Dr. Hannah Galantino-Homer has been appointed senior research investigator of the newly created laminitis research initiative at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine. She will serve as a leading investigator in Penn Vet’s laminitis research efforts.

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.