Hall of Fame

2011 Hall of Fame Poster

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The Brotherhood of Working Farriers Association

Farriers Hall of Fame

These individuals have received the prestigious honor or being inducted into the

B.W.F.A. Farriers Hall of Fame. They were chosen for their outstanding dedication and contributions that have helped to promote the farrier industry for the betterment of all

farriers today. They each received a 10k gold ring engraved with the B.W.F.A. insignia.

A plaque was given to the living families or friends of those deceased prior to their recognition.

RALPH CASEY 1992

BUCKY HATFIELD 1992

Bucky Hatfield

Inducted 1992

Texas

Bucky started his farrier career as a boy of 14, helping his uncle shoe mules for a coal mining operation in the mountains of West Virginia. He is a direct descendant of the Hatfield-McCoy feud clan. In 1960 he joined the marines during the Vietnam war. After returning to the states he attended Oklahoma Farrier College studying under Mr. Bud Beaston. He then went on to open the Tennessee State Farrier School in 1988. He has over 30 years experience in the field, and has published numerous articles on corrective shoeing and foundry.

Hearing the news about a new farrier association forming in 1989, he traveled to a meeting at Elmer Seybolds Ranch and School in Texas where he met Ralph Casey, and there he accepted the first position of President for the BWFA Master Educator Division, 1989 - 1993. Bucky has the role of organizing farrier certification testings in horseshoeing schools and ensuring they are held fairly, so as not to discriminate against anyone who is honestly working towards self improvement in the farrier industry. His role as the BWFA International TESTER takes him all over the world.

Bucky is very active in most known farrier groups. His school was the second to receive the Horseshoeing School of the Year Award in 1993, along with Blacksmith of the Year.

He has over 30 years experience in the field, and has published numerous articles on corrective shoeing and foundry. He is registered with the American Farriers Education Association and is also a member of American Farrier’s Association, the Tennessee Farriers’ Association, and the Texas Professional Farrier’s Association.

He is the founder of Guild of Professional Farriers Association and was re-elected as President of the Master Educator Division of the BWFA again in 1999 – 2004. As a master farrier and RJF Tester, Mr. Hatfield has the job of ensuring that all farrier certification testings are held fairly, so as not to discriminate against anyone who is honestly working towards self improvement in the farrier industry. He constantly keeps in touch with other Master Educators and Testers all over the country, getting the latest information on horseshoeing so as to better instruct his students.

Accomplishments:

2000 International Examiner and Tester for BWFA

2000 June Humanitarian G.P.F

1999 President of Master Educators 3 year term BWFA

1999 President of the Tennessee Farriers Association.

1996 Founder of Guild of Professional Farriers Association

1995 Humanitarian Award BWFA

1993 Horseshoeing School of the year BWFA

1992 Blacksmith Of The Year BWFA

1991-1993 Best Educational Program BWFA

1988-1994 President of Master Educators BWFA

AFA Educators

BWFA Hall of Fame

Member of World Farriers Association

Shoeing Specialities: All breeds.

V.P. Guild of Professional Farrier Association

JACK MILLER 1993

BECKY CAMERON 1993

BUD BEASTON 1993

Bud Beaston

Inducted 1993

Oklahoma

watch a video of Bud's

career on Horse TV

Not knowing it at the time, Mr. Bud A. Beaston started working in a blacksmith shop in western Arkansas, for an old man that would plant a seed in his head that would be nurtured into a life-long profession. At that time in his life, he started out as a young man of 14 years old, trying to make enough money to eat on. From that very time, this old man worked Bud in such a way that he taught him first to be a blacksmith, then a horseshoer. As time passed, the old man taught Bud well, and worked him hard. From that hard work of learning the blacksmith trade, and later the farrier trade, Bud learned that there could be a real future in the business, if he would only put forth the extra effort to learn everything he could about his chosen profession and apply it in a professional manner; so that he did, and built a reputation of being one of the most sought after farriers in the world. He soon became known nationally for his ability to shoe a horse correctly, and making hand-crafted shoes for correcting a horses faulty gait. For these accomplishments, he would soon have the reputation as being “The Master Farrier”.

