Gabby Kreinbrook, Equine and Stable Assistant
February is always an exciting time as we come to the close (hopefully) of winter and begin to enjoy the warmer temps of spring. February is particularly exciting for me every year as the World Horseshoeing Classic rolls around. This is the third year I’ve attended this event and it never fails to excite!
The Classic is a three-day event where farrier teams from around the world come to the Kentucky Horseshoeing School in Richmond to compete. Each day is a different style of shoe for a different type of horse. Day one is draft shoes, day two is roadster and day three is hunter. Each shoe is built with exact specs to fulfill the needs of each horse and their job. Our draft shoes are built to support the force of a 2,000 pound horse, agriculture style heels to provide traction in rough terrain, and toe clips to support action.
There’s a lot that goes into this process. Each team is given 2.5 hours to complete all four shoes and nail them on. Teams are comprised of four farriers who practice all year together on building shoes and team dynamics. They are given one horse and judged on their trim of the foot, fit of the shoe, the shoe itself and the final presentation of the nailed shoe. This is difficult as the horse can only have one foot off the ground at a time, so all four farriers must work together sharing time in the forge and under the horse. They each have their own foot to trim and shoe, and can receive no physical help only advice from teammates.
I HIGHLY recommend you check out this event at least once in your lifetime because even if you aren’t a horse person, it’s one of a kind and a lot of fun!
Four of our ladies go each year: Roz and Sadie our English Shires, and Rose and Kate our French Percherons. This is a great chance to expose Shaker Village to the horse world, get the best shoes for FREE, and brag on our horses. Every year I always hear about how lovely and well behaved the ladies are. It’s not uncommon to see Sadie in particular start to doze off as the farriers get to work! It’s a loud, smoky, chaotic environment, just what I’ve trained these ladies to thrive in!
In these image you’ll see how busy and crowded it can get around the horses. Rose is giving you her real opinion about how bored she is! Our girls are definitely exhausted by the end of the day. Their day starts early, coming up to be groomed to perfection: tails and manes are fully brushed out and oiled, legs are hosed off to ensure they’re shiny clean.
The hauler arrives early afternoon and they’re all loaded together, they travel an hour to the shoeing school, stand for an hour before being shod for 2.5 hours plus a half hour afterwards, and then promptly loaded back up to head the hour back home. Our day began about 9am that morning and ended about 9am that night. A long day, but they were phenomenal!
I hope you enjoy these pictures and if you’re curious for more details, come out and attend our new equestrian programming at the Village, which runs on Fridays-Sundays, April-October!
