Hoof health is horse health: Newly certified farrier enhances veterinary hospital services

I don't want people to see me as a woman farrier necessarily. It is really cool to be working in a male dominated field. But I would just like to be a farrier and I would like to be a good farrier. My mom is actually a farrier I've written my entire life. And she's like, if you want to save some money and help me out and you should learn how to trim him at the very least. And I really enjoyed it, so I decided that I want to go to Farrier School. I was looking for a year long program and I'm really interested in the therapeutic shoeing side of things. Working for vet school has been really cool for me. That is why I decided to come to Virgin Tech for Travis Burns, Advanced Farrier Program. I really enjoy working with the animals. I've always loved horses and I love making them feel good and helping them have long and happy lives and be sound the whole time. The forging portion has been the hardest part. For me, actually heating up and shaping the shoes and putting them on the horse's foot has been a challenge. It's just really hard to make your mind look at a shape and put a piece of metal to match that shape without going back and forth with the horse 100 times. I was terrified of the exam. I really did not want to take it, but it was something that I felt I need to push myself to do, especially if I wanted to be a successful failure. But I think knowing that I studied for the exam now has really helped me. In my day to day work life. I was not working with steel as often as I should have for the test. But that really forced me to really be in here forging on hours of the day. That has really helped with my actual shoe shaping forklines. It was tough, but it was absolutely worth it. I definitely thinking that certification and working up my way in the American Farriers Association has really helped with that. I chose Virginia Tech because it's a year long program, which is not super common for Farrier schools and also because it's connected to the vet school and I was really into the therapeutic side of things. It has been amazing just getting to have the technology that we do with the vet school, taking radiographs and x rays of the horse's feet before we shoot them. I've also got to see some surgeries done on the foot, which has been really interesting and has just given me a better understanding of what is inside the horse's foot as well as the outside. I think there are some things that a vet can't do without a barrier and a farrier can't do without a vet. I think having that vet farrier team is really important.