| Graham Knight Bio | ||
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Why Did I Become A Farrier? While I did some riding as a kid, most of my time growing up was spent playing ice hockey. When I saw my first polo match in 1996, my immediate thought was, “Wow, hockey on a horse. I have GOT to try this!” A week later I rode my first polo horse and was immediately hooked. A few years later I bought a polo horse named Smokey.
When I bought him he had a quarter crack on the outside of his right front hoof. I found the best farrier in the area, Jim Brady, who suggested putting a shoe on with clips on either side of the crack to help support the hoof capsule. For two years I had Smokey shod that way and the crack never got worse and it never got better. After two years, one of my polo friends told me that he’d switched over to the barefoot method and wasn’t using metal of any kind on his horses. I was fascinated by the idea and went over to his barn to learn more - in part, so I could help Smokey and in part, so I could save money by learning how to take care of my own horse’s feet. Once I’d investigated the barefoot method a bit, I tried it on Smokey. After about a year on the barefoot program, Smokey’s crack healed up completely. (It takes about a year for a horse to grow horn from the hairline to the ground.) So I took the shoes off my other horse Sir Haus and slowly over time he went lame. So I called up Jim Brady again and asked him to come out and look at Sir Haus. Jim determined the horse had ring bone, put a set of front shoes on him and Sir Haus was instantly sound. Watching Jim put shoes on Sir Haus, I saw many of the trimming techniques I’d learned through the barefoot program. After Jim put shoes on Sir Haus and the horse went sound, I wanted to learn more and I started riding along with Jim watching and observing. The more I rode along the more I liked the work and eventually I asked Jim if I could apprentice under him and from there I launched my own practice. What started out as just an interest in learning how to care for my own horses turned into a career. Education
Continuing Education
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