2024: March 25 - May 17 & Sep 23 - Nov 15
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2024: March 25 - May 17 & Sep 23 - Nov 15
Why Choose Mission Farrier School?
Start a new career or continue your schooling
Your farrier education is just the beginning of your learning experience. If you aspire to become a true professional, your learning will continue long after you graduate from school. Our hope is that you will continue to build on what we have taught you throughout your lives and careers.
Mission Farrier School discusses and encourages all types of continuing education as well as certifications through the American Farriers Association, the Guild of Professional Farriers and Natural Balance Farrier Certification.
A First Rate Farrier Education
While some programs tout the number of horses students will shoe while in class, we prefer to focus on the amount of learning students receive from shoeing each horse while in class.
Your farrier education is not about nailing on great numbers of shoes. It is rather about learning healthy foot function, and why; learning a proper trim and why; and learning to choose the right shoe, and why. Nailing on shoes is certainly important, and you will get lots of that here, however, you will soon find that is the easy part.
If you go to any continuing education clinics, you will find that the whole group will be focused on just 1 or 2 horses. There is much to be learned in that environment.
Class sizes are limited
Small class sizes mean a more personal touch to teaching and to your learning. Mission Farrier School is a private vocational school, and has the highest success rate in the nation of graduates staying in the profession.
Mission's priority is not in graduating large numbers of farriers, but rather in graduating a few, very good men and women who can meet a horse's hoof care needs, and discuss those needs with the client. MFS students start shoeing live horses the second day of class, under careful supervision. All live shoeing.
Cadaver work is only used during dissections
Students receive an in-depth study of the anatomy and physiology of the equine limb, and the biomechanics of how that limb was designed to function. You'll discuss what goes wrong and why.
Mission Farrier School is privileged to be able to teach dissections using equine limbs donated from caring veterinarians and horse owners from around our community. This gives our students an opportunity to get a literal hands-on understanding of the tendons, ligaments, bones and joints of the lower leg, as well as really seeing and feeling the internal structures of the hoof.
Focused students
The people who come to our program are looking specifically for what we teach and are very focused. The average age is 37, though we've had them as young as 17 and as old as 63. Goes far beyond conventional farrier science, and it will be our goal to not only produce professional farriers, but equally as important, to produce men and women who are driven to become professional horsemen. If you can aspire to become a good horseman, you can't help but become a true professional and a better farrier.
We will give you the knowledge you need to recognize the needs of the equine foot. That knowledge will not only help you attract a better clientele, but will also help you to become more successful in your business. You'll know how to prepare a foot for barefoot trimming, regular shoeing, performance shoeing and therapeutic systems.
Shop & Tools
Work environment is very important during the early stages of your learning. The shop is equipped with professional grade anvils and forges, classroom lecture area, library of farrier reference books, assorted specialty tools for student use. The vast majority of student shoeing is done on-site, at the Farrier School, in a controlled environment. A broad range of shoes including steel, aluminum, rubber and composite are part of the stock room.
Client Communication Best Practices
Communication is an important skill in both getting and maintaining desirable clientele. Many professional farriers lack the ability to explain a horse's needs to the horse owner. They lack the tools necessary to explain what they are doing and why they are doing it, in language the owner can understand. 'Because that's the way we've always done it' is not an adequate response.
At Mission Farrier School you will learn
(1) how to evaluate a horse's needs, and
(2) how to communicate that information to the client.
Having the skills to be able to 'talk the talk' with clients, veterinarians and other equine professionals help make MFS graduates some of the most successful in the industry. Good Hoof Science, Communication, Forging Skills, Craftsmanship and Horsemanship. We believe that these 5 things are the essence of true professionals.
Horse handling skills
Today's better informed horse owner expects his/her farrier to be not only knowledgeable about the foot, but to also be a good horseman. Physical restraints or rough handling of horses never has a positive outcome for the horse, and usually has a negative impact on the farrier as well.
Mission Farrier School teaches positive horsemanship over restraint methods. We are grounded in the horsemanship techniques as taught by Tom and Bill Dorrance, Ray Hunt, Buck Brannaman, and Jon Ensign. Teddy and Mark have extensive experience in round pen shoeing and believe that good horsemanship helps a horse make a willing connection with the farrier.