March 2006

Congratulations to our newest members!!!

Jaye Perry, RJF - Cumming, GA

Jeff Holder, RJF - Kerrville, TX

Dave Purves, RJF - Huber Heights, OH

On December 16th & 17th 2006 The Guild of Professional Farriers administered the Registered Journeyman Farrier™ (RJF™) at Hillcrest Farm, LLC in Albertville, Alabama. On December 16th Guild Examiners Henry Heymering, RMF and Rick Burten, RMF graded the candidates shoe displays and administered written exams. On December 17th, the exam candidates took part in the live shoeing exam where each of them was required to shoe a horse with four hand made shoes according to the specific confirmation and use requirements of the individual horse. Following are some of the highlights of each candidates work during the exam process. (Click to enlarge the photos - use BACK button to return to this page.)

The Guild would like to thank Jennifer and Jason Gilliland of Hillcrest Farm, LLC for their excellent hospitality, fine horses, and the use their beautiful facility for this event.

Jaye Perry

Exam candidates are required to demonstrate a professional range of forging and fabrication skills by creating a shoe display with a variety of shoes and shoe modifications as described in the Guide to the Registered Journeyman Farrier™ Examinations. Jaye presented this hand made side-weight shoe as part of his shoe display:
Jaye went over his horse very thoroughly before deciding what kind of shoes he would build. Here we see him applying hoof testers to the lateral RF heel on his exam horse.
Here is Jaye making a toe bend in a section of 5/16" x 7/8" bar stock he selected to provide good coverage and support for the hind feet on his horse.

Using only 4 nails and quarter clips Jay has securely attached his shoe and provided excellent support and heel coverage for this foot.

Jeff Holder

Here we see Jeff Holder measuring his horse's LF foot to determine how much bar stock to cut for his shoe.
Jeff selected 3/8" x 3/4" concave bar stock for this horse. Jeff wanted to give this horse (a Jumper) some traction. Here we see him putting on the final touch and getting his shoe perfectly flat before taking a "burn" and seating the clips.
Jeff likes to fit his heels nice and full - right to the back of the frog.

When presented with a foot that slopes like this one, has thin walls, and tends to spread out like a pancake, Jeff likes to make sure that the foot stays on top of the shoe so that in the next shoeing the hoof wall is stabilized and ready to be "gathered up".

Dave Purves

Dave chose to shoe this leggy hunter with plain stamped shoes. Here we see him hammer rolling the toe on a front shoe.
Dave fit his heels nice and full. This horse is going to move over the ground like hot butter!
We see here that Dave set the shoe full on the medial wall in order to encourage the foot to grow centered around the bony column.

Guild Examiner and President Henry Heymering, RMF does a final inspection on Dave's shoeing job. Good on ya' Dave!!!