Big shoes to fit

At 1.92 meters tall, he still looks petite when standing next to a medium-sized racing horse.

"This is Ameng," Judge introduces a thoroughbred from the United Kingdom. "He is a good boy - a quiet one, always calm."

Judge shoes four horses a day on average and works four days a week. He charges 800 ($133) to 1,200 yuan to shoe one horse, depending on the hoof conditions.

"I can do it faster," he says. "But that will lower the quality."

He usually takes a horse to walk around before the shoeing, and they walk again after the work is done to see how the shoe fits.

"It is like when you are buying a pair of shoes, you have to try it on first," he says. Horses don't talk and they can bear much more pain than humans. It requires a farrier's experience to determine whether the shoes fit.

Judge lifts one of Ameng's feet, clamps it between his thighs, takes off the old shoe, cuts and polishes Ameng's nails, and then picks up a horseshoe that's the nearest size from his studio. He adjusts the shoe by firing and hammering it, puts the shoe on the horse, takes it off to adjust again, and finally positions it again and nails it in.

The whole process takes him about 15 minutes.