Tradition that is based on sound principles should be retained and mastered. It is the foundation for everything else we do.”

Dr. Doug Butler, a member of the International Horseshoeing Hall of Fame, wrote those words nearly a quarter-
century ago in an American Farriers Journal  article titled “In Defense of Tradition and Common Sense.” In the wide-ranging article, the Crawford, Neb., farrier who owns and operates the Butler Professional Farrier School with his sons Jacob and Peter, emphasized the importance of mastering the traditional horseshoeing techniques before using “new” methods and materials.

“There are some things that have changed, but the concept that the article addresses hasn’t,” Butler tells American Farriers Journal  after recently reflecting on the article.

The article remains as relevant as ever, he says, particularly because the thesis is largely ignored or diluted as a result of the industry splintering, creating an increasing divide over the years.

“It’s gotten worse because we have more camps now,” Butler says. “In those days, we just had a couple. Now, there are many more kinds of shoes to solve all of the horses’ problems. There are different techniques that are supposedly trademarked and the only way to do things.”

Although some products are beneficial for the horse, they aren’t necessarily so in the hands of a farrier who hasn’t mastered sound traditional principles.

“It takes time to learn,” he says. “It’s almost as though you are developing a sense where you approach a horse and you can evaluate it. A decision can be made based on that evaluation. Then you apply the principles that you learned through your experience.”

The Industry’s Greatest Challenge

There’s a misconception among some who enter the industry that mastering farriery can be attained through education alone. Yet, it takes far more than book smarts to advance.

“They have the idea that if they pay their money, go to school and fill their brains full of knowledge that soon they will be able to master the craft,” he says. “That’s not the case. They have to put in the time and effort, and many of them don’t want to do that. They’d rather search the internet and check out Facebook.”

Twenty-four years ago, Butler described the lack of attention paid to mastering the basics as “disastrous, to say the least,” for the industry. Today, his opinion has only intensified. Butler believes that it’s the greatest challenge facing the industry.

“I’d say that it’s even more so today, definitely,” Butler says. “Mastering the basics should be the goal of every beginning farrier, but it’s not.”

Understandably, their goal is to make a living and support their families. What isn’t so understandable is the lack of input and energy that’s being invested by the majority who are entering the industry.

“If they want to get good at this, they have to dedicate themselves, as well as study,” he says. “It’s as much about the mind as it is physical. We talk about the physical aspect of the craft all the time, but there’s a lot of knowledge that has to be processed and understood mentally about horses.”

When studying farriery in England, Butler’s instructors strongly emphasized that they were horseshoeing, not foot shoeing.

“We have to learn all about the horse,” he says. “That takes a long time. It takes a lifetime to learn about gaits, formation and all of the things that go into the horse’s makeup. That’s part of the basics. If we don’t understand those things, it’s difficult to apply them.”

No Shortcuts

How long does it take to master horseshoeing? Many farriers who have been shoeing for more than 4 decades agree with Butler that it’s a lifelong pursuit. Butler subscribes to the 10,000 hours theory put forth by Daniel Coyle in his book The Talent Code.

“He gives numerous pieces of evidence in the book that about 10,000 hours or several years of hard study, application and practical work is necessary to be able to say that you are skilled in a certain craft,” Butler says. “We’ve bypassed that and said, ‘Oh no, we can go to a 2-week school and learn how to do that because we’re smarter than those who were in the old industry. I don’t think that’s the case because even after excelling in an apprenticeship, a person still has a long way to go before they can say that they’ve mastered the craft.”

People are impatient, though. Shortcuts are not only taken but often encouraged.

“They’re trying to say that you can get by without the experience if you learn a certain technique, a mapping technique if you will,” Butler says.

It reminds him of a story that he was told while delivering a lecture in Australia.

An older, experienced veterinarian walked into the clinic and noticed the lines from the radiograph machine, nuclear scintigraphy and MRI connected to a horse. After pondering the scene for a moment, the veterinarian says in a loud voice, “What’s wrong with your eyes?”

