Editor’s Note: American Farriers Journal is celebrating its 50th anniversary and we’re reflecting on the relationships and partnerships we’ve forged, the milestones and the lessons we’ve learned along the way. In the famed Christmas movie “It’s a Wonderful Life,” protagonist George Bailey gets to see, via a dramatic intervention by an angel named Clarence Oddbody, what the world might have been like had he never been born. International Horseshoeing Hall of Fame member Doug Butler, founder of Butler Professional Farrier School, offers his thoughts on what the farrier industry would be like if AFJ never existed.

My first contact with Henry Heymering and American Farriers Journal (AFJ) was in early 1975. He had a great idea, but the first issues printed in Florida were rough and received some criticism from me and others, including the director of the surgical and consulting clinic of the veterinary hospital at Cornell University, where I was a graduate student.

I offered to help Henry, although I had never met him. I became the first to submit articles of interest to farriers. And then persuaded other farriers to submit articles. After struggling along for several years with four issues a year, he finally sold the Journal to Dean Laux in Massachusetts in 1980.

Doug Butler, founder of Butler Professional Farrier School in Crawford, Neb.,was field editor of American Farriers Journal from 1982-1987. Image: Doug Butler

The Laux Co. was a publisher of medical newsletters. In 1981, Fran Jurga Garvan was appointed editor, and I was appointed field editor of the AFJ. Eventually, Fran left to do her own FYI Newsletter, which later became a great magazine. While working together from 1982-1984, we won several first-place awards from American Horse Publications for general excellence. The Journal grew to nearly 100 pages with a 25% gain in ad pages and a 44% increase in ad revenue during this time. I was under contract with them from 1982-1987 and terminated in December 1986. After Fran left, Horst D. Dornbusch and then Susan Philbrick were interim editors before it was sold to Lessiter Publications in the early 1990s. During this time, there were several copyright issues and setbacks due to a lack of understanding of the laws.

The farrier industry is such a small niche that few outside it pay much attention to it. I believe American Farriers Journal has had a great positive effect on the industry I love. Without it, we would have continued to struggle along and have made very little progress. Although Henry had little experience in both the farrier and publishing industries, it was a great thing for him to be the first to try to remedy this void. I miss the interactions I had with him and Fran Jurga. Darrell Bruggick, a former AFJ editor, was also great. They deserve all the credit we can give.

Lessiter Publications has done a great job of extending the legacy of early pioneers and has been a great blessing to the farrier industry.