This year marks the 50th anniversary (and 32nd year at Lessiter Media) of American Farriers Journal covering the farrier trade. We’re asking hoof-care professionals for a few words to include in a “From the Audience” section of our coverage – in the December edition.

International Horseshoeing Hall of Famer Esco Buff, PhD, APF-I, CF, of Clearwater, Fla., shares his thoughts on the milestones of farriery over the past half-century.

After leaving home as a young man, I went to work at the UU Bar Ranch in New Mexico. While working in the wrangling department, the vet-farrier persuaded the ranch to send me to farrier school to help him or take over his job.

I went to New Mexico State Farrier School under Mogan Rasmussen, graduating June 28, 1974. Farrier school back then was only 4 weeks long, and we were trimming and shoeing horses on the first day. After farrier school, I went on to work at the ranch doing the horses. A couple of years later, I left the ranch and worked on my own in New Mexico.

Fortunately, early on in my career, I met two retired farriers on one day, and the next, a third retired farrier. One was working at Rosie’s Diner in the back cooking and cleaning. Another was working at Kit Carson gas station pumping gas, back when we used to pump gas for people. The other one was driving a bus. In conversation with them, they all told me they were too broke to not work anymore and their bodies too broke to do farriery. I thought about that for a while, and it changed my entire career.

In the late 1970s, I had the opportunity to meet Burney Chapman. He came over to our railhead where our horses were. The ranch ran between 3,000- and 5,000-head of horses. I got to intern or apprentice under Burney whenever he came to do laminitis work.

Solitary Work

I used farrier work to put myself through school to pay for an associate’s, bachelor’s, master’s degrees and continued with a PhD. So, at the beginning of my career in 1974, working for the ranch was secluded. My training afterward was done by the vet-farrier. As I left the ranch working in the community, I realized that if it was secluded where I was on the ranch, even though I was learning from my mentor, it was solitary and secluded out in the real world.

I’d often show up at a barn and start working, and if there was another farrier in the barn, I’d be yelled at to leave the barn. A lot of farriers wouldn’t allow another farrier at the barn at the same time. They didn’t want others to see how they worked. Having conversations with different farriers, nine out of 10 did not want to talk to you or even have you watching what they did. That started to change a little later in the late ’70s, and it’s been slowly changing throughout time. So, a lot of my work was in isolation.

I would get back with my mentor at times to ask questions and follow up. There was no real sharing of knowledge, just the old horseshoeing books. I went to an early American Farrier’s Association (AFA) Convention, I believe it was the late ’70s, and it was neat to see. I don’t think there were more than 50 people there, if that. It was neat to see people start getting together and sharing knowledge. I became an AFA member but didn’t renew my dues after a year. Years later, I rejoined the AFA under a different number.

Shoes & Nails

When I started off on the ranch, we were using a lot of Diamond Bronco shoes, some Satellites. We also were using a Japanese brand of horseshoe, I believe Izumi. Later when I was out on my own, I continued with the Diamonds. We got them into straight stock punched and fullered, and they would come in lengths, and then we would turn them and make the front or hind shoe that we wanted.

St. Croix came along later, as did Pioneer, Breckenridge and Anvil, and these pre-formed shoes were making life a lot easier. We didn’t have to fire up the coal forge all the time. That’s all we had in the back of our pickup was a coal forge. We’d light it in the morning, get it going and tamp it down, that way we could fire it back up at a ranch or farm. There’s a whole unique experience outside the barn, seeing your portable coal forge bellowing up smoke.

We didn’t have a lot of choices in nails. We’d use Capewell. The Japanese shoe company also had nails that we’d use. I remember Mustad coming out in the late ’70s, I think, with one of the first slim nails. I think they were in 5 City Heads, I’m not sure, but I remember that being a big help with a lot of our thin-walled horses. I’m not sure if the nails were cold-rolled or hot-rolled. We had a lot of shearing back then, more than we do now, for sure.

When the first portable gas forges came out that Ken Mankel started promoting, many of us couldn’t afford them. We made our own. But, that revolutionized things. It made life a whole lot easier to shoe horses with a portable gas forge. 

We didn’t have adhesives or acrylics. I don’t think adhesives came around until sometime in the ’80s and acrylics in the ’90s. Anytime we needed stuff like that, we usually went to the hardware store and bought marine products. They may not have been the best choice to use for a horse’s feet, or even to use, but they would do at times.

Advancing Technology & Education

Looking back over the 50 years since graduating in 1974, there have been so many changes in our industry. It reminds me of talking with my great-grandfather, who was born in 1883 and got to see the Industrial Revolution with introduction of cars and all sorts of tools being made. A lot of defining moments probably have come from the fact that we’ve gone from complete isolation to sharing a lot of knowledge — maybe oversharing now, getting more data than we can digest, seeing more research being done to prove or disprove some things that we’ve been doing over time.

