IF YOU’RE DRIVING to the American Farrier’s Association (AFA) convention in February in Ontario, Calif., or making any trip through the West, make sure that you spend at least a half day in Sulphur, Okla.

Located 75 miles southeast of Oklahoma City, Sulphur is the home of the “National Museum Of Horse Shoeing Tools & Hall Of Honor.”

Mind-Boggling History

I had an opportunity to tour this museum in September during the mid-year AFA board meeting. The museum, which veteran farrier Lee Liles has put together at the family’s Carrousel Farms Quarter Horse operation 8 miles north of Sulphur, simply blew me away!

It’s the most complete, most at­tractive, most extraordinary farrier museum you’ll find any­where in the world. A visit to this museum will give you an entertaining in-depth look at the history of the horseshoers’ world.

A long-time private collector of farrier tools and other shoeing items, Liles put it all together in a beautiful 4,000 square foot multi-room museum when his family moved to Oklahoma from western Tennessee in 1998.

Liles started shoeing in 1965 and was later the official farrier for world championship Quarter Horse, Tennessee Walking Horse and Paint Horse Association shows.

Lee and his wife, Alma, started Carrousel Farms in 1985 in Tennessee with a horse operation that has garnered many world and national titles. They relocated to Sulphur in 1998 and established the museum along with a sizable Quarter Horse operation.