Bernard Duvernay

I am Isabel Guerdat from Geneva, Switzerland, Management Associate of the Flying Anvil Foundation. I am not myself a farrier, but the founder of the FAF, Mr. Bernard Duvernay, who was received into the Hall Of Fame in 2011 is.

I would like to share with you our work, because I really think that we just did something that will make the difference in this amazing profession. 

As you may know or not know, our target is to develop farriery training programs in remote countries. In most of the remote countries, there is absolutely no education for the farriery profession. Since its creation in 2010, we have organized workshops in several places: India, Morocco, Mexico, Kirghizstan, etc., and in March 2013, thanks to a fund from the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation (Switzerland) and to our local partner, the Indigenous Horse Socitey of India, we started a long-term project — the FAF-Farriery Institute Dundlod, India’s very first Farriery Institute!

Since March 2013, with the help of our great network of about 30 volunteer-farriers from all around the world, we run a training program for Indian farriers 4x2 weeks per year. During the first year the building was not ready, but we gave the courses anyway using other facilities and last April 2, we officially inaugurated the Institute and awarded our first students with a Certificate of Qualified farrier. So I am just coming back from there, and there are no words to express the beauty and spirit of our Institute where knowledge in the farriery profession is shared between people speaking English, Hindi, German, Swedish, French, Telugu, Punjabi, Italian, etc., between Hindus, Christians, Muslims, Sikhs, Atheists, etc.! Concerning horses, they are of course the first beneficiary of our work in India and we have the privilege to do the practice courses on the horses of our local partner who have 60 Marwari horses (specific breed from Rajasthan).

Please view our training program for year 2014, as well as our newspaper, where you will have the possibility to see our past activities and what was done during the first year of courses. I am also inviting you to have a look at our website and at our Facebook page.

We also have many pictures below for you to look through.

— Isabel Guerdat
Flying Anvil Foundation
(Geneva, Switzerland)