25th International Farriery Competition

The International Farriery Competition started on Thursday 16th September, eleven teams from around the world came to the Forge on Stoneleigh Park. On the Thursday the teams were able to have a final practice at making the shoes before the competition started on the Friday. On the practice day the judges, Derek Gardner and Andrew Reader-Smith, gave demonstrations so that all competitors knew what was expected of them. At the end of the day a team managers meeting took place, the shoes that the judges had made were discussed and competitors were able to ask questions.

On Friday the Individual Competition and the Team Gas Forging competition took place. The Individual competition started at 8.00am, the Team Gas Forging did not start until 10.00am. This enabled some of the competitors to recover from the night before, however this was not the reason for the later start time.

The Individual Competition was highly contested, only a few points separated the top eight competitors in the class. The result was;

Position	Name	Points Scored
8th	Steven Beane	39.7
7th	Mark Watson	39.8
6th	D P Smith	40.4
5th	Joe Bryan	40.7
4th	Billy Crothers	41.4
3rd	Andy MArtin	42.0
2nd	DArren Bazin	42.8
1st	David Varini	44.2
Best Prepared Foot	David Varini
Best Shod Foot	David Varini
Best Specimen Shoe	David Varini

With the Individual Competition and the Team Gas Forging completed the teams went back to the hotel in Coventry for a Karaoke evening and more socialising. The draw for the second part of the competition was made during the evening.

The teams arrived at the Forge early on Saturday morning ready to compete in the second part of the Team Competition. The teams had to shoe a horse, each competitor shod one foot and made one specimen. Team members worked in pairs, the pairs were given two hours to make and fit the shoes.

In the evening the teams returned to the Hotel for the Prize Giving Presentation and Dinner. The top six teams were;

Position	Team	Total Points
6th	British Army	182.9
5th	United states of America	185.6
4th	Ireland	188.7
3rd	Scotland	194.8
2nd	Wales	199.1
1st	England	202.2

England win the International Farriery Competition for the second year running.

The picture left contains the three wise men; Gary Darlow, Cecil Swan and Carl Bettison while talking as usual about farriery.

The Association would like to thank all the sponsors, suppliers and helpers that made this competition possible. It is important for the continuing success of competitions that all sponsors are supported by farriers.

Main Sponsors


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