We were fortunate to have Iain Ritchie and John Dixon come down south from Canada while we were having a team practice for the upcoming WCB contest "The Classic" to share their knowledge and criticism for us to become better prepared as a team. Top notch guys to lend their time out of their busy schedules to just to come help us! Says a lot about who they are, as respectable men. So thank you for that Iain and John. Of course since we had them here in our presence, we had to do a podcast with them. Getting to hear Iain's story about how and why he moved from Scotland to Canada was really cool to hear, amongst other topics discussed in this episode that you'll have to tune in to hear. John is a multi-generational farrier who grew up learning how to shoe horses from his dad, Steve Dixon" primarily and then also working for Iain for many years too. They've both been on the Canadian Farriers Team multiple times as well, and was neat to hear how that process is to qualify for that team. There's multiple times in this episode that we almost fell out of our chairs laughing so hard at John's sense of humor and jokes!😂 Some of the jokes could rub some folks the wrong way but in all seriousness, these were jokes and not literal jabs.                                                            

I also feel like we only scratched the surface hearing what John & Iain had to share with us because the evening/night was getting pretty late and they still had a many hour drive back home to Canada.  

We hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as we did getting to record with these two gentlemen!                                                                          

While at the WCB Winter Clinic Billy Klapper, Terry Stever and Jim Poor were present and had a great opportunity to sit down and hear stories from the legendary bit and spur maker Billy Klapper and Terry Stever who so many people have brought up who they look up to in their careers over the years. It was great having Jim Poor steer the ship and hear many stories. 

We are "Live" at the WCB Winter Clinic! We got to sit down with John Harshbarger who owns Well-Shod Farrier Supply and got to hear from him about how he and his partner Timmy Snider started the supply house in a feed store and how it has now grown to a massive farrier supply that is known worldwide. John also shared with us some business tips that might be helpful for others out there and how they're able to do that $10 shipping! Something that we think is super cool is that John decided he wanted to try his hand at competing in some WCB competitions. Having no real experience at being a farrier previously, John has been exposed to a lot of clinics first hand from some of the top farriers across the world. Whether they were held at his store or that he has attended in support of the associations putting them on. Because of his dedication and hard work, he decided he wanted to work harder to see if competing is something he could do well at, and so far he's had glimpses of success! That was cool to hear why he decided to try getting into the competitive arena and what goals he has for himself in the future.

We hope you enjoy this episode as much as we did getting to chat with John. There will be a number of cool episodes coming out in the future that we were able to record at the WCB Winter Clinic, so stay tuned and subscribe to hear those!

Also-I had some technical difficulties uploading the video version to Spotify this time around, so if you'd like to watch the video version you'll have to go to the Forging Brains YouTube Channel this go around. Apologies 

Over the weekend Troy Wood came over to my place to practice shoes for the upcoming World Championship Blacksmiths (WCB) Classic Competition. While Troy was here  we thought it'd be a great time to sit down and do a podcast with him. Since we last had Troy on Forging Brains Podcast he was competing for a spot on the WCB Team, but now he has earned himself a spot on that highly prestiged team! He expressed to us what he's looking forward to learning this upcoming year and the hard work that he'll be facing this year. We also got to hear what motivates Troy and why he has  pushed himself this hard to accomplish the great things he has up to this point in his short career of 3.5 years of shoeing horses! 

Also in this episode we did a segment and talked about- "Preparing to make New-to-You-Shoes" and how it can help to develop a system to work on each element of a shoe before  tackling the shoes to then set yourself up for success. Something that is commonly overlooked and rushed is, "the basics", we described what the basics are in shoe making and why they are important to everyone trying to learn how to build nice shoes. 

Hope you guys enjoy this episode!

This week's guest, Terry Dokken, has multiple talents and passions! Terry's passion for the farrier trade and being an excellent musician have always pushed him to be great at both, even though, it may be hard to juggle between the two with other interests and family life. This was a great episode being able to chat with Terry about how he runs his business, shoeing different disciplines of horses, the highs and lows from injuries, and as well as Terry's music career! Hope you enjoy this episode as much as we did.

This week on Forging Brains Podcast we have the one and only, Bodie Trnka! Bodie grew up under the watchful eye of his father, Craig Trnka, who had taught Bodie how to shoe horses initially. It's what Bodie has done for himself after that that has proven successful not only in his competitive horseshoeing career, his farrier business, but also his personal family life. Bodie currently resides in Minnesota with his wife Rachel and son Quincy. This year is his 5th year being on the American Farrier's Team and has won many highly regarded competitions. We also got to hear what it takes mentally to compete at a top level and try to raise the bar each time from Bodie. So, if you're looking for some inspiring words to help yourself, this is a great episode! 

This episode we got to sit down with the one and only, Bill Poor! Bill competed a lot many years ago winning lots of competitions including the first ever season of the WCB and also became World Champ of the Calgary Stampede. He also shared a some cool information about forging damascus knives and billets. And as of late, Bill also holds the record of long range shooting at 4 miles. Enjoy this episode!

I think it's pretty common knowledge in the farrier industry that if someone asks you-"What's a good brand of tool to buy?" and guaranteed 9 times out of 10, people will say-"Jim Poor/Flatland Forge Tools!". That speaks volumes about not only, the tools themselves, but about the creators of those tools. Jim and Kathleen Poor have worked hard to be an honest, hard working, figure in this trade we love. Not only do they have some of the best tools on the market, they have a very interesting dynamic between the two of them throughout their careers shoeing horses and competing. Both Kathleen and Jim were very successful in the competitive horseshoeing world, competing all across the world, as well! In this episode they talk about their journey through life to get to where they are now and also the MINDSET it takes to get to a top level in which they have achieved. And, as well as, some very funny Jim Poor stories we all love to gather around to listen and laugh with him. We look forward to having them on the podcast again to hear more great stories these two have to share. Enjoy!

It's pretty common with a new year that people talk about New Year's Resolutions. We don't necessarily try to come up with resolutions but instead, we talk about the Goals we have for ourselves-personally, professionally, with the podcast, and amongst being teammates with our friends. We'd also like to hear what other goals you guys have for the upcoming year as well. This episode we also got to cover some pictures of work you guys sent in to us too. So, thank you!

This episode was really cool. Tom Petersen is a highly skilled, talented and educated farrier that resides in Montana. Tom goes into depth about his up bringing about how he became to be a farrier and then on to winning multiple National and International Championship Titles. We got to hear how Tom shoes in his everyday business that would benefit a lot of horses out there if more people understood this concept. Riley & Tom also geeked out on Tool Making from, power hammers, presses, hammers, driving hammers and more. It's worth the listen, Enjoy this episode!

If you'd like to sponsor this podcast email us at [email protected]