❌PAUL KING – SURREY❌
CONVICTED | farrier Paul King, 54, from Betchworth near Dorking, Surrey – struck a young gelding on the head with a hammer.
Following a hearing on 15 January 2025, the Farriers Registration Council (FRC) found King guilty of serious misconduct and suspended him from shoeing for six months. The suspension came after King, who provides farrier services across Kent and Surrey, was caught on CCTV striking a horse called DJ with a hammer.
DJ’s owner told the publication Horse & Hound that King had shod the horse three or four times before the incident, which took place on 1 April 2024.
“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.”
The owner decided to view CCTV footage of the private yard to better understand what had happened. This showed DJ moving away more than once, as King was trying to shoe a hind foot. King is then captured walking to the anima’s 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.”
The following day, a groom noticed that DJ was behaving unusually. When she checked him, she found a swelling on his head about 10cm in diameter.
The owner messaged King and told him his services were no longer required. They spoke on 5 April when King apologised and said he had reacted in the heat of the moment. He also agreed to cover DJ’s vet fees.
The FRC’s report includes King’s initial comments in relation to the incident. He stated: “…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”.
The committee suspended King 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”.
The suspension doesn’t apply to trimming hooves.