What do farriers wear?

Answer 1

== Evelio Contreras In the past two years Jenny Smith of Montvale has used four different farriers to shoe her five horses. The first one canceled visits until he needed the money. The second farrier was equally unreliable. The third farrier, "even though he was my neighbor," she said, "would still cancel." The fourth farrier was a 21-year-old who had studied horseshoeing at a trade school. "I don't think he knew what he was doing," she said. "He kept trimming them too short. The horse got too sore." Smith's trouble with finding a farrier illustrates a problem facing horse owners today. A thousand dollars' worth of tools is all anyone needs to be a farrier. But recently expanded veterinary laws in Florida, Arizona and Pennsylvania have pushed the issue of licensing farriers into the forefront. There are about 42,000 horses in the western and southwestern counties in Virginia, according to a 2002 survey by the Virginia Agricultural Statistics Service. Roanoke and Botetourt counties alone are home to about 4,000 horses. An economic impact study found the horse industry created more than $802 million in sales statewide. Ernie Ward, the president of the Alleghany Association, estimates about 20 full-time farriers work in the Roanoke Valley. He said the number of part-time farriers is unknown. Nationally, there are an estimated 35,000 to 50,000 full-time farriers. "We have in this country a large number of part-time horseshoers, which adds to the uncertainty," said a recent report by the American Farrier Association. Farriers typically charge $100 per horse, and shoe the same horse every six to eight weeks. Some part-time farriers charge much lower rates. "Anybody who wants to call themselves a farrier can do it," said Jeff Taylor, a professional farrier for 15 years in the Roanoke Valley. "That's a bad thing. On the other hand, I don't want the government telling us what to do either." Taylor attended a meeting with a half-dozen farriers in Boones Mill last month to discuss the issue of licensing with Ralph Casey, the president of the Brotherhood Farrier Association. Casey this week completed a three-month, 30-state tour across the country rallying support against licensing. He said licensing will place farriers, along with practitioners of equine dentistry, chiropractic and Massage Therapy, under the scope of veterinary medicine. Casey will hold a vote on the issue at the association's convention in November. Randy Darnton, a veterinarian for the Roanoke Valley Equine Clinic, said many states have broadened the definition of veterinary practices. That's meant unlicensed practitioners of equine dentistry can no longer pursue their trade. "The farriers are seeing this and trying to head off a similar problem," Darnton said. Elizabeth Carter, the executive director for the Virginia Board of Veterinary Medicine, said licensing farriers has not been considered in Virginia. But for Ward, a professional farrier for 20 years in the Roanoke Valley, the prospect of licensing is not a question of if but when. "Eventually, I think we're going to have to get" licensed, he said. "Somebody's going to hurt a big politician's horse and they're going to say, 'Why don't you have any qualifications?'" According to the American Farrier Association, there are 65 farrier trade schools in the nation, which award degrees to students who complete an eight- to 12-week course. Danny Ward, the owner of Danny Ward's Horseshoeing School in Martinsville, said people coming out of horseshoeing schools are learning the basics. "There's no substitute for experience in eight weeks," he said, adding that licensing might close his school, currently the only one near the Roanoke Valley. "Maybe I'm going to retire. To tell you the truth it depends on licensing and what they do with the schools," he said. One of Ward's customers, Phyllis Brown of Danville, said many students are knowledgeable while "others, I'm not sure they've been around horses before." Annick Mikailoff, a farrier in Christiansburg, was one of Ward's students in 1998. She is against licensing because uniform education will "keep away the inventiveness that makes farriers" what they are, she said. Henry Heymering, president of the Guild of Professional Farriers, said licensing has become a major issue because of the changed veterinary laws as well as the work of a task force formed by the American Farrier Association. "It seems underhanded and power-grabbing," he said. "If they get licensing through and are in charge of licensing, they'll be the most powerful group in the industry." Brian Quinsey, the executive director of the AFA, said the task force was received with mixed results, but notes that the issue of licensing has been around for years. "People are very much in favor of it," he said, about licensing. "I've heard that if we dropped it, other organizations will pick it up." It has been more than a year since Baby, one of Smith's five horses, was foundered, suffering from an inflammation of the hoof that can make horses lame or cause them to be euthanized. "It took 11 months for her feet to be perfect," said Matt Harrell of Southern Winds Equine on an early afternoon in August as he trimmed one of Smith's other horses with a pair of nippers. He flattened the entire sole out. He rolled the horse's hoof back and used a rasp to trim the nail, which left a burnt, crisp odor. The horse flinched, but was at ease. Smith said Harrell and his wife, Shannon Moore, have been trimming her horses for more than a year.