Having been known as a man of may faces, some of Bud’s lifetime accomplishments included: Craftsman-for hand-crafted shoes; Mechanic-for understanding and correcting faulty gaits in a horses locomotion; Inventor-for his one handed hoof testers, adjustable nail clinchers, a trailer hitch lock, and a special barrel racing shoe, a lightweight, self-cleaning, therapeutic horseshoe, a horseshoe bender, a multiple horseshoeing stand, a hoof gauge, a sta-put spur, save-a-foot, and aluminum plates; Farrier-for shoeing the horse correctly; Blacksmith-hand crafted horseshoes and making jewelry; Educator & Proprietor-owner and head instructor of Oklahoma Farrier’s College; Author-for writing The Master Farrier text book; Lecturer-three times at the American Quarter Horse Congress in Columbus, Ohio, at universities, colleges, seminars, conventions, and horse shows.

In his career that spanned some 70 years, this man shod a total of 9 World Champions, 5 of which were shod in one year. He is the only man in history to be asked to lecture for 3 years at the American Quarter Horse Congress in Columbus, Ohio, and the only farrier to have a display of 37 hand-forged shoes at the Cowboy Hall of Fame in the Western Arts Division in the Exhibit Hall at Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Until the time of his death in 2003, Mr. Beaston made his home in the small town of Sperry, Oklahoma, located just north of Tulsa, in the northeast part of the state. He and his wife Kathie owned and operated one of the worlds largest horseshoeing schools, with Bud as the Master Farrier. He has passed on a lifetime of knowledge to the future of the horse industry, in a fashion noted throughout the United States, Canada and many foreign countries as not only being a Master Farrier, but also being a Master Educator.

Bud was born in Sand Springs, Oklahoma and raised in the northwest corner of the state. He was a former champion calf roper and horse trainer. During his career, he designed and produced various shoes, corrective braces and artificial limbs for horses.

He has received several awards, citation and honorable mentions. Some of which are as follows: Future Farmers of America Honorary State Farmer, Host for a day for Miss Teenage America Pageant, Host for a day for Miss Rodeo America Pageant. He received citations from 5 state Governors, was named “Man of the Year” by the Skiatook, Oklahoma Chamber of Commerce, has three films on hoof problems produced by Cambridge Film Studios, lifetime membership in the national F.F.A. Alumni Association, Master Farrier, Master Educator, a Gold Card Member with the B.W.F.A. and host of the Southwestern Certification Clinic.

ELMER SEYBOLD 1993

Elmer Seybold

Inducted 1993

Texas

Elmer Seybold was more or less raised in a Blacksmiths shop or a harness shop. His father was a teaming contractor in the early day oil fields and had over 500 head of horses and mules. It was necessary to have three blacksmiths and they were also farriers. The first job he ever had, that he actually received money for, was turning the Buffalo Blower for the head blacksmith, Tennessee Tom. Tom gave him a nickel an hour to turn the crank and supply the air to his forge. In 1928, an electric motor replaced Elmer and put him out of a job, although he never did work over three hours a day for Tom, because he only needed 15 cents to get into the picture show and buy a mug of root beer.

Elmer shod his first horse in 1927. He was 13 years old and lived in Seminole, Oklahoma. He took his horse to the blacksmiths shop to get shod and his papa was there and he said “Son, you’re big enough and old enough to shoe your own horse, so just get at it”. Elmer has been shoeing horses ever since.

Elmer gravitated to ranching in later life and was always teaching one or two cowboys to shoe their horses properly. He had the chance to teach at A&M college, and there he met Dr. Romain who asked why Elmer did not have a school for farriers. Elmer talked to two of the blacksmiths that worked for his father in the oilfields, Curly Hallmark and Shorty Woods. They advised him against it, because they said the trucks had replaced the horse. Elmer was stubborn and went ahead with the idea and opened the north Texas Farriers School in Mineral Wells, Texas in 1955. He started with just one student, and had the oldest Farrier School in the Nation. In 38 years, he graduated over 4,000 students who are now successful Farriers.

