17 June 2018
My short hand
I have decided to start blogging again. Whether I stick with it or not will be another matter. I am going to effort to get a post out a week thought I haven't decided which day I will publish.
While I know this is a dying method of communication, the written word, in my opinion, holds you more accountable. That and I don't have a "folksy" schtick (this would require the investment in a slew of crisp cowboy hats and a supper detailed four door pick up) or a "real" (which apparently requires you communicate in the manner of a rap song) schtick either. I am also considering going back to a "flip" phone, thus the "vlogging" thing is beyond my realm of reality.
Anyho, to start I am going to do this to make my life a little easier, I am going to list the acronyms that I will most likely use though out this blog so I don't have to type out; "the American Farriers Association (AFA)" or the American Association of Professional Farriers (AAPF) etc. and so forth and you have a handy reference point if you don't know who I am talking about.
American Farriers Association (AFA)
American Farriers Journal (AFJ)
American Association of Professional Farriers (AAPF)
Worshipful Company of Farriers (WCF)
World Championship Blacksmiths (WCB)
World Farriers Association (WFA)
Brotherhood of Working Farriers (BWFA)
CF (American Farriers Association Certified Farrier)
CTF (American Farriers Association Certified Tradesman Farrier)
CJF (American Farriers Association Certified Journeyman Farrier)
FITS (Farrier International Testing System)
International Journeyman Horseshoers Union (JHU or IJHU)
USDA (United States Department of Agriculture)
AVMA (American Veterinary Medical Association)
AAEP (American Association of Equine Practitioners)
Californian Horse Racing Board (CHRB)
Oklahoma Horses Racing Commission (OHRC)
Oklahoma Farriers Association (OFA or OkFA)
If I happen to interject other organizations I will do my utmost to update this particular post.
While I know this is a dying method of communication, the written word, in my opinion, holds you more accountable. That and I don't have a "folksy" schtick (this would require the investment in a slew of crisp cowboy hats and a supper detailed four door pick up) or a "real" (which apparently requires you communicate in the manner of a rap song) schtick either. I am also considering going back to a "flip" phone, thus the "vlogging" thing is beyond my realm of reality.
Anyho, to start I am going to do this to make my life a little easier, I am going to list the acronyms that I will most likely use though out this blog so I don't have to type out; "the American Farriers Association (AFA)" or the American Association of Professional Farriers (AAPF) etc. and so forth and you have a handy reference point if you don't know who I am talking about.
American Farriers Association (AFA)
American Farriers Journal (AFJ)
American Association of Professional Farriers (AAPF)
Worshipful Company of Farriers (WCF)
World Championship Blacksmiths (WCB)
World Farriers Association (WFA)
Brotherhood of Working Farriers (BWFA)
CF (American Farriers Association Certified Farrier)
CTF (American Farriers Association Certified Tradesman Farrier)
CJF (American Farriers Association Certified Journeyman Farrier)
FITS (Farrier International Testing System)
International Journeyman Horseshoers Union (JHU or IJHU)
USDA (United States Department of Agriculture)
AVMA (American Veterinary Medical Association)
AAEP (American Association of Equine Practitioners)
Californian Horse Racing Board (CHRB)
Oklahoma Horses Racing Commission (OHRC)
Oklahoma Farriers Association (OFA or OkFA)
If I happen to interject other organizations I will do my utmost to update this particular post.
28 February 2016
Making the jump
I got my World Championship Blacksmiths (WCB) Newsletter this week and felt compelled to let those who are effected by the new Novice Class rules, that yes you can do this.
I realize I am lucky and I admit I have a great set of resources here at home but despite that when I decided to go in to the WCB Categories it was with quite a bit of trepidation, I didn't want to look like a dumb ass but how else was I going to get better? Those of you who saw my work at WCB's know that I am not a "top" hand when it comes to forging, but I'm not (or wasn't) going to let that bother me because it isn't about winning it is about being better at this craft and you shouldn't fear that.
I think the best thing I can tell you is the advice that Robbie Mederos gave us at Herriman Utah last year; set attainable goals. That was what I did. At Herriman it was to finish, the same at Sheridan, at Las Vegas the goal was no last place shoes. I was able to accomplish that, because it was reasonable.
I realize I am lucky and I admit I have a great set of resources here at home but despite that when I decided to go in to the WCB Categories it was with quite a bit of trepidation, I didn't want to look like a dumb ass but how else was I going to get better? Those of you who saw my work at WCB's know that I am not a "top" hand when it comes to forging, but I'm not (or wasn't) going to let that bother me because it isn't about winning it is about being better at this craft and you shouldn't fear that.
I think the best thing I can tell you is the advice that Robbie Mederos gave us at Herriman Utah last year; set attainable goals. That was what I did. At Herriman it was to finish, the same at Sheridan, at Las Vegas the goal was no last place shoes. I was able to accomplish that, because it was reasonable.
