Mullins Farrier Podcast

Welcome, everyone. Today, I'm speaking with Dr. Bri Henderson, DVM (amongst many other letters) and Sean Elliott CJF. Many years ago, Sean was kind enough to invite me to his shop and spend numerous days helping a very green forger become less green. His wife, Bri has worked with me on a few special cases, and I have always valued her input and our shared passion for helping horses.

I thought it would be interesting to interview them both at the same time and the result of that interview is what follows. I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I do.

Welcome everyone, today I'm speaking with Jason RoTramel, CJF ASF.

If you have been to a farrier competition in the U S you have probably noticed a gentleman with a beard of epic proportions, the coolest hat in the crowd, and a cell phone on a tripod, this would be Jason. If you nudge someone and ask who that character and the great hat is, they will usually say "Oh, that's Jason, he's the Kahn Forge guy". As you will hear, Jason played a big role in helping to rebrand the relatively unknown company from China selling horseshoes nails and tools to the Kahn Forge name we know today. While Jason isn't a partner in Kahn, he is a definitely a brand ambassador who was passionate about the product and that passion shows in this conversation.

He also has his side project Vagabond Forge, we discuss what he's been up to there and where he wants to head. I had a lot of fun with Jason in this interview. He even turned the tables on me a couple times and asked me some questions. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.

One of the fantastic things about attending something like the AFA convention or Summit is you can be chatting with somebody about farriery and not even realize that you were talking to a legend. That is what happened when I met Dave Showen.

Later on, after our conversation, I asked Chris Gregory if that was who I suspected it was and he said yes. I approached Dave and asked him to do an interview. As you will hear, Dave is all about sharing knowledge. He willfully shares many of his trade secrets in the processes and materials he uses in the tools that he is so well-known for. He talks about his journey in learning how to weld aluminum and make aluminum bar shoes.

An entertaining man and a very unexpected surprise at the AFA convention. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did

An old year ends and a new one begins, to start out 2022 on the right foot, we have a very special guest for you today. My guest today needs no introduction, he's a North American legend in the farrier community, author, educator, toolmaker, competitor, artist. Jim Keith is all those things and many more. I was excited to have the opportunity to chat with this man. I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I do.

There are a few shopkeeping items as well. I am extremely excited to be able to tell you that Gregory's Textbook of Farriers will very soon be available as an audio. It is narrated by yours truly and I can now say with full confidence that I have read that textbook cover to cover several times. I am truly honoured that Chris asked me to do this project. Keep checking in www.heartlandhorseshoeing.com for availability.

Secondly, the Victory Racing Plate company has joined us as a sponsor. Since coming on board with Victory, my friend and former guest, Mark Hickcox has become quite the jet setter and he's been out representing them as they've been supporting many educational events and competitions. We're quite honoured that they have decided to do that with the podcast as well. For the very first time I get to say "and now for a word from our sponsor". Please check them out at www.victoryracingplate.com.

Welcome everyone, this past month I attended my very first American Farriers Association convention, which happened to be the 50th anniversary. My time there was unfortunately limited to two short days, but I was able to attend a few presentations, watch some of the competitors in action, meet some legends and even do a few interviews.

I have to say a huge thank you to Martha Jones, the executive director of the AFA for providing me with a room to do the interviews in.

Today, I'm speaking with Jeremy McGovern, the executive editor and publisher of the American Farriers Journal. I found Jeremy in the competition hall, armed with a camera and doing his thing. He was kind enough to offer some of his limited time. Jeremy gave some great insight into what goes on behind the scenes at the journal and the Hoof Care Summit. I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did.

In today's episode, I am speaking with Brad Davidson, CJF, the proprietor of Professional Farrier Supply based in Orangeville, Ontario, Canada. As you will hear, Brad and his peers were always hungry to learn more and get better in this trade.

