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There were times during a state horseshoe forging competition near Almelund last weekend that you couldn’t tell the men from the horses.  They literally had to lean on each other to make things work; forelegs intertwined with thighs as hands cradling hooves became one. The belly of the horse had to rest against the farrier’s shoulder like it belonged there.  

The idea in this regional competition was to make horseshoes from scratch in a timed competition-- with farriers dashing from the leaping flames of the portable hearth, to his anvil, to the horse and back again.  Over and over, farriers adjusted something amiss his eye picked up while fitting the shoe to the hoof.  Often a competitor would just get the shoe blazing orange hot, and start over.  All the while an event official called out 15 minutes, 10 minutes, five minutes and finally ‘that’s time.’

Ryan Hawley, a local farrier in the competition, said he enters events like this to improve.  Judges give good advice about the finished product and about what the shoe lacks.  The hoof prep filing out knicks and rough edges and the shoe fit are part of the package too.

Shoes begin with a straight strip of horseshoe iron.  The midpoint gets heated and the metal is bent and the arch of the shoe begins.

One contest required dimensions and the shoe was to made to those specifications.

In other contests the horses were real troopers;  having been randomly drawn by each farrier to be fitted for a custom shoe the animals must stand still amidst the chaos...not to mention the noise echoing all around them.  

(Thanks go to Morgan Expressions, in Hugo and horse-lady Karyl Hylle.)

To get yourself a good name in the farrier business, your shoes have to become one with the foot of the animal;  trimmed, neatly fitted and the exact same shape as the hoof. And the whole experience should not leave an upset horse in its wake.

“It’s an art, everybody’s got a different method,” says arena owner and host for this MNFA contest Tim Wampfler.   “You can have two different farriers look at a lame horse and solve the problem two different ways.  And, every horse is unique.”

Wampler’s Finish Line Farms had the honor of providing the event site this year for the first time.  The arena,  with its opaque arched cover,  lends a cathedral quality to the goings-on and when the sun finally broke through Saturday, diffuse light illuminated the very air inside the arena, making for the perfect venue.

Hawley Farrier Service, Ryan Hawley’s business, is just a couple miles away. West Wisconsin has a number of farriers and they all come together in a brotherhood of the forging association.  Tim McPhee,  the judge, hails from New Hampshire.  

Both Hawley and Wampfler got their training at MN School of Horseshoeing. From the time they graduate,  a novice farrier will work at an apprentice-type position with a veteran farrier until they feel they can go out on their own.

The MN Forging Assoc. competition had about 18 contestants who arrived Friday, trying to get the best judging results. The top five went on into the Saturday competitions, and a banquet was held at Shafer Township Hall that night.

 There is also a teamwork, two-man event making draft horse sized shoes. Hawley partnered up with Alan Rynda for this. (See photos.)

The farriers were going 100 percent throughout their events, metal striking metal , every surface on the anvil utilized and no movement wasted. The observer couldn’t help but recite internally the great poem honoring “The Village Blacksmith” under the spreading chestnut tree, the Longfellow classic running through her head.

The poem speaks to an image of all mankind, wielding tools at their various anvil of life’s profession, all of us dependent on the flaming forge of life where “our fortunes must be wrought.”  

This mystique of the farrier really has staying power.  Next year maybe they ought to sell tickets.

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