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Member
Posts: 23
| IMO having a certification, whether it be with AFA, BWFA, etc... Shows that your farrier is doing what they can to continue their education. Passing the certifications is hard, and takes a lot of time to accomplish.
That's not to say that there aren't a lot of excellent farriers that have no certification. But, to me (and I am a farrier, and married to one too so I am a little biased maybe) it shows a continued commitment to the trade, and pushing your skills to be the best you can possibly be.
I wouldn't let anyone who's not certified under my horses, but it's easy for me to say. | |
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 434
Location: Northwest Florida | I've actually never chosen a farrier based on certification. I go by reputation. | |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 324
| I honestly couldn't tell you if my farrier has any certification or not, and he's been my farrier for years. I picked him based on his reputation. He is the only one I have found that I trust to shoe my babies.
You can go take a course and do the work and they'll give you piece of paper, but that doesn't mean you know what you're doing.
But you can't fake experience and reputation!! | |
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  Damn Yankee
Posts: 12390
 
Location: Somewhere between raising hell and Amazing Grace | Certificates don't mean as much to me as reputations. However, even with reputations, I stay level minded knowing some people will never be happy no matter how good the work is.
What is important to me is how educated and good the farrier is. A farrier can be top notch and highly educated without being certified. As for certificates, there are different ones, and certain ones automatically tell you that that person has gone out of his way to get educated. But at the same time that doesn't necessarily mean that person is a great farrier. You can have all the education in the world, but you still need maturity, capabilities, and desires.
I have had both certified and non certified work on my horses. My best farrier wasn't certified as far as I knew, and several others were and still are great farriers without being certified. I have had good certified ones as well.
That being said....I got sick and tired of going through farriers and having horses sored, crippled, etc etc....(we move alot becuase of the military so have to change a lot). After my last experience here in Missouri, I quit riding, pulled all shoes, and gave up.
My husband got inspired at that time. He only did a 2 week farrier course, but apprenticed under good guys here, and he is now my full time farrier. At first he did make mistakes, as expected, and we just worked through them. Now I am so unbelievably grateful because my horses feet look better then they ever have, the guy sticking nails in them has just as much invested as I do, and he cares as much as I do. My husband has no certifications. He does however attend clinics, works under more educated farriers, and is furthering his education. He studied anatomy and conformation for years before he decided to learn to shoe. At this time, he only shoes my horses. He trims/shoes for two friends as well for free (they help us out in return) but will not shoe for money because he feels he doesn't know enough to charge for it yet. | |
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Miss Southern Sunshine
Posts: 7427
Location: South Central Florida | Not very important. Certifications are only as "important" as the certificating organization. I had 1 farrier for 24 years. When I changed farriers a little over 3 years ago, I interviewed 4 farriers. I watched people run locally, asked questions of friends and paid attention. LOVE they guy that is taking care of my horses now and I have no idea where he was trained or if he is certified by anyone. | |
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