LaGrangeville, N.Y., farrier Rich Albrecht passed away May 19, 2025. He was 79.
Albrecht graduated from the Cornell University Farrier Program and worked as a farrier for 40 years. He truly loved the trade and the friendships he made along the way.
He helped thousands of horses over the years, from mini-donkeys to draft horses. He had some horse customers for their entire lives, from being yearlings, throughout their show careers, injuries and on through their retirement years. “I’m not sure who has more arthritis now, some of the horses I shoe or me!” he often joked.
Albrecht’s hoof-care legacy continues with his daughter Elke. A graduate of Pacific Coast Horseshoeing School, Elke served as > her father’s apprentice for 5 years and has been a professional farrier for more than a decade.
Rich Albrecht taught farriery to his daughter Elke. The pair worked together for more than a decade. Source: Elke Albrect
“I am grateful to be able to learn from him and all his experience in the field,” Elke wrote in a 2017 Farriers Week tribute to her father. “It has been fun to introduce him to a few ‘new’ things I learned at school and he is always open to trying something different if it will help a particular horse.”
Rich prioritized continuing education throughout his career. He attended several clinics a year to “keep on top of all the new ideas and supplies to use.”
“He always enjoyed reading all the articles in the American Farriers Journal and was happy to see the material we submitted was printed,” Elke wrote to AFJ about her father’s passing.
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Rich Albrecht contributed to American Farriers Journal by supplying some What’s This? specimens. You can read them below.