Certainly, having much better shoes available, better fitted to our feet, having more knowledge to better care for our feet, and having better choices of shoes and nails. Things like adhesives and acrylics have come around so we can direct and indirectly glue shoes onto horses’ feet more successfully. There are plastic and rubber shoe choices, as well. There are different metals from aluminum, titanium and copper alloy. It’s a night and day difference looking back at how we tend to horses’ feet now, as opposed to then.

As I look back, we have a distorted view sometimes. It reminds me of when I visited my childhood home. I had visions of the size of my room and the distance from the back of the garage to a willow tree to the road. That distance seemed like 100 feet. I remember my room was huge. It seemed like it was 14 square. Years later, I took my wife back to my childhood home when it was up for sale. My bedroom was 6 feet by 8, not 14 square. The distance from the back of the garage to the willow tree to the road was more like 20 feet, not 100 feet.

As I look back on the farrier world, there are some things that seem like today we are in much better shape. We have more knowledge and better understanding. Then there are some things that I’m not sure if they are distorted, but it seemed like more people had a better basic knowledge of farrier work than I see now.

I don’t know if that’s factual or if it’s distorted because we know more now. But just trying to think of my own horse, some of our ranch horses that we were shoeing, we did not have a lot of problems. Their health was better. They were exercised and worked. Their feet were pretty good. We did not have the amount of hoof distortions that I see now.

Laminitis was “fairly simple.” It seemed to be caused by things like retained placenta, road founder, too much cold water, colicky situations, or the horse getting in the grain bin. Once the insult was removed, a lot of them recovered fairly quickly. We would take them down to the creek, tie them up, and leave them for a day or two. If they lived, they lived.

Of course, we see very little of that today. Ninety percent of what I do is with laminitic horses. It has to be a whole systemic issue with metabolic issues, insulin resistance, equine metabolic syndrome, pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction (or equine Cushing’s disease), Potomac Horse Fever, things like that.

Our horses lived in their mid-20s and were fairly active. As time went on, I also saw the industry change more from working and showing horses to a lot more pleasure horses. Things are fairly expensive nowadays to own a horse, especially with board and stuff.

We have more of a community where we can share information among farriers, whether you agree or disagree. The AFA Conventions and the International Hoof-Care Summit have been great industry leaders in enhancing education. Having a trade journal, American Farriers Journal, has been helpful. Having access to the internet, which didn’t exist for most people until the 1990s. We've gone from only having FM radios and brick cellular phones that were like lugging a backpack around, as well as pagers, to now having instant access to the internet, phone calls and communications with each other and looking things up has certainly made life a whole lot easier and more connected.

I can’t pinpoint one thing in the farrier industry that has made a difference. It’s the gradual growth of everything, from laying on your belly to crawling to standing to running. Radiology has changed quite a bit from not even being able to see radiographs — just getting an onion skin tracing of the radiograph, which is how my founder forms got invented. So, when we were looking at them, I could start taking measurements.

We have a better understanding of diseases, syndromes, lameness issues and other issues. We have better collaboration with the veterinarians. Most of our vets back then were farm vets, who dealt with every kind of animal. It’s sad to say that a lot of that seems to not exist anymore. Overall, my goat and sheep people have a harder time finding a veterinarian who understands them. Bovine has always had veterinarians working with them. But for equine, it’s nice to see more specialized veterinarian care over time. We’ve gone from no collaboration, just like with farriers, to now sharing information and learning from each other.

Leadership & Mentors

We have seen our trade journal go from Henry Heymering’s couple-page newsletter to a thicker trade journal sharing information, opening up the world so we can communicate with other farriers and learn from around the world, including the European Farriers Journal, as well. The internet has connected us so we can talk with farriers from other countries and share knowledge. Social media allows us to post cases and educate the community, as well as learn.

The one thing that’s lacking is leadership and mentors. I remember a lot of well-known farrier leaders and mentors in the late ’70s, and ’80s. Over the years, we’ve seen that diminish through natural causes, as well as retirement. More are leaving than coming in. We have some industry leaders now, but far fewer than I think were available during my time in the ’70s and ’80s. It’s a sad statement.

We have more access to the internet and knowledge and sharing, but I’d like to see more farriers stepping up and out, being leaders, so we can share information — whether you agree or disagree with information. I think our industry could use more of that.

I like panel conversations with the Hall of Famers and older timers where they share knowledge, as well as classroom lectures, where they’re sharing knowledge so people can get different opinions. Not everyone writes articles and have a chance to lecture, but I’d like to see that. I like the up-and-coming Rising Shoeing Star that AFJ does because it’s pointing out new farriers and motivating them to do more in the industry, as well.