Licensing has a long and divisive history within the farrier trade.

Walt Taylor is convinced that there are two important factors that must be involved for your footcare business to develop in a more professional way.

One of the founding fathers of the American Farrier's Association received a new honor recently, when Walt Taylor of Albuquerque, N.M., was named "Best Friend of the Farrier," during the 39th annual Mule Days Celebration in Bishop, Calif.

Caution, suspicion and resentment are brewing among the owners of private farrier schools as an American Farrier&'s Association task force prepares to look into the qualifications of all North American farrier schools.

From 1915 to 1981, Illinois was I believe the first of only two or three states to have a licensing requirement for farriers. One of the requirements for a license was having completed a 3-year apprenticeship. Most farriers I spoke with who were affected by the licensing law had nothing good to say about it. They felt that it was unfairly applied and discriminatory. If you were friends with the examiner and/or they needed more farriers at that time, you had a much easier time of passing the test and being licensed than if you were not friends with the examiner or if they did not need more farriers — no matter how good you were.