Shoe School

Mitch Taylor will tell you, "I always wanted to work with horses. I'm following my dream of a farrier in training."

In case you didn't know, a farrier is a blacksmith, in particular one who specializes in horses and horseshoes. It's the very essence of the Kentucky Horseshoeing School in Mt. Eden, Kentucky; a place where back-breaking work and the love of all things equine meld together.

Mitch runs the school and says, "We put a lot of time and effort and research to develop our program." Mitch has spent the past 20 years creating the course work that takes raw students and starts them on the road to becoming experts in the field. Students learn every aspect of the farrier trade in a comprehensive curriculum. There's classroom instruction, lessons on equine anatomy, and intense "hands-on" training.

How to make proper-fitting horseshoes is a major part of the program. Student Martino Squarcina came from Italy to attend the school, "You always have to put the bend the steel in the right spot. But we are here [for learning], and we get the best teachers."

If you think it's easy to bang a piece of steel into a custom shaped shoe. Think again. Mitch and his staff teach different skills in course work that runs from 8 to 22 weeks. Everything from basic forging to hoof trimming to shoe shaping. Directing a class on correct fits, "Now take your sharp edges off all the way around."

Mitch is a Certified Journeyman farrier with more than 30 years experience. He saw a demand for competent professionals to handle the needs of ranchers, farmers and equine enterprises. Ill fitted shoes for horses can promote leg and hoof problems, critical in horse racing, but also important to all levels of show and work animals. So every few weeks wanna-be blacksmiths travel near and far to the heart of horse country to learn this centuries-old trade.

Jennifer Daniels, who hails from California, is the lone female in this current class. She says the 22-week program has been grueling, but feels confident in her future as a professional farrier, "I love it.it's been a blast for me and I've learned so much. I think it's cemented a career path for me.cuz there's a lot of variations I can do with this."

Before a student can ever shoe a live horse, they must first practice on cadaver legs. Now it might sound gross, but this gives them an opportunity to make as many mistakes as they want without injuring the animal. Mitch says these practice procedures help students gain confidence in their skills, "They're real legs have been harvested frozen, we then clean them. We're using sharp tools to knife out, nip and rasp the foot down and if you're not aware of what's going on, you can trim too much and make horses really sore."

The course work demand students pass sequential tests as they move through the program. After 22 weeks it's expected that they will know how to make every variety of horseshoe seen on this board. Not everyone makes the cut.

Colm Gallagher is a student visiting from Ireland. He says the coursework has been mentally and physically challenging. He chose the Kentucky school because of its reputation and accelerated program. Back home, he'd have to spend 4 years in farrier school, "It's a short period, six months. You just have to put your head down and do the work, you know. We started 19 of us all together and apparently we've been quite a good group and there's only 10 of us left."

Conrad Trow remembers his days as a farrier in training. The Certified Journeyman now runs his own business, making house calls to more than 125 clients. Conrad stays busy with close to 300 horses being shod every five to six weeks. He says, "It's going real good, can't complain. Good choice, best choice I ever did." On this visit with 10-year old horse named OK-Cutter, Conrad trims up his feet, removes the excess growth, shapes up the hoof. He then reshoes the horse. The whole process takes about a half an hour. Conrad says, "It looks easy when you know what you're doing, but it takes a lot of years of training to do that."

And like any good farrier, Conrad sometimes makes his horseshoes from scratch. Using a 13-inch piece of steel, he shows us the intricate bending, twisting and hammering. Cutter's owner Sherry McCoun says, "A good farrier is very important because if they mess your horse up, you have months before you can ride again."

Stories of Conrad's success permeate throughout the building at the Kentucky Horseshoeing School. It lets these students know their efforts are not in vain. Mitch says, "It's a tough business, tough work.working for yourself. you have to get out there everyday, get your own clients and keep them happy."

Mitch hopes to build a bigger, better school in Lexington one day, a so-called Harvard of horseshoeing. It will help him to accomplish his lifelong dream to further the development of future farriers here and abroad. Mitch sums it up, "I just assume I'll be underneath a horse shoeing horses. that's truly what I love. It really is a team effort so I have to give everybody credit. because I certainly couldn't do anything without them."

Horse Sense
Horse shoes were one of the first items used for recycling. Back in the 18 hundreds worn out horseshoes were turned into horseshoe nails and worn out horseshoe nails were melted into musket barrels. And before there were metal horseshoes, early Asian horsemen used leather booties to protect their horses' hooves.