“He could tell just by looking at the horse what the problem was, but they had to go through all of this expensive technology to achieve the same thing,” he recalls. “We have fewer people relying on experience and more people relying on technology.”

Make no mistake, Butler believes technology can be a helpful tool, but it has its place.

“It’s only necessary when you have a mysterious problem,” Butler says, “not when you have the run-of-the-mill, day-to-day trimming and shoeing problems.”

The knowledge to improve one’s skills are available, it’s a matter of learning, practicing and applying it.

“There have been tremendous improvements since I started in the 1960s, but if you read books written in the late 1800s and early 1900s, you will find that we’re barely touching the tip of the iceberg,” he says. “These guys had it all figured out a long time before we did. By us ignoring the great progress that was made at that time, we have to start all over again.”

Reinventing the wheel is a waste of time and energy. Farriery is inherently difficult and it takes time to learn how to consistently do it well.

“This is an obscure and complicated craft,” Butler says. “It’s obscure because there are few people who understand what it is and what it’s about. A lot of people get the impression that there must be a quicker way. It can’t be as hard as it’s made out to be. Well, it really is as hard as they make it out to be. It’s much more so than it appears on the surface.”

There will be moments when student farriers and those who are new to the profession feel inadequate. It’s a perfectly normal experience — one that’s important in one’s development.

“They think they’re going to nail on something and get some money, and they don’t realize what’s involved,” he says. “Of course, the farriers who shoe the top-drawer horses in the upper levels, they understand. But a person who just starts out shoeing some backyard horse for people who don’t have any idea what they’re doing, it’s a whole different ball game. It’s like the difference between going to kindergarten and graduate school.”

As an educator of farriers for more than a half-century, Butler is adamant that students understand their knowledge level when they finish school — they have been trained to be an apprentice.

“Any school that sells it any differently is perpetuating a fraud,” he says. “If they tell you that you’re going to be a master farrier after 2 weeks, 6 weeks or 2 years, they’re lying. What you’re going to be is a good helper, if you learn the right things and learn to keep your mouth shut. Then you can learn some things from somebody. But if you go out there with the idea that you know everything there is to know, you’re not going to benefit.”

A good trim isn’t justified by a pile of hoof trimmings. Sometimes it means very little to no hoof trimmings. The best trim is what the individual horse needs, Butler says.

The Best Trim

When a new farrier begins shoeing, they often struggle with excessive trimming. Sometimes it’s because of a perception that a pile of hoof trimmings justifies the payment. The reality is that a farrier has done a good job if the horse is improved.

“I had trouble with it myself when I started out,” Butler says. “I had the attitude that they’re paying me to trim this foot, so I ought to trim something off it. The best trim would be the one that left the horse sound. If I cut the horse too deep, I didn’t do the right thing. So, it might be just using a wire brush and rounding the edges.”

The payment should be the same, though, regardless of whether a hoof knife or a wire brush was used on the foot.

“You did what was needed for that particular horse,” he says. “The farrier has to be able to sell that to the owner, convince them that you’ve done the right thing for this horse. That requires some knowledge. You can try to discuss it within the skeleton, the way the horse stands and the way it moves. The horse shouldn’t be trimmed any shorter than you did. If you cut them too deep, you’ll wish you hadn’t, but that’s too late then. I always tell students to use the carpenter’s rule — measure twice and cut once.”

While new farriers often concern themselves with avoiding a mistake that could leave the horse lame, they can look forward to the notion that their knowledge, experience and practice will lead them to what Butler refers to as a classic skill — interpreting shoe wear.

“When a horse moves, it moves so fast that you really can’t see what it’s doing,” he says. “But when you pull that shoe off and look at it, you can tell exactly what it was doing and what part of its foot is breaking over. Does it need more of a rocker toe or less? Does it need to be balanced differently? We can see all of those things from looking at a shoe.

“And, just reading the article won’t get a person to be able to do it. They still have to do it lots of times.”

November 2020