Tom, granted the AFA membership is a small minority of the farrier community in North America but the internet use by farriers is an even smaller minority.

brian robertson wrote:I'm not so sure, Brian. It might be interesting to have Mark do a statistical analysis(or whatever it is he does ) of the number of farriers who are members of the AFA vs those who use the internet, and specifically, are members of FHRC. With the right funding, Mark could delve deep into the rationale of, for instance, why many farriers no longer are members of the AFA, or never joined the AFA, but have joined and remain members of the FHRC. It might also be instructive to know how many owners come to the FHRC for help/advise/insights/whatever, as compared to those who contact the AFA for the same.

The internet is a powerful tool but IMNTBCHO, it may well be the single worst thing that ever happened to/in the 'world of horses'.

brian robertson wrote:For what generation of farriers? The only way that "assumed minority" would have any validity is if you ignore everyone entering the industry in the last 15 years.

Rick Burten wrote:
It's no longer clear to me that there's that much "funding" in the world.

There's some truth in that. Marketing can be subtle and pervasive. Owners often cannot tell the difference between when they are being "helped" and when they are being sold something. Farriers are not entirely exempt either.

Cheers,
Mark

Rick Burten wrote:I think it would be more interesting to find out why the leadership of all of the farrier organizations has been mostly absent from the FHRC when their actions are quite often the topic of discussions here.

Tom, when you were in (or still maybe), the Guild, were there similarities there as with the AFA ?
Communication, finding available and willing help, people sticking to a plan and following through, Accepting leadership and "if" some disagreement arose did they still work with the powers to be and "in place plans" with out causing problems until the proper time came along for changing thoughts ,direction, leadership etc.

Rick your thoughts on the comparison of the AFA and the FHRC would be interesting reading. The why's and what for's.

Marks research and graphic's that he presented to the AFA were formulated from polls he sent out to members and other information he gathered.
It was presented to leadership along with other board members presentations.

I was given a task under Andrew Elsbree when he was AFA president. I asked Mark if he would help.
I didn't have Mark's experience in certain area's and he was invaluable to me.
To be quite honest I was not much more than a recognizable sounding board.
Mark was the real task master and with out him I would have been spinning my wheels.

What Andrew and others did with the information quite honestly I haven't a clue. I resigned feeling "I was a fish out of water" and incapeable of performing the job as it should be. After a while someone else took on the task I read somewhere.

my 2 cents worth

vthorseshoe wrote:I think the Guild was already past the point of no return when I joined. I tried to shut it down, especially when I had 3 monthly conference call meetings in a row where the board of directors didn't show up.

Others stepped in to try to reinvent the Guild in order to make it more inclusive. I went along with that and helped create a strategic plan to roll out a new examination process. Well some folks got impatient and decided to roll that process out early and put it in front of the public. It is one of my greatest regrets that I went along with that.
The difference between the Guild and the AFA is the Guild never had any "commercial interests" or "sponsors" or "advertisers." The original agenda was pretty simple. But like every other volunteer organization, most of the members just went along for the ride.

I can count on one hand the folks who made significant contributions to the Guild. OTOH, I can name about 30 people who said they were interested, acted like they wanted to be involved and once presented with that opportunity - disappeared into hiding. In spite of changing the Guild's structure to make it more inclusive - so that the organization could have access to some of the "second career" talent - there seems to be a lot more casual BS than actual "vested interest" in creating a real "accredited profession."
Rick is my dear friend and fellow soldier in many efforts to get some organized professionalism into the profession. The difference between Rick and I is that he actually still gives a damn about other farriers and still believes in the dream of an organized profession. Me, I don't think y'all are worth it.
No doubt there was good stuff in that and no "agenda" to skew the reports.
The greatest asset to an analyst is that "sounding board." Raw data never tells the whole story.
The information didn't serve the Andrews agenda, and like every other executive committee, the board just went along with whatever the EC did.
Seems to me that you did the job, got Mark involved as a resource, and supported him. The board didn't follow through and instead let the executives run their personal agenda as usual.

Difficult for me to spend time in the shop shoe horses and be on the Internet. Best thing I did was take a break from this and spend more time at the anvil.

Phil how are you and the family
we need you to pop in more often

as its not the same with out you

I spent some time talking to Phil on the phone last night. He said he is shoeing 35 to 40 head per day all around, 7 days a week, making shoes all night, and that he was thinking about hiring Smitty to come over and be his apprentice.

tbloomer wrote:
And here I was thinking I was doing something special doing 6 in a day..

must be using readymades , that proves it saves time
chris

Chris,

Some years ago on this forum Phil referred to Smitty as "Grasshopper." In order to "get that joke" you have to put together a whole bunch of esoteric stuff from the TV series "Kunf Fu," the history of Phil's journey on this forum, the history of Smitty's contributions to this forum, and the way that interaction played out over time.

Travis Reed wrote:I've seen Dave Duckett do 8 in a half day without breaking a sweat. But he cut corners and used readymades, one heat, one trip . . .

Its an eye opener to see a master of the trade work.

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