Elmer Seybold dedicated most of his life to the Farrier trade and to passing on the knowledge that he possessed to his students. One of Elmer’s students wrote him a letter and said “When you give knowledge through teaching, you give one the greatest gifts of all. You sir, will live forever through the gifts you have given your students.”

When asked why he wanted to be a farrier and why he began teaching others to be farriers, he replied “I was kind of forced to become a farrier. I was more or less raised in a blacksmiths shop and had excellent teachers. Tennessee Tom Garrett taught farrier work in the calvary, and came to work for my father in the oilfields. Curly Hallmark had been in the calvary and followed Tom. Shorty Woods had been shoeing horses for over 20 years when he came to our teaming camp. Tom was a hard taskmaster. He would show you one time and if you did not get it and he had to show you a second time, you got a foot in the seat of the pants. I got my fair share of feet in the seat of the pants. Yes, I had excellent teachers. I also became a farrier because when papa died, there was no one to shoe the horses on the ranch. I did not need the money but I started teaching others to shoe horses simply because a lot of farriers did not know what they were doing, and I wanted to teach them how to do it properly for the welfare of the horses. This should always be the reason for shoeing horses. A farrier is the most important person that cares for a horse.

In 1947, Elmer invented the Lateral Extension shoe. At that time they used one caulk on the inside or outside to turn the foot, he figured there must be a better way than what they were using. The foot always turns to the high side or the long side so he reasoned that to help a horse with toe-in or toe-out he should put an extension on the toe and a low heel caulk, which was better than what they had been using.

In 1951, Elmer invented the Keyhold shoe. Over a period of years that he had been raising horses, he found that some old horses would be walking fine one day and the next day they would be walking on their Sesamoid bone, particularly on their hind feet. He put a number of these Keyhole shoes on these said horses and in about 15 or 20 days they were walking normally and they have never reverted to this condition again.

In 1952, Elmer invented the Rocker Plate Shoe for stiff ankles. The low ring bone or the high ring bone or combination of both can cause Ankylosis or stiff ankles. If you stop and think about it, you realize that the flexibility of the ankle allows the hoof to be raised and moved forward with the rocking motion that is smooth and uninterrupted. At one time, a horse with this problem was shod with 3/4” square stock thinned out at the toes and buttresses, this having a rocking motion when you picked up the foot and placed it forward. This was a heavy shoe and Elmer likes to use as light a shoe as possible to do the job. So he devised a lighter shoe that has the rocking motion of the ankles. He calls this a Rocker-Plate shoe. The advantage of this shoe is that it is about half the weight of the old bar shoe and it will not sink in the sand of the area or mud as easily as the old type of shoe. Of course, if a horse is in this condition, he is crippled and will always be crippled no matter what type of shoe you use on him, but if you wish to do something with this horse that requires some traction, you can run a bead of hard surfacing rod across the steel plate and you will have some traction.

In 1955, Elmer had a chance to meet with Dr. James R. Rooney DVM in Lexington, KY. This was a man that Elmer admired very much. He asked Dr. Rooney what would be his ideal shoe and the shape of the shoe. Without any hesitancy Dr. Rooney replied “ the shoe that would give the best traction in any direction would be a triangle shaped shoe. Elmer had been using a triangle shaped shoe for about 40 years and had made the shoe for the reason that Dr. Rooney described. Elmer says he does not know if he invented it or not but that he has never seen it used by anyone else.

Elmer traveled all over the world and everywhere that he went, he would visit with farriers and compare notes. The first meeting of the B.W.F.A. Master Educators was held at Elmers school in 1989. He was instrumental in gaining recognition for the B.W.F.A. throughout Texas by sponsoring clinics on continuing education for farriers.

