Editor’s Note:

Back in March 1975, Henry Heymering launched American Farrier’s Journal. He sent out his first issue — an 8-page issue — from his Arcadia, Fla., location. For $5 a year, farriers were connected with others around the country. Around the same time, other efforts in the industry contributed to better communication and sharing of information between farriers. The industry benefited from these efforts.

With the redesign of the magazine, we felt it appropriate to let its founder talk about the climate that helped spark this publication and how the information we share about farriery has changed over the past 42 years. You can hear more of Heymering’s discussion at americanfarriers.com/podcast.

The lack of camaraderie that we were experiencing in horseshoeing at the time in the United States was part of the impetus for me starting American Farriers Journal. In those days, there was no camaraderie between farriers. Everything was closely held.

I felt that there was such distrust and competition that we were all reinventing the wheel. Each one of us had to start at the beginning and try to work it out on our own. There had to be an easier way to do this to build a body of knowledge.

I think the magazine did help that way in that people weren’t afraid to share with others hundreds of miles away what they wouldn’t share with their local competition…