Having grown up on a cattle ranch in Colorado, Sam Zalesky, CJF, was fascinated by horseshoeing at an early age. Stan Auringer, the farrier who shod the horses on the ranch, was one of Zalesky’s earliest mentors and someone he still speaks with today.

After earning an associate degree from Eastern Wyoming College and graduating from Heartland Horseshoeing School in 2011, he moved to Wyoming with his family. There, he developed his skills as a welder while working in a coal mine, where his work schedule allowed him to develop the clientele for his farrier business, which stretched between Wyoming and Colorado.

Within a year of graduation, Chris Gregory, CJF, ASF, FWCF, recommended Zalesky to Raul Bras, DVM, CJF, for a position at Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Ky. The connection between Gregory and Bras was the catalyst of his career, Zalesky says.

“It was great to be in a place where it was the end all be all of ‘we can’t figure this out,’” he says. “I got to work on so many unique horses in dire and difficult situations, things that a lot of farriers only see a few times in their career.”

During the 8 years that Zalesky worked at Rood & Riddle, he was named a 2015 Rising Shoeing Star. Though this honor is a mark of early success, he knew there was always room to grow and more to understand.

“That’s what I love about farriers. We always want more,” he says. “Farriery has been steeped in tradition for thousands of years, but there’s no set way to shoe horses, and there’s always something more to learn.”

Behind the scenes, people like Bras, Scott Morrison, DVM, APF, and Scott Fleming, DVM, CF, were pivotal to Zalesky’s career. He builds his business and continues to excel by developing a network of farriers to lean on and get advice from. Because Zalesky solely shoes sport horses, he’s often traveling and explaining horseshoeing to strangers on a plane, which he says makes farriery look very niche on the outside. However, from the inside, there’s a wide world of people, techniques and schools of thought to explore.

“I’m very fortunate that I’ve been able to associate with good people who have stood beside me,” he says. “I don’t like the word luck. I think it downplays all the hard work that everybody puts into their job.”

In October 2021, Zalesky left Rood & Riddle to pursue a farrier business of his own. Shoeing only English sport horses, Zalesky and his apprentice Jacob Sharpe — who Zalesky predicts will be a future Rising Shoeing Star — are based in Lexington, Ky., for the summer and split their time between Wellington and Ocala, Fla., during the winter. They also travel across the Northeast and west coast.

Because Zalesky doesn’t advertise his business, his clients, often with valuable horses, are built off of word of mouth — and frequently off reciprocation. Helping an injured farrier or on a difficult horse means someone might do that for him down the road, which has been instrumental in developing his career.

When looking for apprentices, Zalesky looks at character over skill. Good horsemanship is paramount because it often translates to people skills. The other half of the battle is just showing up, he says, and caring about the horses and your fellow farrier. When Ian Curry, one of Zalesky’s biggest mentors, was injured by a horse, the amount of support he received to keep his business running was impressive and truly humbling for Zalesky. When he returned to shoeing a year later, his business was bigger than ever thanks to his community.

Communication is ultimately what opened doors for Zalesky. He chose Heartland Horseshoeing School because Gregory was the instructor who communicated with him the best, something that worked in Zalesky’s favor. Not only did it open career doors for him, it gave him lifelong friendships.

“I have had a lot of doors open for me,” he says because of the relationships he’s built and the skills he’s developed throughout his career. “And I’m happy to push other people toward those doors if they’d like to go.”

Looking ahead, Zalesky can’t see a future where he isn’t shoeing horses.

“Shoeing horses is an art,” he says. “It’s how I express myself. If there were a calling for me, I think this is it.”