We recorded this episode, live at the Ontario Farriers Association Conference, and as Brad is very descriptive with his hands, sometimes his volume drops considerably as the microphone moved further away from his face. My apologies for this, but regardless, I'm sure you'll enjoy this conversation as much as we did!

https://www.profarriersupply.com/

Today's guest is none other than Nigel Fennell, AWCF. Mark Hickcox kindly sent the podcast mic on to Nigel after our conversation. As I expected, we had a great chat, and I left our conversation feeling quite inspired by Nigel. You will notice a continuous theme in his story - one of sacrifice and investing in himself. I then realized that this has been a theme of many of the stories guests have told. Pretty much all the people in this trade, that we look up to, have had to make this calculation and decided to forfeit any semblance of work-life balance for a time to learn and practice the skills needed to get to the top of their game and achieve their career goals.

As the saying goes, nothing worthwhile comes without sacrifice.

Life is all about trade-offs.

And unfortunately, we are restricted by many things, not the least of which is time. If you have lofty career goals yourself, I hope that at least one of the guests, if not more, has inspired you and shown you how it can be done even with seemingly insurmountable obstacles. If raising your young children seems like an obstacle, listen to Elisa Miller or Lori McBride's episodes. If you feel like you don't have enough time, listen to Cody or Chris Gregory's episodes, if you failed at your goal once or twice, and are hesitant to try again, listen to Mark Hickcox and if you don't think you can afford it financially, listen to both of Andrew DeVisser's episodes and he will help you lay the financial groundwork to make a plan and see it through.

These are only a few examples of many, but you get my point. All this said, please don't interpret this as me promoting an unhealthy work-life balance. Most of the folks I just mentioned only did this for a time. Eventually, they turned to focus on achieving a work-life balance only now armed with some credentials or bragging rights or an enviable client list that often made this a lot easier.

Anyway, as you will hear, Nigel's years of commitment to improving his skills at the cost of making more money have found him where he is today - well-positioned to teach those skills and make the next generation of farriers better for it. I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did.

https://www.nigelfennellandforemansforge.org/

Welcome everyone, today I am speaking with Jason Fox. Jason is a farrier from a little west of me, in Wellington County, Ontario, Canada. We've been running into each other for years at clinics and conventions and I've always had great conversations with him when we did. Jason is a deep thinker and for many reasons, I would consider him a holistic thinker. This combined with his confidence to ask questions, when sometimes no one else in the audience would, is why I knew this would be a great podcast episode. You will occasionally hear Jason refer to another farrier named Pete or Peter and that is Mr Peter Ayranto CJF, who was a guest in another episode, which if you haven't already heard was pretty good.

You may agree or disagree with Jason, but I guarantee he will leave you thinking more critically about many aspects of our job. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.

Welcome, everyone. I apologize for the long span in between episodes. Between some technical difficulties and both my guests and myself being in the midst of a heavy show season, it has been difficult to get episodes recorded. In the end though, as usual, perseverance paid off which could well be the mantra of the gentleman you are about to hear.

Chris Gregory called me one day a while back and asked me if I remembered a student who had come to the school a few times, Mark Hickcox CF. Of course, I did. He was always super friendly and very dedicated to getting better at our craft. Chris gave me a brief synopsis of Mark's life and career since we had last met and said you need to have him on to tell his story. Chris hasn't led me astray yet and I had to agree. It is a fantastic story. It is a story of perseverance, dashed hopes, pivoting when roadblocks turn up, and finding your way back to the path. All told, Mark's story is pretty inspirational and I'm honoured he was willing to share it. I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did.

Welcome everyone, a group of fellow farrier podcasters and myself, decided to get together and have a conversation about farrier and healthcare professionals' safety. We did this to address the seemingly epidemic number of farrier injuries the world over as of late. Upon conversing about these incidents, it has become apparent that many could have been avoided.

Our goal here was to have a conversation, bringing our unique perspectives to the table, to educate horse owners on the various ways they can mitigate the dangers faced by farriers. We understand that it is sometimes awkward to have these conversations with your clients without potentially offending them or sounding like we're just complaining. The sad reality is that in some cases, these conversations could potentially save careers or even lives, so we had it for you. Please share this with as many horse folk as you can. It was an honour to have this discussion with Alicia Harlov of the Humble Hoof podcast, Dr. Simon Curtis of The Hoof of the Horse podcast and Daniel Bennett of the Lockdown Farriery Learning podcast.

I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did.