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What Are Farrier And Blacksmith Competitions?

Throughout my career as a farrier, I have been fortunate to compete at and judge many farrier and blacksmith competitions. Consequently, many clients have asked questions like:

• What is a farrier and blacksmith competition? 
• How do they work?
• Why do you go to them?
• Is it a real thing or just an excuse for a holiday?

In this blog, I will try to answer these questions and explain just what these contests are, so you can have a clearer idea of how they work, and why some farriers choose to go to them. 

What Is A Farrier And Blacksmith Competition? 

Just like any competition, farrier and blacksmith competitions are an opportunity to compete against your peers. No different to a golf tournament or a horse competition for that matter. It is simply a contest to determine the winner and placegetters.  

How Does Entering Work?

Most farrier and blacksmith competitions are made up of several events. Most of the time, competitors can choose to enter one or all the events in their particular category! 

Unlike other forms of contest, most new competitors don’t usually start with the Australian Open or the Olympics. In farrier contests, new competitors may start in the Novice or Intermediate category prior to competing in the Open category. However, highly qualified and more experienced farriers may choose a higher category due to their skill set. 

What Makes Blacksmith Competitions Different?

One thing that most people get confused about is that they assume a blacksmith is just a person who makes horseshoes! This is far from correct! Horseshoe-making is the realm of the farrier and always has been. The farrier should possess the skills and knowledge required to make and fit a horseshoe properly without harming the horse. 

Blacksmithing events and contests are usually designed to improve and display skills like tool making or artistic blacksmithing. They may also incorporate skills acquired by farriers or just blacksmiths who don’t shoe horses at all. This allows for the flow of skills which both farriers and blacksmiths can utilise in their self-development.

How Do Farrier Competitions And Blacksmith Competitions Work?

All events are time-based, so a time limit is set to correspond with both the category and the task required. For example, Novice competitors will have a longer time and an easier task, as opposed to Open competitors who would have a very highly skilled task to perform in a very tight time frame. 

The time restriction enables the judge to separate the place-getters, encouraging competitors to be more efficient and better at managing the time allowed.  

What Are The Different Types Of Competition Events?

Horseshoeing Events

During a horseshoeing event, competitors must allow time for the judge to interim judge their work, this means the judge will:

• Judge the foot preparation and give a score out of 10
• Judge how well they have made the shoe for the horse
• Judge how well the shoe fits
• Judge the finished job

Each area is worth 10 points, for a total of 40 points per foot. In some cases, organisers may change the criteria, but this is made clear when the contest rules are advertised. 

Individual Shoeing Events

These events will sometimes require the competitor to shoe two feet, however, at large contests, competitors may be required to only shoe one foot and make a specimen shoe of the judge’s choice. Each program will vary as the organisers see fit and will be clearly outlined as to what is required.

Larger competitions around the world, with large numbers of farriers, usually see the implementation of one foot with a specimen shoe. The reason for this is to reduce the number of horses required, which is a logistical nightmare to organise.  

Team Shoeing Events

These events are judged in the same manner and can be two or three man teams depending on the competition program. They usually involve the team shoeing a heavier breed, such as a draught horse. The heavy horse team shoeing is a huge crowd favourite at any contest. 

Forging Events (Horseshoe Making)

These events see competitors trying to make two horseshoes which mimic specimen shoes made by the judge. This event, although timed, is judged after completion, unlike shoeing events where the judge must score the work throughout the event. 

The judging criteria in these events are made clear, so competitors can see the particular features the judge is looking for and achieve maximum points.  

Judge’s Choice Events  

The Judge’s Choice event is an event where competitors have no prior knowledge of what the judge’s specimen horseshoe is until shortly before the event. Like forging, the competitors will try to mimic the best copy possible of the judge’s shoe, in the time allowed without any prior warning or practice.  

Eagle Eye Events  

An Eagle Eye event is similar to a Judge’s Choice event except in this case the judge will pre-dress a horse’s foot rather than make a specimen shoe! Each competitor will then get a 7-second look at the trimmed foot.

They cannot touch or measure the foot, only look at it, and then they are required to estimate the amount of steel required and make a shoe that fits that foot, with the best fit winning.

Blacksmithing Events  

As touched on above, there are variations of blacksmithing events. Most times competitors are required to mimic a tool or item made by the judge, with specifics varying greatly. It may be a farrier tool, set of tongs, or similar, with the aim being to replicate the judge’s specimen much like in a forging event.

Other blacksmithing events may include making an artistic item in a specified time, with most contests having a home exhibit class. This class allows competitors to make an item in their own time at their own shop and exhibit their work for all to see. This produces some wonderful work from both farriers as well as blacksmiths.  

Why Go To A Farrier Competition Or Blacksmith Competition? 

So why do farriers go to these contests? Isn’t there plenty of horses to shoe at home? 

One of the inherent problems with being a farrier is that you work alone most of the time! This can trap us into just going through the paces and not improving, basically getting stuck in the everyday grind.

Farriery is not an easy job. Not only is it physically hard, but you also rarely have contact with other farriers in a positive way, as most in your area are competing for the same work. 

Farrier competitions give us the chance to meet other like-minded people trying to improve their skills. By competing at these events, you pick up comments from not only your peers but also the highly skilled judges who will be only too happy to help you improve.

Skill Improvement And Expansion

In addition, participating in a competition helps you to learn to manage your time and efficiency when shoeing and opens your mind to other ideas and ways of doing things that you may not have thought of before. 

I’m yet to go to a farrier /blacksmith comp as a competitor or judge and come home not having learned something. 

Networking And Social Fulfillment

You will always see people doing things differently. You will also definitely make new friends in the industry. Friends who you will have for life, thus enabling you to talk to them and bounce ideas off them if you’re having problems with a case, be it a horse or client.

Going to farrier competitions will open your eyes to new ideas, new people, new skills and perhaps like myself, the opportunity to travel overseas and meet farriers from all over the world, who face the same problems you do. Farriery around the world is the same and we all have something in common with each other, we shoe horses.  

Higher Education

Last of all, you may wish to embark on further education or higher qualifications. For this reason alone, farrier competitions are a great path, the skills required and the attention to detail time management and self-assessment are essential to complete higher education. 

Where Do They Run Farrier And Blacksmith Competitions?

Farrier competitions are run all over the world, including Australia and New Zealand. There are a number of local comps run in NSW, SA, QLD, VIC, WA and both the North and South Island of NZ. Information can be accessed via social media or by contacting one of the state farriers’ associations.

The largest competition in Australia is the Australasian Shoeing Championships at EKKA in Brisbane, however, each state will run their own state championships, and take turns hosting the National Championship.

Is There Money In It? 

There is prize money in it, but it's not a lot unless you win the world championships at Spruce Meadows in Calgary Canada! You won’t get rich going to farrier or blacksmith comps but the benefits far outweigh the cost involved.

It’s not until you embark on this journey that you realise what you have been missing by not being there. As I say in some lectures, being a farrier is like being a frog in a well! The frog looked up and saw a light from the darkness of the bottom of the well! The frog will never know what the light is until he climbs up and finds out what the light is! Don’t allow yourself to become the frog in the well! 

I hope this blog has explained some of the questions about Farrier and Blacksmith competitions. I look forward to seeing you at a comp somewhere, you don’t know what you’re missing if you’ve never been to one. 

All the Best Dean Lewis - CJF, AWCF