Facing an examination of their educational programs by the American Farrier’s Association and stung by criticism in an AFA task force report on farrier education, the majority of private farrier school owners in the United States have banded together in a new group called the American Farriers Education Council.

Among roughly 75 AFA members, educators, suppliers and non-members who attended the mid-September “open forum” sponsored by the American Farrier’s Association, nobody spoke in favor of regulating and licensing farriers. 

Faced with overwhelming opposition from its members, the American Farrier’s Association cancelled its plan to survey North American farrier schools and dropped any possibility that the organization might push for farrier registration and licensing.

I have been involved in farrier education for the past 40 years in America and throughout the world.

Newly revealed documents show that a plan for establishing standards for farrier education, testing and registration was largely developed by members of the Executive Committee of the American Farriers Association by late April 2004.

Even after obtaining the minutes of Excutive Committee meetings from the American Farrier’s Association, farrier Donald Jones of Pleasant Garden, N.C., learned little more about how the organization’s leadership prepared a proposal for standardized farrier training and registration or licensing.

AFTER A SURGE of controversy about its proposals on standardized farrier education and registration, the American Farrier’s Association has dismissed the original members of the Education/Registration Task Force who developed the plan and started looking for new members from inside and outside the AFA.

DURING THE American Farrier’s Association annual convention in Chattanooga, Tenn., in late February, members re-elected Bob Earle of Chino Valley, Ariz., as vice president and Walt Taylor of Albuquerque, N.M., as treasurer.

Dedicating a portion of the American Farrier’s Association convention to horse owners was apparently a good move, as record-breaking numbers attended the event in Chattanooga, Tenn., during late February.

Pointing to a need for increased professionalism and catching its own board of directors by surprise, the Executive Committee of the American Farrier’s Association and a task force it quietly created have proposed standardized education, testing and registration of farriers nationwide.