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Students at the Kentucky Horseshoeing School teach UK
students about the farrier trade.
Students learned to trim feet (above) and shape shoes
(below).
You can
read about it in the book, but picking up that hammer and actually hitting
that nail – it really does kind of drive it home.”
Bob Coleman
UK Extension Equine Specialist |
By Aimee Nielson
MT. EDEN, Ky., (Sept. 30, 2005) – Textbooks are essential for college students,
but they can’t convey everything students need to know, especially some aspects
of animal sciences. Fortunately, students in Bob Coleman’s equine management
class only had to travel a little more than an hour to participate in a
day-long, hands-on learning approach to hoof care.
Coleman is the equine specialist for the University of Kentucky College of
Agriculture. He’s been cooperating with Mitch Taylor at the Kentucky
Horseshoeing School for several years. Together they provide students with an
experience they just can’t get from classroom books and lectures.
“They get to nail on shoes…trim feet, and they will have a demonstration from a
trained farrier doing the whole thing from start to finish, including building
the shoe,” Coleman said. “But then they also get to work on a shoe themselves
and find out, yeah, it isn’t real easy; it’s hard work, but it’s also pretty
exciting. It’s certainly not as easy as it looks – putting the nails in the
right place and understanding about hoof construction – but it all goes
together.”
Most of Coleman’s students are not interested in becoming professional farriers
like those enrolled at the horseshoeing school, but he’s okay with that.
““Do I want my students to all become farriers, no I don’t,” Coleman said. “But
I would like them to understand hoof care, how to look after their horses, how
to do the right thing and at least appreciate why the farrier is doing what he
is doing. You can read about it in the book, but picking up that hammer and
actually hitting that nail – it really does kind of drive it home.”
Not all students in the equine management class are planning careers in the
horse industry, but some have horses at home and are interested in knowing more
about the horseshoeing process. Many were surprised at how much work was
involved.
““I have a new respect for my farrier; this is really hard,” said student Lauren
Stockwell while trimming a hoof. “But I’m having a lot of fun learning it.”
Other students had been exposed to the farrier trade before but had never really
paid much attention to the details.
“I know a lot about horses, but I don’t know that in-depth stuff about their
feet and how exactly to take care of them every day…we are learning a lot of
that out here,“ said Matt Zajack, who currently works on a farm to pay his way
through college. “You can’t really learn about horses unless you do hands-on
stuff. I never knew anything about horses, then I worked with horses out West.
The only way you learn is by working with them every day. The hands-on stuff is
necessary for a class like this.”
Taylor, who is director of the Kentucky Horseshoeing School, said his students
get a lot out of the day as well. They teach Coleman’s students what they are
learning, and Taylor said that helps their knowledge stick.
“Our students are here today because they already know these real basic
elements, they’ve just learned them,” Taylor said. “It does two things – it
clinches their learning process and helps them to understand a little bit better
how to communicate to someone in layman’s terms.”
Coleman said the cooperation with Taylor and the horseshoeing school is vital to
his student’s learning.
“If we didn’t have it, we would be learning it out of a book and we’d probably
be doing it with PowerPoint® and we wouldn’t have the experience,” Coleman said.
“We wouldn’t have the people who do this on a daily basis and really have a way
of communicating what it’s all about.”
Future cooperation may be even more convenient than it is right now. Taylor said
the Kentucky Horseshoeing School will move to Lexington soon. Groundbreaking is
scheduled for summer of 2006. He said he wants to turn his current four-month
curriculum into a two-year program, where farriers are trained to a certain
standard. Coleman said with the school moving to Lexington, there will be many
new opportunities for cooperation.
Writer:
Aimee Nielson
859-257-4736, ext. 267
Contact:
Bob Coleman 859-257-9451
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