Music blares, hammers swing and anvils ring. The World Championship Blacksmiths (WCB) kicked off its 10th season in April at the Midwest Horse Show in Madison, Wis. — the group’s opening venue for several years. To the equine enthusiasts passing through the tent, it is a forging competition like they’ve never seen. There’s definite truth to that.

How old were you when you realized you didn’t know as much about farriery as you previously thought? This seems to be a trait shared by most practitioners I’ve met. The older they become, the more they recognize the complexity of equine footcare. They see it as an ever-expanding puzzle.

The earliest evidence of human cultural behavior is the manufacture of tools. Early man was developing tools to make tasks easier for at least 2.6 million years. Oldowan tools — the oldest-known stone tool industry — have been unearthed throughout Africa with the oldest found in Gona, Ethiopia.

Within footcare, there are plenty of subjects that inspire debate. Handmade vs. manufactured shoes is one such subject. I think there is a happy medium within this debate that is manifested in a farrier who can find value and benefits in using manufactured shoes. This farrier, who also is skilled in the fire, can build a shoe and modify an existing shoe for specific needs and correctly apply either shoe to a horse.

Chad Chance has built a solid reputation as a farrier who can address the footcare needs of reiners. Back in August 2013, about 100 farriers gathered at an Anvil Brand clinic in Lexington, Ill., to hear Chance deliver insight he has learned from working with top reining horses. But before he performed a live demonstration on trimming and shoeing those horses, the Pilot Point, Texas, farrier took time to explain the strategy that helped him build the type of practice that allows him to work with that level of horse.