If you wanted to grow in the farrier industry and keep up with state-of-the-art farrier practices, Cincinnati, Ohio, was the place to be in the first week in February.

For the sixth consecutive year, hoofcare professionals from all over the world converged to share their knowledge with their peers. Frank Lessiter and his American Farriers Journal staff assembled an all-star line-up worthy of being called the horse-owners’ Dream Team.

For 4 days, the merits of various horseshoeing and hoof-care ideas were debated and discussed in an honest and open forum.

Everyone I talked to expressed satisfaction with the quality and presentation of the lectures. I am a veteran of horseshoeing gatherings and have been exposed to most of the material and presenters, but I am always rewarded for my attendance with new nuggets of information and affirmations of success on information previously presented. When I return home, I am always re-energized in enthusiasm about trying new products or techniques and the horses I work on and my clients are the benefactors.

The only down side is that sometimes, several presentations are happening at the same time, so it is necessary to choose which ones to attend — not an easy thing to do. I want to make it clear that this Top 10 list covers what most interested me. It in no way reflects on anyone’s presentation that is not included. In addition, the order is in the sequence in which they were presented in the program — not a…