England farriery team victorious at the BFBA International Championships

The British Farriers and Blacksmiths Association (BFBA) 40th International Team Horseshoeing Championships took place over the weekend of 21st and 22nd September. England’s Senior and Apprentice Teams both secured wins in their respective Championships with England’s Steven Beane securing the Individual Championship.

15 senior teams and 8 apprentice farrier teams from across the world undertook a series of shoemaking and shoeing classes. The seniors, judged by Jay Tovey FWCF (England) and Jake Engler (USA) produced “work to the highest level”. The apprentices were judged by Kevin Balfour DipWCF (Scotland). England’s senior farriery team (Steven Beane, Ben Casserly, Liam Collins, Alex Collier, George Rogerson) and England’s apprentice farriery team (Dominic Welsh, Henry Allison, Rob Hawthorn, Tom Pigford, Rob Mulqueen) both produced consistently high scores to successfully win with reserve places going to Ireland for the seniors and Wales for the apprentices. Steven Beane was “delighted with the win. This competition is one of the best in the world and, as a team, me and the ‘young guns’ have pushed each other to be the best and, just as importantly, had fun along the way.”

The Horseshoeing Championships are a feature of the BFBA’s ‘Farrier Focus’; the UK’s largest farriery event featuring two days of lectures and demonstrations from world class clinicians and a trade show with in excess of 50 leading manufacturers and suppliers. 

Over the course of the weekend just over 1000 farriers, apprentices, blacksmiths, veterinary physiotherapists, barefoot trimmers and nutritionists listened to presentations from Simon Curtis FWCF HonAssoc (RCVS), David Hall DipWCF BSc Hons, Grant Moon AWCF, Katie Lawrence V.Phys MIRVAP, PGCert, Vet Ed (RVC), Chris Powell FWCF, Dan Stern DipWCF, LS-HMC CBT CFP CFGP CLS and Wayne Preece FWCF in addition to watching practical demonstrations and exploring the impressive tradeshow. 

Huw Dyer AWCF, President of the BFBA, is “delighted with the event and would like to thank everyone who played a part. From the sponsors and exhibitors to the speakers, competitors and attendees this was our largest event to date and we are very excited about beginning work on next year”.