To honor their remarkable careers in hoof care, two individuals were voted into their respective classes of the American Farriers Journal International Horseshoeing and International Equine Veterinarian Halls of Fame. These are Virginia farrier Paul Goodness and California veterinarian Babak Farmarzi. Goodness is awarded the honor post-humously. 

Hall of Fame Farrier

Round Hill, Va., farrier Paul Goodness began shoeing horses for his family’s business and quickly began an apprenticeship in 1973. In 1976, he attended a formal 6-month farrier school near Syracuse, N.Y. In 1981, he was accepted to the farrier internship program at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Medicine, New Bolton Center. After completing this program, he moved to Virginia and built a sport horse and corrective shoeing practice.  

In 1988, he opened the area’s first referral-only therapeutic farriery clinic in Round Hill, Va. Building on the success of this venture in 1992, he founded and managed one of the country’s first group farrier practices, Forging Ahead LLC.

From 1992-96, Goodness was an official farrier for the United States Equestrian Team (USET) and traveled extensively, managing the hoof care of international competitors representing the United States, culminating with his role as the official farrier at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Ga. After the Olympics, he focused on therapeutic farriery and developed the Forging Ahead Farrier Internship Program.

In 2016, Goodness became the in-house Chief of Farrier Services at Virginia Tech’s Marion duPont Scott Equine Medical Center (EMC) in Leesburg, Va.

He passed away in 2020.

Hall of Fame Veterinarian

Dr. Babak Faramarzi received his DVM in 1995 and started his career as an equine practitioner. He received his master’s degree and PhD from the Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph. He not only went into depth of study in traditional methods, but he also received his certification in veterinary acupuncture from Chi Institute in Florida. He has devoted his research to horses’ feet and podiatry since 2000.

Faramarzi has been teaching veterinary medicine for nearly 20 years, beginning in Canada where he received the prestigious Teaching Excellence Award from the University of Guelph, College of Veterinary Medicine in 2008 for his devotion to educating veterinary students. He was recruited in 2009 to his current site at the College of Veterinary Medicine, Western University of Health Sciences in California as an assistant professor and he now is a tenured full professor.

His lab investigates the foot from gross anatomy and microanatomy (e.g. histology), diagnostic imaging (e.g. radiography and MRI) and biomechanical standpoints. Over the past several years he has designed and led many research projects on the horse hoof, training students and publishing original research in peer-reviewed veterinary journals, including 14 original research articles on equine podiatry. He’s presented at over 2 dozen veterinary conferences. In 2019, he received the Innovation Champion Award for creating digital 3D and virtual reality (VR) models of the equine foot, which allows students to better understand its complicated structures.

The International Horseshoeing Hall of Fame was established in 1992 to honor farriers around the world who have made significant contributions to the profession. The International Equine Veterinarian Hall of Fame was established in 1997 to honor veterinarians who have contributed to the knowledge and recognition of proper hoof care for horses. Current Hall of Fame members vote on inductees each year. Nominations are now being accepted for both Halls of Fame.