Forging Brains Podcast

If you've been around for a while in this trade you more than like have heard of this week's guest, Travis Koons! Travis has resided in Southern California for most his life and most his career shoeing high level sport horses. You'll hear in this episode how Travis got his start into shoeing horses, his introduction to farrier competitions, the ups & downs he has faced throughout his career, and as well as the men and women that have been most influential to make a big impact in his life. He has also competed at the highest levels of farrier competitions in the world and done very well throughout. This is a longer episode, so buckle up, and enjoy!

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This past weekend I was at the FAWS (Farriers Association of Washington State) annual fall convention and contest, where Craig Trnka was our judge and clinician. So I figured what a perfect time to sit down with him and do a podcast to talk about their recent accomplishment with the World Championships at Spruce Meadows. We were also joined by Troy Wood, Jesse Wilson, Brian Strelow, Brandyn Davis, Richard Puglisi, Butch Whitaker and Kid Kelley to join in on this episode. Craig filled us in on the success they had from bringing the World Championships back for the first time in many years. He also shared with us their future plans for WCB Headquarters which is something that's been needed for our trade for a long time. Big things on the horizon to come! Let us know what you think and how it'll impact you and this trade by leaving a comment.

Our Proud Sponsors of the Show

www.farrierbox.com use code BRAINS for 25% off your first month's order!

www.well-shod.com use code BRAINS for a surprise product in your order!

www.worldchampionshipblacksmiths.com use code BRAINS for 10% off in their online store! (not including membership/contest entry fees)

This week's guest and episode is a great one, John McNerney! Mostly everyone in the farrier world has probably seen or heard of the "Yukon Forge" line of tools throughout the past couple decades. But, something we learned in this conversation with John, is that he has the passion and dedication to serving his community by making it a safer place for those living in it when he decided to become a Policeman. John has completed his tenure on the force and during that time he was dedicated to catching the worst criminals off the streets. He talked about how he needed a new passion or goal to strive for in his life and found that by training himself and his K-9 to be at the top of their game and part of the elite. Becoming a policeman isn't the only highlight of John's career, John has been on the American Farrier's Team multiple times, competed at Calgary World Championships, winning the Forged in Fire television series, creating some of the best farrier tools on the market, and much more that you can hear about in this episode.

Our Proud Sponsors of the Show

www.farrierbox.com use code BRAINS for 25% off your first month's order!

www.well-shod.com use code BRAINS for a surprise product in your order!

www.worldchampionshipblacksmiths.com use code BRAINS for 10% off in their online store! (not including membership/contest entry fees)

It's got to be quite an experience to move away to another country halfway across the world. Stan Mullen started that journey at 17 years old searching for a horseshoeing school and after that he decided he was going to live in the United States after growing up in New Zealand previously. Not only has been shoeing horses full time, Stan has been making his presence known in the competitive horseshoeing scene by kicking ass and taking names! The last WCB he won all 5 classes, making himself the Overall Champ. He's currently on the WCB Team and prepping to go to the World Championships in Canada at Spruce Meadows next week. Good luck to all those competing there!

Here's the link to the video Dan mentioned about sharpening hoof knives

https://youtu.be/5U0BnHd_5Bk

We all have a unique story about how or why we got into shoeing horses initially. Recently I had the chance to sit down with three farriers that are in the early stages of their careers and what their experiences have been like so far, as well as, what they are doing to help ensure their chances of success. The three guys in this episode are Brandyn Davis, Trey Hayden, and Richard Puglisi. Brian Strelow is in this episode too because the 5 of us were headed down to the Oregon Farriers contest last weekend and stayed the night at Richard's place and figured this would be a great episode for people to hear. Hope this helps inspire some of you on your journey!

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www.well-shod.com use code BRAINS for a surprise product in your order!

You want to be a world champ one day? Or just be a top competitor? Or be the best farrier you can be? Well, Austin Edens is all of those and more! Austin has won the World Championship Blacksmithing competition in Calgary in 2003, crowning him a World Champion. That's no easy task. This episode, Austin let us in on the things he had done in his career to get him to become a world champ. As well as, how he felt after winning the title and up to that point (Not what you'd expect). Besides Austin's competitive horseshoeing accolades, he has also been very active in the farrier industry with the tools he makes and provides us. He has given back to the industry by doing clinics and demos all over the world for us to learn. Lately Austin has been developing a new frog support pad, "Plexus Pads" to give us farriers better tools to use for the horses we work on. This episode hits home for many of us with what Austin shared throughout the conversation because he has, been there done that, and we all have goals we work on in our everyday lives that we can relate to. If you found something that you related to in this episode, leave us a comment and let us know what that was!

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A bunch of us got the opportunity to go compete in Edgewood, New Mexico at the World Championship Blacksmiths competition so we sat down to chat about what we experienced and learned about the trip. Midway through the episode, Ben Snure jumped on with us to share his experience about competing in the Novice Class too! We had a great time in New Mexico and also had a great time telling stories throughout this episode. We shared a lot of laughs, as well as, gained some knowledge about what we can do to become better in our next endeavors too.

Can't forget to thank our sponsor, FARRIERBOX! You can earn 25% off your first month's order by going to www.farrierbox.com and use code BRAINS at checkout to receive some of the top products used in our industry by top professionals.

This past weekend I was at Troy Wood's shop practicing for the upcoming WCB contest in Edgewood, NM and we decided to sit down and do a podcast! We discussed some things about what we've learned in our practices together about the shoes and what we've got to be prepared for at the contest. Plus we BS'ed about other random stuff that's been going on in the world around us too. Enjoy this week's episode and maybe we'll see you in Edgewood!

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