While working on this 35th Anniversary issue of American Farriers Journal, I've been paging through back issues. At times I can almost feel the heat of the forges and hear the distant echo of hammer ringing on steel.

Eight-member panel to help plot course as AFJ moves ahead

The May/June 2007 edition of American Farriers Journal had an interesting article by Nicholas Denson. Although it is refreshing to read contributions from someone who is thinking, I would like to make some observations as to the accuracy of some statements.

From 1915 to 1981, Illinois was I believe the first of only two or three states to have a licensing requirement for farriers. One of the requirements for a license was having completed a 3-year apprenticeship. Most farriers I spoke with who were affected by the licensing law had nothing good to say about it. They felt that it was unfairly applied and discriminatory. If you were friends with the examiner and/or they needed more farriers at that time, you had a much easier time of passing the test and being licensed than if you were not friends with the examiner or if they did not need more farriers — no matter how good you were.