First 4 goes at last years fractured coffin bone shoe
If I can do it anybody can!
The big thing is I learned that I could do stuff I never dreamed I could do and have built and nailed on shoes that I never dreamed I could build and confidently nail on.
Jumping in to the categories is one of the best things I have done for myself in this trade. You can do it too.
24 May 2015
Numbers
The times during my career that farrier licensing
has been discussed, no one has thought to look stuff up so that is part of my
mission concerning these posts. For this post I decided to look at some numbers
to put into perspective just how small the farrier trade is. At some point of
my life I got tired of walking though it afraid of things and I learned that
being informed, truly informed and not just taking for granted what people told
me or what I saw on television was factual. To that end I am doing my best to
link everything I sat that isn’t my own opinion. In this post I am laying out
some numbers to try to give you a perspective on how small the horse business
is and why the people you might think are against you really don’t care. While some
of the numbers are not current they are what I could find.
Currently, according to the U.S. Census Bureau there
are about 320.9 million people living in the United States of America. In 2013,
the automotive research group CNW (since shuttered because of the death of
their founder) estimated that 87.7% of households owned a car. The same year the Census Bureau estimated that 64% of Americans owned a home. According to a 2005 survey the American HorseCouncil estimated that only 2 million Americans owned a horse, or less than 6/10ths
of 1%. I’ll try to put all that in to perspective for you; according to the
Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) there are almost as many Americans who drive semi trucks as Americans who own horses.
Over the years part of the argument for Farrier
licensing has been that we license barbers, contractors, auto mechanics, so on,
and so forth. It’s an argument that is made because, like the art and science
of shoeing a horse these tasks could be performed by novices, however most
consumers don’t realize the intricacies of nor do they care for the
responsibility of doing a good job at whatever task and therefore rely on
professionals so they don’t have to. That said, every morning a vast percentage
of Americans are going to need or want a haircut, a new roof on their house,
or, automotive repair than the finite group who is going to require or wish
hoof care for their horse, so in that aspect the argument is hollow at best.
The point of all of this is that farriers are small potatoes in the grand
scheme of things because, comparatively speaking, there are very few of us. To
complicate both sides of the question nobody knows how many people are
participating in the equine hoof care trades and there doesn’t seem to be a
simple way to find out. If you Google the question you are directed to the
United Kingdom statistics and the standard American Farrier links. If you
search it at the Bureau of Labor Statistics you are directed to a couple of articles
and while the BLS has a numerical classification for “farrier” they don’t seem
to have any numbers or estimates concerning how many people are farriers.
Like words, numbers are things that politicians consider when drafting, accepting or formalizing legislation.
Labels: Farrier Licensing, Licensing
17 May 2015
Words Should Matter To Us
So why is farrier licensing once again a hot topic?
It is because farriers want to unite for the betterment of the trade? Uh, no.
Is it because Frank Lessiter wants to sell some magazines? No. Is it because
horse owners are demanding it of their respective legislatures? Oh come now. No, it is coming back up because a group of
Veterinarians want to formalize the term “equine podiatry”.
Last December, the Veterinary Equine Podiatry Group
(VEPG) made their existence known at the American Association of Equine
Practitioners (AAEP) annual convention and part of their purpose according to
Fran Jurga’s Hoofblog, is to: “establish
what is known as a veterinary board certification, another name for an
officially recognized professional specialty within medicine”.
While this is not wholly a “game changer” it
has the potential to be as we as a trade don’t really look at the words that we
use to define ourselves.
In the modern era of horseshoeing (since the trade
bifurcated from the general blacksmith shop) we have used all types of words to
describe what we do for a living. While “blacksmith” is still in parlance with
American Saddlebreds and the American Standardbred, we all chose what verbiage
we use to describe our individual horseshoeing businesses. Many use the word
“Farrier” others chose “Horseshoer”, race track farriers use “Plater”, while
others, farriers and veterinarians have used “Equine Podiatrist”. According to
Webster’s a farrier is a: “a person who shoes horses”, while a podiatrist is a: “a
person qualified to diagnose and treat foot disorders.” Currently this is only in the human sense as
Podiatry is defined as: “the
medical care and treatment of the human foot”. The word “horseshoer” appears in Webster’s
but is not strictly defined, while “Blacksmith” is defined as: “a person who makes or repairs
things made of iron (such as horseshoes).” While I realize most
of the world doesn’t care about this, legislators may and you should to a point
especially if you’re under 35 years old and make your living in hoof care.
Further if you’re over 35 you should care because (we) are the ones leaving the
legacy for future farriers. While a word might just be a “word” to you, words
and their definitions are the foundations of all legislation going back to the
Magna Carta. In the event that the VEPG is successful in their quest, Webster
most likely will have to shorten its definition of podiatry and once the core
document is changed, well, so goes the world.
