Hands-on workshops and product demonstrations at clinics are commonplace in the farrier industry. What’s more uncommon is getting a private lesson from a clinician. Sam Goderwis, a farrier from Burlington, Ky., won a day with Vettec’s clinician Tab Pigg at the 2012 International Hoof-Care Summit.

At the time, Goderwis was attending the Kentucky Horseshoeing School in Richmond. Typically, Kris Kibbey, another Vettec representative, will do product demonstrations and hands-on clinics with the students in the school’s 24-week and 36-week modules. Kibbey was already scheduled to work with this class in the summer, so Pigg joined him to provide Goderwis with a personal clinic.

“That way Sam wasn’t just one of the class,” explains Pigg. “He got his own personal mentor and one-on-one attention. It worked out well, because he wasn’t in that 24-week class and would not have participated in the Vettec clinic. He was not yet privileged to do this — until he won the door prize. He got to take advantage of this, ahead of his class.”

“It was a great learning experience for me,” says Goderwis. “Tab took the students to the classrooms, gave us an explanation of all the Vettec products available, their varied uses, how long it takes them to set-up and so on.

“I had never used any of these products before, so this gave me ideas about what I could use, especially for various purposes. The best part was having someone standing right there next to me who had been doing this for…