I grew up in South Dakota in the fourth poorest county in America. We were poor and 3 ½ hours from a Walmart. I had taken a 1-week farrier class in order to shoe my own horses. Later, we moved to Texas after I decided to become a farrier.
There are things people really want and they’ll sacrifice to get it. But nobody would pay me more than $90 or $100 to shoe a horse. I realized I had to do something different.
In 2014, my wife, my parents and her parents paid for me to come to the Summit. Thanks to my family, I went to the Summit and it was like someone took the blinders off me for all the great education that was there.
I met British farrier Grant Moon at the Summit and thought, “Oh my gosh, this guy can do literally anything.” I was immediately determined to gain more learning.
When I worked up enough courage to talk to Grant in the Summit Trade Show, I’m like, “Hey, can I ask you a question?” And Grant’s says, “Sure, you bet.”
I asked, “The feet on my horses feet fall apart a lot. What do you think?” He asked me if it could be diet or the nails. I told him I did not think so because these horses were good-footed and now they’re not.
Grant replies, “Oh, then it’s pretty simple” On a bar napkin in the Mustad Trade Show booth, he drew a foot with the shoe under the foot, and showed how over rasping the dorsal wall made the feet fall apart.
He responded with an answer to my quick question that changed my thinking and my life. Realizing that there’s so much more out there to be learned from others is probably the greatest gift I’ve ever got.
That’s what I learned when I came that first year to the 2014 Summit and why I continue to come back year after year for more.
