Send us a text Last month saw the passing of a dear, farrier, educator, mentor, friend and all round legend. David “Slim” Symons FWCF Hons lead a very interesting Farriery career and put so much back in to the industry and those in it. This is a great loss to the UK Farriery industry, his family and his friends. This is an edited re touched for quality, tribute of a conversation I had with Slim the other year. Rest in peace Sir...
Jun 09, 2025•56 min•Season 2Ep. 21
Send us a text Recently there has been a lot of discussions and social media debate about the apparent crisis within the farriery profession. This has centred around the economy of farriery as a profession and the lack of training providers and people coming into the profession. Like all farriery rants on social media, we all shared it on our feed so no doubt your customers can see it and feel sorry for you! Id like to add at this point “they don’t care”. I have personally thought for some time ...
May 26, 2025•1 hr 24 min•Season 2Ep. 20
Send us a text I was recently asked to do a webinar on be half of the British Farriers & Blacksmiths Association explaining the concept of social license to operate in the equine sector. This is a term which has been banded around for a few years now and there have been many who have misunderstood what this actually means. This is about public approval, for us to carry on doing what we do. Although this is mainly aimed at the equestrian world, we do play a part in it, and with out it we have...
May 13, 2025•1 hr 21 min•Season 2Ep. 19
Send us a text This discussion is about a recent article in the Forge magazine. It is not about imposing rules but it is about protecting ourselves and all those involved (including the equine) at farriery competitions and forging best practice for future generations. What is Social License to Operate (SLO) Social license is increasingly important in horse sport and leisure. This is the general public’s interpretation of equine welfare and professionalism. We must be seen to be always putting eq...
Feb 20, 2025•1 hr 25 min•Season 2Ep. 18
Send us a text It’s been a while…… Today me and my friend and fellow podcaster Brian Mullins reflect and breakdown his recent experience facing the AWCF exam for the first time, we talk about the journey he took and navigate his personal voyage of discovery. Brian has lots of priceless nuggets of information for anyone considering this journey for this exam or any certification the world over. Thanks to the sponsors The Shoeing Lab Silverback Chaps – silverbackchaps.com...
Feb 03, 2025•1 hr 19 min•Season 2Ep. 17
Send us a text Since Lockdown we have seen a rise in online and other forms of farriery education.... This is a good thing! To put this on takes a lot of time, effort and of course money. One of these people throwing his hat in the ring is todays guest Connor Morison DipWCF. Connor is an Ex-Army farriery instructor who currently works at the Warwickshire college school of farriery, and like many of us has a passion for education. He has recently set up Farrier Scholar an Online farriery educatio...
Oct 15, 2024•45 min•Season 2Ep. 16
Send us a text David Gulley FWCF On the 2nd of May 2024 we received the sad news of the passing of David Gulley FWCF. Born on the 4th of August 1939 in Plymouth Devon, David grew up with an obsession for horses, his mother once telling him of his fascination of the Shire horses working in the streets Plymouth. When David reached the age of 15 due to the lack of farriery apprenticeships being available due to mechanisation, David took on a 4-year apprenticeship in Blacksmithing and Engineering. O...
Sep 16, 2024•1 hr 11 min•Season 2Ep. 15
Send us a text I’ve just got back from a very busy summer period. Back to school for me now! Last week I spent the week in Canada with my awesome friend Brian Mullins CJF. Week spent the week fine tuning and preparing for his upcoming AWCF exams. I met Brian back in lockdown through our respective podcast passion projects. As we were together we decided to chat with microphones and this is the results. Check out Brian’s podcast if you haven’t already as it is the best one out there. That’s not t...
Sep 03, 2024•1 hr 23 min•Season 2Ep. 14
Send us a text In this episode we have recorded a discussion session which was part of our recent TTFA course. This discussion was hosted by Dean Bland BA(Hons) DipWCF(Hons) GradDipELR(RVC) Dip.Ed MAFA and the students on this course and was part of one of assignments covered within the course, of which is part of the pathway to becoming a training farrier (ATF) here in the UK. Within this we discuss many topics including Health and Safety, Safeguarding, Legislation, Employment Law and most impo...
Jun 25, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Season 2Ep. 13
Send us a text Tom Smith FWCF GradDIP ELR (Dist.) (RVC) is a working farrier from Hampshire England, and is also the current Chairman of the Farriers Registration Council. Tom previously spoke to me about doing this podcast not just to make farriers aware of the upcoming council election but to also promote a better understanding of the role of the FRC and how it functions. Big shout out to the sponsors of this episode Silverback Chaps – silverbackchaps.com The Shoeing Lab...
