Guild clinic and test in Dover Delaware

[Brian Purrington]

It was great to meet all those who came to this event and to finally put a face and voice with a name (the names we know from this forum.) Many thanks to Tom Bloomer who arranged this thing and pulled it off without a hitch.

Considering that his caterer (Suzi his wife) had to leave town for a funeral and that the "Headlining" clinition could not get there due to his commitment to clients (Good on you Jaye for that) I'd say that the clinic rebounded fairly well.

Rick Burton and Matt Taimuty (sorry matt if I misspelled it, I can barely say it) put on a couple of "improptu" sessions with the help of a ... Nameless Vet (I don't know if they want me to name them, but they know who they are) who brought some great digital rad equipment for quick before and after looks at the subjects. I want to say that this vet was one of the most confident vets I have ever met and projected that confidence with being very open minded and inquisitive about what exactly we as farriers do to accomplish what the vet wants... I would love to have a vet like this in my area to work with. So thank you Rick, Matt and "nameless Vet" for your time and contribution.

My wife and I spent our anniversary at this clinic and enjoyed it completely. I know alot will be posted on the guild site about this clinic, I just wanted to say thanks out here as well...

[Andrew Grimm]

Thank you to everyone who attended(farriers,wives,friends,vets,etc.). I had such a terrific time and was happy to be there. I learned so many new tricks of the trade which is always exciting. The food was also terrific. I have many pictures from the clinic I'll post later after work.

[Andrew Grimm]

I have a little time so I'll post the pictures I have.
http://www.putfile.com/cffarrier1/images/110077

[Rick Burten]

I want to take a moment to thank all the candidates for stepping up and standing for the Guild exams. While it may seem from the photos(thank you Andrew) that these were "routine" kinds of feet to work on, nothing could be further from the truth. Each of the horses offered some challenging issues that the candidates needed to account for and overcome. To their credit, the candidates did so quite well. Though not every candidate was successful on the practical portion of the exam, it was not because of a lack of forging skill, or lack of ability to recognize issues and formulate a protocol. It was about small things that individually would not present much of a problem, but in aggregate were enough to cause the candidate to be unsuccessful. We must bear in mind that the Guild exams are critiqued/evaluated/judged Pass/Fail on the completed work, rather than as the AFA exams are scored.

I would also like to extend my thanks and gratitude to Matt Taimuty who was officiating for the first time as an Examiner. He did a great job and because of time constraints, he had to "fly solo" in evaluating the final two candidates work as I had to leave for the airport. On Saturday, h did a wonderful job of explaining and discussing the "Duckett's Dot Theory" and showed us how to implement it . It was great to have both radiographs and the actual horse there so that the correlations could be seen and understood. The two horses Matt and I worked on for the clinic came to us with an assortment of ailments/pathology. With input and collaboration from everyone, trimming and shoeing protocols were developed and implemented. The change in the horse's way of going and comfort became apparent and immediate.

In absentia, Chef Suzi conjured up a dinner worthy of Emeril or Julia Child.

Unexpectedly(at least for me), Ray Steele showed up and brought with him
some of his extensive product line.

I'd like to extend my congratulations to Jason Maki, RJF and Andrew Grimm, RJF on their successful completion of the Guild exams.

Though I was not there for the final evaluation, it is my understanding the both Brian Purrington and Gary Warner were also successful in completing the practical portion of the exam, and since both were successful in the other phases of the exam, I extend my congratulations to them too on becoming RJF's.

Gary had the unenviable task of having to build a pair of hind straight bar shoes for the horse he was working on. Though I didn't get to evaluate them on the horse, I did see them applied(right before I had to leave), and they were top drawer.

And finally, I want to thank my friend and collegue, Tom Bloomer. His efforts on behalf of the Guild have been nothing short of Herculean and this past weekend's effort was magnificent.

[tbloomer]

Thanks for the flowers everybody. It was an honor to have all of you come play in my sandpile. I am fortunate to have such great customers as the folks at Abadon Estates. They were very generous in allowing me to "take over their property" for two days.

Rick, thank you for helping me setup and haul my big TV set over to the clinic so we could watch the Preakness.

Brian and Matt, thank you for helping me cleanup, pack and unload all the tables and chairs . . . and dragging the darned TV back to my home.

I didn't get to watch the Preakness - had to go back home and pick up the salad dressing. :)

FYI Uncle Jaye, although we had a big TV and although we had the Preakness playing at the clinic, all of the farriers were outside beating on hot steel - I think our entertainer was the only one who actually watched the race LOL!

We've been invited back to Abadon Estates - might have something to do with them getting free shoeing, free food, and live entertainment along with having their garage cleaned. :D

Rick and Matt put on a first class clinic. AND Jason Maki is comming back from Ohio in 5 weeks to reset the horse he shod for the exam . . .

[tbloomer]

FYI the contact information for the wonderful veterinarian what brought her digital radiograph equipment to our clinic is as follows:

Dr. Sarah Gold
BwFurlong & Associates
Equine MRI of NJ
www.bwfurlongnj.com (http://www.bwfurlongnj.com)

We had our share of difficulties in pulling off this event. We had to switch locations just a few weeks before the scheduled date and time. Abadon Estates stepped in to provide us a new location.

Or clinician was unable to attend. Rick Burten and Matt Taimuty stepped up and did a first class tag team clinic (having never worked together before).