Everyday an equine hoof care professional walks a
fairly blurred line between gut instincts for improvement and diagnosis. In the
event that “equine podiatry” is established as an actual thing that line may
well come in to sharp focus. It is this
instance that licensing advocates inside the trade are looking at with an
opinion that it is better to be in an established position rather than a
reactive one. It’s a salient argument but only if we have words to establish
us.
Labels: AAEP, Farrier Licensing, Licensing, VEPG
04 May 2015
Farrier Licensing- Personal Preface
In the near future the American Farriers Journal is going
to broach the subject of farrier licensing again. Not the subject has ever gone
away but it is once again coming to prominence.
Over the next few posts I intend to say what I perceive isn't going to
be said in any of their articles concerning the subject, but you need to know
where I am coming from so In this brief post
I am laying out my personal experiences with licensing, or as much as I can
recall.
For those who don’t know, I am licensed by the
California Horse Racing Board (CHRB), I am also licensed by Oklahoma Horse
Racing Commission (OHRC). I have been licensed in California since 1993 I think
and got a track license when I moved to Oklahoma as well. The test I took in
California required me to answer a series of general farrier knowledge questions
and to plate a horse before a state steward, the local horseshoe inspector, and
two trainers. In Oklahoma I was asked a series
of questions (by the chief track steward) as to whether or not I had shod
horses in any other racing jurisdictions and if I had any work at Remington
(the track where I applied). The test in California has changed since I have
taken it and I was involved to a finite point in that change, but the experience
I got from that gave me a view of how government actually worked.
At some point shortly after I passed my track test,
the CHRB’s medication committee heard testimony from a disgruntled horse owner
concerning shoeing. As I recall her horse was at either Golden Gate Field or
the now shuttered Bay Meadows Race Course. Her complaint was that the horse wasn't properly shod according to her home farrier and that something needed to
be done to improve the level hoof care at CHRB controlled facilities. The
action took three meetings and was finalized in 1994 the result is a test that
requires forging elements as well as the plating of a horse. This doesn't mean
that the CHRB took a significant interest in the shoeing of a horse or gaining
enough coarse knowledge about the subject to make certain the test was being
proctored properly.
As to the rest of my personal experience with the
topic, I am a bit jaded and yet a bit sympathetic. In 2005 The American
Farriers Association tried to look in to the subject but was met with a level
of hostility from the preponderance of the trade that eventually in 2006 their
Board of Directors, made up of Chapter Presidents (which was a member as
President of the Western States Farriers Association {WSFA}) pushed the
question off the table. In 2013 as
President of the AFA I was privileged to visit England at the invitation of the
then British Farrier & Blacksmiths Association (BFBA) President Gary Burton
and I got to see the effect of controlled education and testing for licensing
and I was astonished at the level of skill and knowledge that the British system produced. That is not to say that its perfect, but it was certainly
impressive to talk to people who were in their 20’s about things that I wasn't required to know when I started shoeing horses.
Labels: Farrier Licensing, Licensing
02 November 2014
Greatness
Please note that this began as a facebook post and ended up to long. Thanks to those who took time to read it.
Being a farrier I have been blessed to meet greatness in both horse and human form. Some instances there was daily involvement, others were passing introductions. In any case greatness in something a being is born with in my opinion, the rest of us are just lucky when we get to bask in its shadows.
Cigar was greatness. My first thought about him when I learned of his passing was what Farrier Matt (and brother of trainer Jack) Carava Had to say about him after watching the horse head for the receiving barn at Del Mar shortly before Cigars first defeat: "He looked like a Champion Boxer headed for the ring. I've never seen a horse with such presence."
I had the privilege to meet Cigar at the invitation of "Big" John Veague the Farrier at Kentucky horse park,
John has been very kind over the years to introduce me to the Champion's Barn residents but to lay hands on such a great horse was an honor for me for me at least. He still had the presence that Matt spoke of and as I found out, a sense of humor.
I will miss seeing him when I visit Kentucky.
Being a farrier I have been blessed to meet greatness in both horse and human form. Some instances there was daily involvement, others were passing introductions. In any case greatness in something a being is born with in my opinion, the rest of us are just lucky when we get to bask in its shadows.
Cigar was greatness. My first thought about him when I learned of his passing was what Farrier Matt (and brother of trainer Jack) Carava Had to say about him after watching the horse head for the receiving barn at Del Mar shortly before Cigars first defeat: "He looked like a Champion Boxer headed for the ring. I've never seen a horse with such presence."
I had the privilege to meet Cigar at the invitation of "Big" John Veague the Farrier at Kentucky horse park,
 | ||||
| Horse Park Farrier John Veague and Cigar |
I will miss seeing him when I visit Kentucky.
16 May 2012
I see questions
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