Last year, Shane Westman wrote a reflective paper on a personal experience of professional communication breakdown. For this paper, he selected a case from his private farrier practice in Washington in which conflict placed the client between him and the veterinarian. The disagreement originated over the use of wedge pads and ultimately Westman was fired. By writing this paper, it gave him a new perspective on the dynamic of veterinarian-farrier relationships.

“I still realize that in that situation I was right, but I was incorrect in how I handled it,” he recalls. “I was mad at the veterinarian for not listening, but I was half of the problem in my failure in understanding the situation.”

From his position as the Large Animal Clinic farrier at the university…