Among his many distinguished awards, he was inducted into the BWFA Farriers Hall of Fame in 1992. He also received the Lifetime Achievers Award in 1994. Elmer passed away in 1995 and will be sorely missed.

JACOB SWANK 1993

JIM LINZY 1993

VERN OLINGER 1993

Vern Olinger

Inducted 1993

Colorado

(Deceased at time of induction)

Vern was born in Greenburg, Kansas, December 22, 1911. He worked hot iron since right out of high school, working with his father in his blacksmith shop. In 1932, at the age of 21, he moved to Denver, and began shoeing horses. After the war, Vern came back to Denver and served an apprenticeship with Eddie “Mac” Machnicol that led to a very long and successful career as a racetrack shoer.

He was president of the Farriers Union for many years and worked a circuit on tracks from the Atlantic seaboard, across the South and Midwest, to the shores of sunny southern California. He had a knack for shoeing performance horses; he knew how to keep them sound and he understood locomotion. Perhaps this was his greatest legacy, and this is what he passed down to those lucky enough to learn from him.

Vern was a tough teacher. He believed on hands on learning. Every student worked on a hundred head before graduation and every shoe went through the fire before it was nailed on. Vern would bark and bellow when things were not done his way. He could be blunt when confronted with ignorance born from lack of attention. He was heartless toward minor cuts and bruises and wounded egos. If you worked hard, he would teach harder. He understood the value of repetition – do it, do it and do it again until you no longer have to think what your hands were doing. Then you could concentrate on shoeing for soundness and performance.

Vern Olinger devoted his life to the trade he loved and he unselfishly gave that knowledge to others. He could be gruff and crotchety, stern and blunt, but he was also compassionate. He never judged a book by its cover.

Vern was 80 years old when he died. He was a living bridge; the knowledge he gained from those who had worked in the nineteenth century, he passed on to those who would work in the twentieth century. Hopefully farrier will pass on his legacy into the twenty first century.

FRANK MCGINNIS 1993

JOHN BLOMBACH, SR 1994

John Blombach, Sr.

Inducted 1994

Massachusetts

(Deceased at time of induction)

Farriers- some are around for just a short time and then move on to other professions, others last forever, or so it seems. The Old Guard is dwindling. In 1986, New England lost one of it’s well-known and well-loved farriers, Mr. Richard Ham of Lexington, MA. In 1991 another pillar of our industry passed away - Mr. Allen Elden of Amherst, NH. 1993 began with the loss of superb hunter/jumper farrier, John Blombach, Sr. of Hudson, MA

John Blombach and his family emigrated from Germany to the United States when he was eight years old. Growing up in Keene, NH., his father, a narrow fabrics designer, trained his son in the family business. This made Mr. Blombach an expert weaver, although he preferred hanging around the local blacksmith shop.

In 1925, he left home to join the U.S. Cavalry and enrolled in the horseshoeing school at Presidio of Monterey, California. Along with being a superb horseshoer, Mr. Blombach was also an excellent rider and performed Roman Riding exhibitions with the Eleventh Cavalry Rodeo Riding Team. He remained in active service until 1934.

From 1934 until 1949, he returned to the family business as a weaver to support his wife and children. This was due to the Depression and the serious decline of the horse industry, changing from horse drawn transport to automobiles. He was also drafted back into the Army during WW II.

As the equine industry began to get back on it’s feet again after the war, changing from the work horse to the pleasure horse, Mr. Blombach returned to his greatest love, the horses.

Moving to Clinton, MA in 1950, he began his business shoeing for $6 a house out of the back of a Packard with an old Cavalry field forge, anvil and tools,

A real hard working gentleman and an excellent farrier, within a year he was shoeing six days a week. He build himself a trailer, pulled by a 48 Chevy, to carry his equipment in, possibly the first mobile shoeing rig in the area. Mr. Blombach was very unique for his time. Most of the old farriers were gone, with no shoeing schools training new farriers - a trade in the process of dying out - and an equine industry starting to get back on it’s feet with very few hoof care professionals left. Mr. Blombach spent his life encouraging young men and women to take up the time-honored profession of farrier.

