Good farriers are always learning and always open to new ideas or better ways to do things.

Chuck Jones started shoeing horses in 1997 and has been striving ever since to learn as much as he can, in as many different ways as he can.

“This has enabled me to work on some of the best horses in the world,” says the Lexington, Ky., farrier. “If you want to improve your skills, you need to be actively involved and open to new knowledge. There is always more to learn, but sometimes farriers lose sight of this fact.”

Maybe the new farrier has good business skills and is successful in establishing a business in a small community. Suddenly, they are a big fish in a little pond.

“As soon as that happens, some of those farriers quit trying to get better,” Jones says. “They don’t take advice from other people and don’t feel like they need to go to clinics or to any more conventions or competitions or watch instructional videos because they think they have arrived.”

Jones chalks this up to human nature and suggests that sometimes we have to work at being humble and realize that we can still learn something from just about anyone.

“No matter how much you learn and how far you go,” he says, “there is still more to learn.”

Jones saw these qualities embodied in English farrier Steven Beane while participating in the American Farrier’s Association Cultural Exchange Program.

“Steven has won multiple World…