Jun 14, 2024•1 hr 53 min•Season 2Ep. 12
Send us a text Fat Fat Fat Fatty Fat Fat Equine Obesity is a huge (excuse the pun) problem in the UK. In todays episode i speak to one of the leading experts in this subject. Tamzin is a social scientist with a background in global health, and has a specific interest in the interconnections between human and animal health and wellbeing. She completed a PhD at the University of Liverpool studying how we can improve the management of obesity in horses, particularly focusing on horse-human relation...
Apr 29, 2024•1 hr 12 min•Season 2Ep. 11
Send us a text Sat down one evening and spoke to my good friend and research partner Abby Bunyard AWCF about the BFBA of which she is about to be the new president and our Fellowship journey so far. We go off on tangents, we discuss the state of the industry, and we drunk a lot of Gin in the process! This was a great conversation. To hear more about Abby’s route into Farriery, listen to her episode with the Mullins Farrier podcast, it’s a great listen. Please check out the sponsors of this podca...
Apr 01, 2024•1 hr 57 min•Season 2Ep. 10
Send us a text Last week I was invited to attend a meeting in Norway to with Mustad Hoofcare, on behalf of the BFBA Craft Committee to help develop a working version of the Mustad Farrier Portal. This is a scoring system developed to help competition organisers, and is a lot more than just a calculator. This system is the brainchild of Aksel Vibe AWCF. We sat down and and Aksel explained the system and how and why it was developed. Although this conversation is very competition centric there are...
Mar 18, 2024•43 min•Season 2Ep. 9
Send us a text Today I'm at what can only be described as farriery's equivalent of Area 51. The Shoeing Lab is owned by Kelvin Lymer DipWCF, and he has been in a previous episode talking about Endurance Racing. Kelvin is one of the most innovative that I have met over the years, not just as a horseshoer but as a business man. Kelvin is the type of person who is always spinning plates and looking to improve equine performance and comfort. For over 10 years he has been working and evolving his app...
Mar 04, 2024•56 min•Season 2Ep. 8
Send us a text Pads, Packers and Bar Shoes, Today and my good friend Wayne Preece FWCF have a catch up and we discuss Pads Packers, Bar shoes and other hoof care packages. Like most of our chats we go off on tangents and discuss other farriery subjects. Hope you enjoy this as much as we did making it. Don't forget to subscribe on your podcast platform. This podcast is sponsored by Silverback Chaps. Thank you to Danny Elliot for your continued support. Silverback Chaps – silverbackchaps.com...
Feb 21, 2024•2 hr 14 min•Season 2Ep. 7
Send us a text Welcome to 2024 This year I aim to be a lot proactive with the Podcast. Last year was challenging to find time as it can be a time consuming, plus there was a lot of things going on in the world of Farriery. This episode has been on the wait list for a long time. Dean Lewis AWCF is a passionate and highly skilled Farrier and Blacksmith from Australia who's background in Harness Racing as a Racer and farrier served him with some excellent insight. This is a subject I personally kno...
Feb 05, 2024•1 hr 42 min•Season 2Ep. 6
Send us a text Its that time of year again, BFBA Focus 2023 Again this year we are going to get as much content to you from the set up of the event, the 42nd International Team Horseshoeing Competition, and from the Focus event itself. Here is a few of Brian's first day of set up interviews he captured today...... Listen out for more tomorrow
Oct 25, 2023•20 min•Season 2Ep. 6
Send us a text Tiffany Gardner Dip WCF CJF is a North American farrier currently on the Edward Martin Farriers Cultural Exchange Program. We met whilst she was taking part in the Farriers Foundation’s Tour de Farrier bike ride. We chatted and found out she was a fellow educator at the Pacific Coast Shoeing School. I invited her to spend a couple of days at the Hereford School of Farriery. She stayed for over a week both teaching, shoeing and even mountain biking! In this episode we discuss the r...
Sep 17, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Season 2Ep. 5
Send us a text Bone Spavin is a common pathology seen in the hock joints of the horses hind limb. In this episode Wayne Preece FWCF and I discuss Bone Spavin, its causes and the available Farriery treatment protocols.
Feb 11, 2023•1 hr 36 min•Season 2Ep. 4
Send us a text The last episode of the BFBA Focus Podcast….. In this episode we speak to the industry suppliers and trade stand holders at this year’s event. BFBA Focus 2022 was a fantastic event and is going to move onwards and upwards next year. I hope you have enjoyed these episodes as much as me and Brian enjoyed making them! More content to come from Brian via his Podcast The Mullins Farrier Podcast in the future including some amazing interviews from some of the industry greats. For me, on...