From elite hunter/jumper barns such as Hulick’s Saddle River in Sterling, and the Wright Farm in Concord to good old “Tony the Pony” in the back yard, Mr.. John Blombach will be greatly missed by all his human and equine friends, horse, owner, vet and farrier alike.

LOWELL "SHORTY" ROBERTS 1994

REGGIE KESTER 1994

BURNEY CHAPMAN 1994

ROBERT PEACOCK 1994

DANNY WARD 1994

SCOTT LEDBETTER 1999

TONY PHILLIPS 1999

LARRY PATTER 2001

JOHN BURT 2001

John Burt

Inducted 2001

Arkansas

John was born on August 9, 1949, in Fouke, AR. He grew up around horses and has always had a love of horses. When he was 14, he shod his first horse. He is 52 now and still continuing his education in farrier science of the equine.

He graduated from North Texas Farriers School at Mineral Wells, Texas, under Elmer Seybold, on June 1, 1986. He continued to attend the school for a refreshment in the knowledge of farrier science for the next eight years. He went on to achieve the level of a Journeyman II and B.W.F.A. Tester. He went to school to study Laminitis, which was taught by Burney Chapman. Being one of the few certified farriers in the Four States area, laminitis is now one of his specialties. He feels it is truly a challenge to work on a lamanitic horse. He is always trying to find ways of improving his knowledge of the horse.

He is the Arkansas Board Member for the B.W.F.A. and owns and operates his own farrier business called John Burt’s Farrier Service. He also operates the National Farrier Research Lab IV in Arkansas. Over the past few years, he has brought several items to the B.W.F.A. National Research Center in Georgia and has hosted several clinics and won numerous awards at various clubs and organizations.

In November 1992, at the First Annual B.W.F.A. Convention, he received an award for his dedication and contributions to the B.W.F.A. In November 1993 and 1994, he hosted the B.W.F.A. conventions in Texarkana, AR, at the Four States Fair Grounds and received the Host Award and many other awards as well. These conventions were very educational and allowed him to work with some of the biggest names in the farrier industry such as Burney Chapman, Elmer Seybold, Bud Beaston, Bucky Hatfield, Dr. Susan Kempton (University of Idleburg, England) and B.W.F.A.’s Founder and President, Ralph Casey, along with many others.

As he was inducted into the B.W.F.A. Hall of Fame in May of 2001, John said, “I am a proud member of the B.W.F.A. and hope to continue my education and services to help in any way I can.

MARCUS PIERCE 2001

JUD NELSON 2004

Jud Nelson

Inducted 2004

Georgia

Jud Nelson was born in 1911 in Cherokee County, Georgia and moved to Gordon County, Georgia at the age of 2. He resides there today in the community of Sugar Valley.

Jud was 7 years old the first time he saw a blacksmith shop and it scared him to death with all those sparks flying. He says, “I ran like a turkey!” When he was 9 his dad set up a blacksmith shop on the family farm to do farm repair work. It was Jud’s job to crank the blower for him. As a result of this, Jud started with blacksmithing himself when he was 12 or 13, making wagons for he and his friends to play with. When he was 17 he started shoeing horses for the neighbors to make some spending money.

When Jud was 21 he worked for a man tempering steel and shoeing. With the money he made, he paid half the price for a blacksmith shop, with his uncle putting up the other half of the money. In 1934 Jud and his wife Jenny were married and he built his own shop. In 1941 Jud went to Jacksonville, Florida, to do blacksmithing for the Navy and stayed there until 1945.

Blacksmithing was an important part of rural communities and Jud found much success at it. He worked as a blacksmith and shoer for many years and was featured in the book Foxfire 9 in 1986 in which he demonstrated the building of a farm wagon. That wagon is now on permanent display at the Foxfire Complex in Rabun County, Georgia.

