Peter Day

Our farrier is nothing if not versatile. Peter Day has been our farrier at The Royal Veterinary College in London for the last 25 years. He has dealt with academic clinicians, which — if we are perfectly honest here — are not always the easiest, has taught roughly around 6,000 students, has contributed to more than a 100 research projects and has come up with his own patent, and all this while still being an active farrier on the road, keeping horses and owners like myself happy.

—Renate Weller, Dr Med.Vet, PhD, MRCVS, FHEA, professor at The Royal Veterinary College

Peter giving an experiment the “thumbs up” in the RVC’s Structure and Motion lab. The Structure and Motion lab is one of the world’s leading labs dedicated to studying animal locomotion. Peter is an integrated part of this, not only contributing to farriery related projects, but also putting his practical problem solving skills to good work helping people with their research.
Peter working hard with the rest of the team (in the picture Dr. Chris Pardoe, our other farrier) to get the hydraulic testing frame ready for an experiment testing the effect of packers on hoof deformation…..and showing Carl Bettison (picture below) how research is done.
Peter in London at the RVC’s graduation ceremony where he received the RVC’s annual teaching award from Baroness Shepreth. The RVC awards a prize for outstanding teaching once a year. Peter was the first non-vet who was awarded this in recognition to his outstanding contribution to student learning.
Students in Peter’s forge practicing taking off a horse shoe on cadaver legs. Every Thursday Peter runs a practical for final year veterinary students in his forge, where they can learn practical skills such as taking off a shoe, paring out abscesses, poulticing a foot and others. These are considered essential skills for veterinary graduates to have on day 1 after graduation and Pete makes sure that the RVC students have them.
Peter setting up a leg for students to do their practical exam demonstrating the skills they have learnt…..
…..it is always a good sign for the students when he is still laughing at the end of their exam.
Peter showing a student how to use hoof testers on a hindlimb of a horse. Peter looks after the hospitalised horses as well as the RVC’s own, always willing to spend the extra time in his busy schedule to show students how it is done properly.
Peter applying his “heel support system” to a foot. Peter is not happy to just use what is available for his daily work. He is actively trying to come up with solutions to problems he encounters. He has come up with the “heel support system”, a carbon fibre patch that strengthens the horn tubules in the heel area. He has designed and scientifically validated it and –together with the RVC- holds the patent for it.
Peter is a working farrier who has never lost his enthusiasm for his profession. Doing his very best to keep big and small clients happy. Peter’s van parked outside a client’s yard next to my daughter’s laminitic Shetland pony that Pete’s has been looking after and keeping as sound as possible for my daughter for years.

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