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 Doug Butler, PhD, CJF, FWCF, of Chadron, Neb., shares his thoughts on the hoof-care milestones over the past half-century.

Do you think about the future? Many of my students seem to have given it very little thought when they arrive. Shoeing has a great future! I encourage students to set goals for their lives and businesses. It’s difficult to imagine the future without setting goals. Many skills are needed to be a successful farrier.

Things have changed dramatically since I started in the farrier business 65 years ago. Horse numbers were at an all-time low. People who wanted to go into this field were considered foolish. There seemed to be little or no future in the horse or farrier business.

Farrier work was considered a poor choice when I was a youth. Today, learning a skill is often a better choice than attending a college where you are often exposed to professors who don’t have any real marketable skills except moving their mouth parts and expressing little common sense.

Preparation is Key. There have been great changes in the past few decades. Horses have become more of a source of recreation and care for our spirits than used for transportation or farm and ranch work. Manufacturers have made farrier work easier. What will the future hold? I believe it can be great with the right preparation. Talent combined with skill takes time and repetition.

Shoe making was once a necessary farrier skill. Now, most any configuration of shoes and pads can be readily obtained. Thus, the need for this skill can be said to be obsolete. However, skill practice makes one more efficient and your work more profitable.

Farriers have gone from the necessity of making our own tools to a time when every tool imaginable is readily available in the marketplace. This is good in some ways, but also means beginners don’t have to develop a skill that was once possessed by every farrier.

Farriers had to make appointments by landline telephones and work long hours to make a living. Bookkeeping was done on paper and the tax codes were simpler. Only a few of the top farriers made a six-figure gross income. Now, a farrier can do more in less time and can choose to spend more quality time with his or her family. However, farriers, especially beginning students, can also choose to become obsessed with readily available unproductive time wasters. Our cell phones can become addictive “leashes” without planning and discipline.

I fear for many in the present generation whose only skill is operating a cell phone to get the latest gossip from social media. While much can be learned from some clinicians, one-on-one contact can be much more effective when learning a skill.

Reading and writing are not emphasized enough in our public schools. So much fine knowledge practiced and published a century ago is lost to today’s generation. It can be argued this is a good thing in some fields but it’s certainly not so in farriery. It seems many who haven’t done their homework try to reinvent the horseshoe and take credit for it.

The ability to put in a day’s work is almost lost today. Much of this is due to distracted and unimaginative parents who don’t make opportunity for, nor expect their children to work. Farriery is hard work, and successful farriers must learn to love it. This can’t be achieved in front of a TV.

Horse breeders have improved the athletic ability and looks of most horse breeds. However, there’s been a trend toward over-selection for certain traits considered most desirable with soundness and foot quality being ignored. This has an upside in that the modern horse owner can’t get away with foot neglect and will always need a competent farrier.

Common Sense isn’t Common. Traditionally, farriers have enjoyed more freedom than most other professions. By ignoring lessons that are easily seen through a study of history, we seem to be moving closer to a socialistic society where elite power-hungry persons push for greater government control of every aspect of our lives.

Certainly, there has been a need to prevent cruelty to our animal friends. There have been unscrupulous practices that needed to be stopped, especially in the racing and show horse worlds. However, as in other areas of life, interference by government bureaucracies is frequently carried to excess.

Common sense doesn’t seem common anymore. Insane animal rights voices are listened to, and common sense is ignored, even criticized. In some areas, horses have lost their former agricultural classification and are considered pets. Animal care is under bureaucratic scrutiny to the point of being oppressive in some areas. Horse organizations have little lobbying power when they are not united.