Jud is well known and loved in his community of Sugar Valley where he shares his vast knowledge of the traditions of the past and his great skill as a master craftsman. He is a rare man, possessing extraordinary knowledge of something that was once vital to a thriving rural community.

We lost Jud on June 6, 2011 only 17 days before his 100th birthday. Jud was a great story teller, making everyone laugh and smile. He would tell us how in his shoeing years, the shoes were $0.05 a piece. He was a local visitor to every convention here and will be missed.

JOHN MARINO 2004

John Marino

Inducted 2004

Texas

John Marino was born October 16, 1934 in Staten Island, NY. When he was 12 he began working after school as a stable boy. One day he was angry about something when, out of this 12 old, came a stream of expletives as he made his way through the barn. Reverend James Sargent, a local preacher and part-time blacksmith overheard him. The Reverend grabbed John and scolded him for his ways. Perhaps this was Divine Intervention, because, as punishment, John was instructed to work the bellows of the preachers’ forges—thus a lifetime love of blacksmithing was born.

In 1952 John joined the Air Force. He did not return to the area until 1956. When he completed his tour of duty, he began serving an apprenticeship as a blacksmith/farrier’s assistant with a Mr. Svendensen in North Branch, NJ where he learned “old world” shoeing - making shoes from iron bars and shaping them hot in the fire. Eighteen months later Mr. Svendensen died and John was on his own. He built up a nice business, but he still had the desire to increase his knowledge of the craft. Eight years later, he enrolled at the University of Arizona Farrier’s School in 1966 where he studied under Donald Canfield, considered one of the best in the field of corrective shoeing.

In his time off, he loved to rodeo....bareback, saddle bronc and bull ride...in later years he did “slow” down and did only roping.....competing frequently at the Cowtown Rodeo in Woodstown, NJ. Shoeing was his life and he did most of it in Monmouth County, NJ until he moved to Texas in 1980 to “warm up”. Two years after arriving in Texas, he opened “Across the Anvil Farrier Supply” store in Peaster, Texas which he operated until he sold it in 1991. In 1984 he started JHM Manufacturing and revolutionized the anvil industry by introducing a line of farrier anvils with wider faces and turning cams.

About this same time, he was holding a “Wednesday night” forging class each week in his shop. There would be, usually, 6-10 farriers in attendance. They all wanted to improve their skills in order to participate in forging and shoeing competitions. Many of them went on to much greater things as a result of John’s instruction.

In 1985 John sponsored Grant Moon in his move to America from England. That year, John and Grant won the Two Man Forging Class 1 AND the Class 2 US Forging Championship competition in Malibu, California. During the next few years, John and Grant worked closely together, learning from each other, shoeing and competing in contests. In 1988 they joined forces to open the “Texas School of Farrier Science”, a horseshoeing school where they both taught. They closed the school in 1992 and went back to shoeing exclusively. John continued to shoe and compete in contests until 1995 when he retired from shoeing.

John holds the Certified Master Farrier designation in the BWFA of which he is a charter member. He also holds the Certified Journeyman Farrier designation in the AFA and the TPFA. He served as Vice-President of the TPFA for 6 years. He is an active lifetime member of all three organizations.

He continued to operate JHM Manufacturing, making 6 styles of anvils and anvil stands until April of 2005, when he sold the business to Anvil Brand Shoe Company and retired…again.

John has dedicated his life to improving and furthering the farrier industry through education and professionalism. His influence has been far reaching and has enhanced many a career.