Chef Suzi prepared dinner (filet mignon, parsley potatos, spinach salad, and sweet grilled carots) in advance along with written instructions for serving it hot.

THEN . . . Dr. Sarah showed up with her digital radiograph equipment. It was way cool to be able to have the benefit of her medical expertise throughout the clinic. I look forward to referring future cases to her clinic for MRI diagnostics. :)

[Jason Maki]

The Guild test was a worthwhile and challenging experience. I would encourage any one eligible, including CJF's to test for the Guild. This was a real opportunity to test myself and my everyday work against a panel of knowledgable farriers. Sticking to the basics, HPA, ML balance, sole pressure, appropriate shoe fit and selection, thinking ahead and on your feet, taking the horse, his job, environment, current condition and the thousand other attendant details to shoeing a horse correctly need to be noted and addressed... my first set of fronty shoes came out short and I had to build a second pair... but recognizing and remedying the mistake is allowed for and encouraged in this setting. My honest opinion is that every serious farrier should work through the levels of the AFA certification through CJF, then test for the Guild to demonstrate how varied their skill and knowledge set truly is; i loved taking this test.
Rick Burten and Matt Tamuity were excellent clinicians who approached issues from a slightly different angle, I would encourage anyone to spend time with these to veterans. They can teach us more in five minutes than we could learn in five years on our own. tom Bloomer, RJF missed his calling, he should not have been an engineer and farrier but a resteraunt and hotel manager... he did a fabulous job pulling of this event.
My thanks to everyone who made trhis weekend worth the thousand mile trip and the 25 head I ha to c rawl under on monday to make uo for the time away... I would do it agin tommorrow.
Congrats to Andrew Grtimm amd Briam Purrington and allm other successful canidates... those lettersn were earned.
Jason Maki

[George Geist]

Congratulations to all the guys who took the Guilds test, and good job to Tom Bloomer for all the work he puts into that organization.

I would urge all of you guys to be active with it. Tom has been a one man show for about a year now and I'm sure would appreciate some help.

Best to all of you
George

[tbloomer]

tom Bloomer, RJF missed his calling, he should not have been an engineer and farrier but a resteraunt and hotel manager... he did a fabulous job pulling of this event.I just followed Suzi's directions on the food. Her project management skills are equal to if not better than mine. She WAS a restaurant manager for 11 years. :)

Suzi did the meal plan and then came up with a backup plan when she could not be there to run the show her self. All I had to do was pack up and go setup. She wrote the script, including providing me with a chioce of sandwich shops and menus and phone numbers AND a scheduled lead time for ordering lunch from each shop.

The fillet mignon was seared on her grill Thursday night and then chilled in the chafing dishes ready to heat up for saturday night dinner. Same with the veggies and salad. She did all the prep work and cooking. All I had to do was setup the chafing dishes an hour before dinner and put out the plates and tablewear. She did all of the shopping and planning and made up a "to do" list for me to follow. If anything about keeping you folks well fed last weekend didn't go right, it was only because I was not following the executive chef's directions. And, get this, she said that she would "keep it simple." 'nuther words, she did all that she did in the way of preparation, shopping, cooking, and logistics planning between noon and 8:00pm on Thursday. . . . and she thinks that I only married her for her long legs. :)

[Andrew Grimm]

Tom,
Your a lucky man. Your Suzi sounds like a wonderful woman and I thank her and you for everything you did for the clinic. I wish I would've been able to meet Suzi.

[BPethick]

Hey Guys,

Sorry I haven't been around much. Been a bit busy!

I saw some pictures posted of the work done at the Guild test.
I was wondering if anyone could post pictures of passing work?
Both shoeing and shoe display.
I'm sure all would like to see!

Congratulations to all who participated!

Thank you,
Bob

[Andrew Grimm]

[QUOTE=BPethick]

I saw some pictures posted of the work done at the Guild test.
I was wondering if anyone could post pictures of passing work?
Both shoeing and shoe display.


Thank you,
Bob

I may be mistaken but I think I'm the only one who took pictures and I posted what few I had, sorry.

When I get a chance I'll take a few pictures of my shoe display. Some have already been posted but I'll post the recent ones because I had to make several minor changes.

[Brian Purrington]

I'll bite... My shoes are not what you would like to see Bob (Handmades) but they are an accurate representation of some of the things I do on a daily basis with keg shoes.

I dont have pics of my work, I wish I did, It was by far not the best forge work there, but it was fuctional and would nail for money...

I do have some pics of foot prep, but I was so engrossed in the work I forgot to continue taking pics.

The horse I did was one of Tom Bloomers. A 25 yr old QH that was so base narrow you had to climb under her belly to get a front foot. She stood really nice for my wife and if I were a better "smith" would have been an easy horse to do. Most of my work on this one was in the fire.

Anyway here are the pics of my mods. Go easy on me... :D

http://s157.photobucket.com/albums/t59/wellshodhorses/Guild%20stuff/

PS. I said it in person, but want to say it in public... Congrats to all who passed!

[fairweatherforge]

I'll bite... My shoes are not what you would like to see Bob (Handmades) but they are an accurate representation of some of the things I do on a daily basis with keg shoes.

Knowing Bob, I can absolutely say that he doesn't care if your shoes are handmade or not. He looks for the basics.