People don’t always have access to all of the information, or the information they find isn’t always accurate. With their horse owner clinic, the Midwest Horseshoeing School aimed to create a network between equine practitioners and horse owners to solidify the equine community in the area.

With education, the gap between the farrier’s knowledge and the horse owner’s understanding of hoof care and their expectations of one another begin to come closer together. Diego Almeida, an instructor at the school and one of the speakers at the clinic, says farriers were encouraged to bring their clients to the event.

“We want to clarify some points and get everyone on the same page,” he says. “I’ve noticed that some owners expect something from the farrier and we expect something from the horse owner and somewhere in the middle the communication and understanding gets lost. So in order to provide their clients with the necessary information, farriers were encouraged to bring their clients and learn along side them.

“I think increasing this mutual understanding makes everybody’s lives easier,” says Almeida, “If the client has more of an idea of what to look for and what to expect from farriers then they know how to appreciate our work a little better. This works the other way around as well. If we have clients who understand our work, we will be more willing to…