixing Brownie’s problem. Eventually my husband was transferred to NC. My biggest concern about this move was Brownie’s lameness issue and how I would find a new Farrier that was capable of helping Brownie stay comfortable. Although we were unable to ride him it was our desire to make him as comfortable as he could be for the remainder of his days.
We thought this was our only option for Brownie!
Slide 3:
As we moved to Chapel Hill NC we boarded Brownie at a barn that was managed by Jennie Mclamb. She assured us she believed her Farrier was the greatest in the country on lameness issues! She introduced me to Jerry Linker. Amazingly he then spent about 45 minutes discussing my horse’s problems with me. After that conversation I decided to allow Jerry to shoe Brownie. As he began, the first thing he did was to gauge both front feet. The right front was on a 46 degree angle and the left was on a 49. Jerry assured me that he could raise his angles to a 56 degree on both feet in one shoeing, as Jerry was working with my new Vet, Miss Sally Vivette. She wanted Brownie’s toes shorter and that is what she got! Brownie’s toes were 4 ¼ inches on the right and 4 ½ on the left. When Jerry finished Brownie’s toes measured 3 ¼ inches from hairline to ground. He put a 3” aluminum wedge shoe on both feet. They were beautiful! He explained it would take 2 maybe 3 shoeings before Brownie would really start moving better. Up to that point I had never dreamed I would be able to ride him again. 2 weeks after the shoeing I was able to ride Brownie around the arena with minor signs of lameness. It has now been over 6 months since the day that Jerry first worked on him.
Today being March 15, 2010 my horse is amazingly as sound as he can be. I rode him last week on a trail ride and he was feeling so good that he actually started bucking. I had the time of my life and it made me so happy just knowing that Brownie was again able to be ridden. I will never be able to thank Jerry Linker enough! If you ask me I will tell you he is truly a real genuine master Farrier! Thank you Jerry!