Nov 14, 2022•48 min•Season 2Ep. 8
Send us a text Day 1 of the BFBA Focus Event In this episode we Speak to David Gulley FWCF, The Farriers Foundation (Grant Moon FWCF, Jon Nunn FWCF, Mick Handley RSS & Dan Hewer Dip WCF), and then the Livecast we did with Haydn Price Dip WCF & Spud Allison Dip WCF
Nov 02, 2022•1 hr•Season 2Ep. 8
Send us a text Day one of the competition started with a 6 am start for me and Brian interviewing Chief Steward Mark Watson FWCF on the way to the forge. Brian then broke out into Sport caster mode capturing all the day 1 action.
Oct 29, 2022•57 min•Season 2Ep. 7
Send us a text Me and Brian have finally arrived at Stoneleigh. We arrived at an empty giant tent and exhibition hall. And then the most important team arrived. Mark Watson and the Purple Army have been running the Competition for around the last 7 years and have run the best International Team Competition in the world. We spoke to some of the volunteers and some of the competitors as they turned up on site....
Oct 28, 2022•17 min•Season 2Ep. 6
Send us a text The Road to Stoneleigh.............. I have teamed up on behalf of the British Farriers and Blacksmiths Association with my good friend and fellow Podcaster Brian Mullins to capture the build up to and the main Event at this year's BFBA Focus Event and the 2022 International Team Farriery Competition. In this episode we spoke to team USA as they set up camp practising at Alex Mercer's forge in the wilds of Lincolnshire in preparation for this weekend's international team farriery ...
Oct 27, 2022•32 min•Season 2Ep. 5
Send us a text The Road to Stoneleigh.............. I have teamed up on behalf of the British Farriers and Blacksmiths Association with my good friend and fellow Podcaster Brian Mullins to capture the build up to and the main Event at this year's BFBA Focus Event and the 2022 International Team Farriery Competition. Today we caught up with Team Canada who are practicing at Mark Watson's forge as part of their journey to the International at Stoneleigh. It is fascinating to see the commitment tha...
Oct 26, 2022•38 min•Season 2Ep. 4
Send us a text In 2020, during the first COVID-19 lockdown when I started this Podcast the whole idea was to reach out to my students who could not attend college due to the pandemic. since then, it has turned in to a bit of a monster being listened to in over 75 countries. So, this episode it's all down to the students.......... Teaching and learning and learning by teaching. Sometimes learning can be done by presenting a subject to your peers. At the school of farriery Hereford, we used this t...
Oct 06, 2022•28 min•Season 2Ep. 3
Send us a text No living person has trained as many farriers in the UK as Slim Symons FWCF Hons I sat down with Slim and we spoke about his life and how he found farriery, and the route he took from joining the Army to be a Slaughter man and how he become one of only 2 living FWCF's with Honours. After leaving the Army after shoeing in different counties in the UK and Ireland he became the senior lecturer at the School of Farriery Hereford from where he finally retired at the age of 70. He's led...
Sep 16, 2022•2 hr 24 min•Season 2Ep. 2
Send us a text Welcome Back In this episode I sat down with Jonathan and Josh Nunn. We sat and had a professional discussion on the subject of Concave shoes verses Flat shoes. As it is unscripted the conversation does wander at times but that is the beauty of these conversations. Listening or partaking in these types of conversation does qualify as CPD. For any farrier who wants to log this as CPD you just need to decide on what you thought was your learning outcome. Hope you enjoy it as much as...
Sep 06, 2022•1 hr 24 min•Season 2Ep. 1
Send us a text In this episode me and my good friend and ex colleague Wayne Preece FWCF sat down in his home and after an amazing home made curry we spent several hours discussing the filthy N-Word! That’s right we discussed Navicular! There is often confusion with anecdotal knowledge and modern scientific fact, disease, or syndrome. Hopefully you may learn or get something to think about from this conversation. We go off on tangents and openly chat about our experiences in conversation and not ...
Mar 24, 2022•1 hr 34 min•Season 1Ep. 30
Send us a text BFBA AWCF Exam Preparation Course The BFBA are delighted to be able to launch a brand new BFBA course which offers two tailored routes - whilst providing unparalleled learning support - to achieve the Worshipful Company of Farriers Associate Examination (AWCF). Following the completion of a ‘Diagnostic Day’ on 23rd April at Hereford School of Farriery, Holme Lacey Campus, candidates will be supported to choose one of two routes to complete the AWCF examination. ‘Route 1’ supports ...
Feb 24, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 29
