Source: Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food
Anyone who has been around horses for any length of time has gotten to know a farrier.
A layman might wonder what it is like to look after horses’ feet for a living, or how long a career lasts, or how many times one gets kicked.
Blaine Friesen is a 23-year-old Saskatoon farrier who is passionate about his calling.
“I’m coming into my fifth year as a farrier," he enthuses. "I have been shoeing my own horses since I was 14 years old in Waldheim. My father used to have a farrier come in, but it was difficult to access him at times, so Dad started to shoe his own horses. When I started to ride lots, I started doing it, too.
“While I was working on a ranch training horses in Alberta, I saw this advertisement in The Western Producer about going to farrier school for two weeks—just to get the gist of it. I figured I’d always have horses, so I should learn how to shoe properly. It was the Canadian Farriers’ School held in Crossfield, Alberta, just outside of Calgary."
Friesen registered for the course and went through the training.
“When I went to school, the instructor came up to me after the first couple of days and asked ‘what are you doing here?’ I said I was taking the course because I’ve always trimmed my own horses and I’d like to know what I am doing. He said, ‘Do you want to be a farrier?’ I said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘Have you ever thought about becoming a farrier?’ I said, ‘No’. He said, ‘I want you to go and think about it.' I said, ‘No.’ Two weeks later I called home and said ‘ I think I’m going to come home and start up a business. My parents said, ‘OK, do what you want to do. You are young enough.’
“I have had my business since I was 19. I’m 23. I’ll do it until my back blows, I guess. Then I’ll have to find something else horse-related.”
It seems wisdom comes early in life to farriers.
“You have to like it if you do the job," says Friesen. "You can’t do it if you hate it. Once you start shoeing, every time you see a horse—or even when you walk into a mall—automatically your mind goes straight to people’s feet and how they are walking. You watch their step to see if their toe and heel break properly. Do their shoes fit the way they walk? It is really funny. You acquire a different view of everything. I even do it with my girlfriend. She is on her feet all day, working. I look at her shoes and think, ‘They don’t have enough of a breakover for you.’ It just comes naturally for you to ask if the shoes fit what you do.”
Early exposure to the trade seems to play a determining role among people who chose this career.
Twenty-five-year-old Loretta Flath of Radisson is another young farrier for whom this profession evolved out of the unique bond between humans and horses, as she experienced and witnessed it as a teenager.
“I was born and raised in Clearwater, B.C., and met a farrier there. When I was grade 11 and 12, I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do, so he encouraged me to try this. I went out with him one summer and learned how to pull shoes and finish up and did a lot of holding horses for him and watching how he worked.
“I have always had a love for horses, and that is kind of where it stems from. I could watch my farrier friend all day. When I got into it, I just found I had an eye for it.”
Flath loved it so much she took a nine-month course in Advanced Farrier Science at Kwantlen University College in Langley , B.C., after being on a two-year waiting list. She graduated in 2000 and is now a member of the American Farriers Association.