NEWS AND NOTES

March 2, 2012

The farrier community lost one of its icons this past Wednesday, February 29. J. Scott Simpson has been a farrier since 1953, a highly respected member and former officer of the American Farriers Association, was the co-chairman of the Registry of Professional Farrier Instructors, was elected to the International Horseshoeing Hall Of Fame in 1997, and didn’t restrict his career to a shoeing barn.

Since 1979, Simpson has instructed farrier training courses at several schools: Montana State University, Walla Walla College in Washington State and his Northwest Horseshoeing School.

He is also a highly respected author, with titles like The Mechanics of Shoeing Gaited Horses, Contemporary Horsemanship and How to Build Horseshoeing Tools & Equipment. He was also written articles for several farrier publications, including American Farriers Journal.

Simpson’s dedication to farriery was highlighted in the foreward of How to Build Horsehoeing Tools & Equipment:

“When physical problems drew the curtains on a full-time, professional horseshoeing practice, Scott turned his attention to what he had been doing all along — helping others to learn to perform and/or appreciate the art of the horseshoer. Through his years of private practice, he was always willing to take the time to study out a particular problem whether it was his or his friend's. This pooling of knowledge and skill almost always provided a successful technique or process needed to get the job done … Through his years of informal and formal teaching, Scott had the opportunity to reflect upon and refine those facets of his profession that were most troublesome to him in his earlier years, and those he saw as problems for his horseshoeing school students.”

-Walter E. Taylor
President, AFA, 1979

Here is a link to the last story he wrote for AFJ, "What A Drag." Originally published in 1998, this was the ninth installment of his gait fault series.