Articles by Craig Trnka

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2023 Mail-In Deadline Coming Up

The 2023 Summit Mail-In Forging Exercise will earn a winner a buckle and all participants a T-shirt for making this horseshoe

The 2023 International Hoof-Care Summit celebrates its 20th anniversary at this January’s event. This is also the ninth Summit Mail-In Forging Exercise, so I wanted to create a good challenge of solid forging elements for you. But as much as I want to push you out of your comfort zone with this exercise, I also want to create a practical shoe that you might find useful under the right circumstances. This is the perfect marriage: challenging your skill set and a finished product that can help a horse with a specific problem. Of course, we never want to apply a shoe that isn’t suitable for the horse or its needs.



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A Practical Forging Challenge that Helps with Dropped Fetlocks

The 2023 Summit Mail-In Forging Exercise will earn a winner a buckle and all participants a T-shirt for making this horseshoe

The 2023 International Hoof-Care Summit celebrates its 20th anniversary at this January’s event. This is also the ninth Summit Mail-In Forging Exercise, so I wanted to create a good challenge of solid forging elements for you. But as much as I want to push you out of your comfort zone with this exercise, I also want to create a practical shoe that you might find useful under the right circumstances.


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2021 Forging Challenge Tests Skill, Delivers Practicality

Assess and improve on your forging skills while making a hind to help a horse that may pull a front shoe
For the 2021 Summit Mail-In Forging Exercise, I wanted to bring back concave as part of the challenge. When I choose a shoe for this contest, I want something that will test skill, but also something that is practical. The overall steps should have lessons practical for your everyday work, and hopefully have a shoe that can benefit some horses on your books.
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2020 IHCS Mail-In Forging Exercise: Sidebone Shoe

For the 2020 International Hoof-Care Summit, VICTORY is sponsoring another Summit Mail-In Forging Exercise
For the 2020 Summit Mail-In Forging Exercise, I’ve selected a sidebone shoe. In the years that I’ve made the shoes for this contest, I’ve had two goals.
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Skill And Practicality Meet For Concave Challenge

For this year’s Summit Mail-In Forging Exercise, this concave shoe with clips and stud holes will test you with plenty of elements

A frequent criticism of contest shoes is that they often lack practical use in everyday shoeing. Although I will argue that the lessons learned in making any shoe are transferable to your work, this criticism remains.


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Straight Bar Shoe Delivers New Challenge

For this year’s Summit Mail-In Exercise, the goal is to test your skills with a practical shoe with applications for any footcare practice
Sponsored by VICTORY A perception among some people about competition shoes is that there seldom is a practical use for certain shoes on this list. Take a roadster hind for example.
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AFA Bulletin

It All Comes Down To The Horse

AFA members need to remember and capitalize on what they do best
In an election year, there is always much unrest and many questions in the back of people’s minds as to the future of the American Farrier’s Association (AFA).
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Craig Trnka Seeks AFA Presidency

New Mexico farrier running as write-in Candidate
I was urged to run for president of the American Farriers Association (AFA) by members who have great concern for the future of the AFA. Hopefully, in this statement, I can make our concerns known.
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