If you’re on the lookout for time-tested trimming and shoeing techniques, you’ll have a hard time finding many that have stood up through time better than those featured in American Methods Of Horseshoeing.

The book was originally published in 1926, and the author, Frank Churchill, served as the chief shoeing instructor at the United States Cavalry School in Fort Riley, Kan., from 1907 to 1948.

American Methods is being rereleased as the newest addition to the Farrier Classics series from American Farriers Journal.

For more than 40 years, Churchill was considered the top farrier at what was regarded as perhaps the best horseshoeing school in the country.

Churchill was at the peak of his career and already had nearly two decades in the Cavalry job when American Methods was first published. He drew on that experience, adding his own ideas to build upon what was then the standard textbook, The Cavalry Horseshoers Technical Manual, for the military and many farrier schools around the country.

Farrier and horseshoeing historian Lee Liles describes American Methods as a “companion” book to the Cavalry’s Technical Manual, an earlier release in the Farrier Classics series. That makes American Methods a “must have” addition to the library of farriery collectors and historians.

But the book is far more than a piece of shoeing memorabilia.

Churchill’s responsibility was to train other farriers so U.S. soldiers could depend on their horses and remain ready and able to defend the country. Deep knowledge of the hoof and reliable methods…