BILL QUICK 2004

C.B. JOLLY 2004

MICHAEL FOREMAN 2005

BILLY & KATHY FORTNER 2005

KEN MOODY 2005

PHILLIP & CAROLYN ROBERSON 2005

Phillip & Carolyn Roberson

Inducted 2005

North Carolina

Phillip Roberson was born April 29, 1944 on a farm in Western N.C. He spent his whole life around horses. His first picture with a horse was about age 9 and he was standing up in the saddle. Around 11 years of age he met a widow lady who had a horse name Hadacol. He looked like a bag of bones with four hoof. She would let him borrow old Hadacol with the harness (something Phil did not have of his own) and he built a sled with a seat on it and spent many happy hours riding up and down old dirt roads.

Phil’s wife, Carolyn is the second of five children. Her father, Buck, logged and ran logging camps all his life along with teaching Phil to shoe his first horse. Buck was very well known with “Foxfire” in that the hauled in and restored all the log homes at Foxfire village using two of his boys and Foxfire school students located in Mt City, Ga. His picture is spread through out the different books Foxfire published and he has a monument erected to him at the Foxfire Village. Phil & Carolyn have been married for 40 years and have three children and seven grandchildren and wishing maybe the grandchildren had come along first.

Phil & Carolyn helped give birth to the Farriers National Research Center. Phil was attending Casey & Son Horseshoeing School and attended the convention in Calhoun, GA, the year that Ralph’s dreams of the first National Research Center was announced. Phil says, “I was a builder and Ralph was a Horseshoer. As we all know you cannot pick up the corner of a house and nail a shoe on it”. So Phil and Carolyn, along with the Casey’s laid the foundations for the Research Center. Phil set the anchor bolts and helped pour the piers. Being a licensed plumber, he deplumed the bathroom which had already been poured in concrete by some unknown horseshoe teacher. With his trencher he ran some 2000 ft of water, electric and gas lines.

Phil and Carolyn built the kitchen cabinets, and Phil’s personal tools are outlined on the cabinet doors. Under the supervision of Billy Fortner, Phil did the rough in electrical. Phil and Carolyn’s son Brian, also a horseshoer, helped with the sheetrock and did the finish work. Brian and a friend built the shed out back that is used for the main shoeing building.

Phil & Carolyn spent 40 to 50 days working 12 or more hours a day to help build the Farriers National Research Center. Phil says, “If we had not believed that our work would help the horse industry, young farriers, older farriers, and the good health of the horse we would not have given of our time and efforts, there is a lot that we could have been doing in this world.”

Phil also taught and helped with the research for the first two years, 2000 to 2001. At 60 Phil retired from teaching, thinking it was a good age to smell the roses, shoe a few horses, and play with the grandchildren. He says, “through this project, we have found very dear friends that we would not have known, had it not been for the Farriers National Research Center.

LINK CASEY 2005

KEITH SEELEY 2005

KEN CRIMMINS 2005

CHRIS GLOVER 2005

GINGER CASEY 2005

DAVEY TUCKER 2005

WALLY & BARBARA DROUST 2005

WAYNE ALLEN 2006

Wayne Allen

Inducted 2006

Georgia

Wayne J. Allen was born on December 20. He married Frankie C. Howell Allen on November 3, 1961. He has two children, Scott Jerry Allen and Melinda C. Allen Jordan.

He is a Journey Farrier AFA approved examiner, area and supervisor AFA 459. His grandson Christopher Scott Allen is a fourth generation farrier. He has 5 grand children and one great-grandchild.

Wayne grew up in a blacksmith shop on a farm in Alatoona, GA. His father ran a large shop for the time and area. His earliest memories are of coal dust and turning the hand blower for his dad, many times all day for several days in a row.

At the age of 13 he would be called upon to apply the keg shoes his father had "set".

His father died when he was fifteen and a half years old. He obtained a special drivers permit and with his dads pick-up started driving to the horses that were not brought to the shop. HE went to work for Horiato Luro, the trainer of two Kentucky Derby winners, Northern Dancer and Decidedly, both track record holders. Mr. Luro sent him to Al Pensions School of Horseshoeing in Grapevine Texas in 1967. He graduated from the advanced class at the head of his class.

Wayne worked for Mr. John Patterson, Harness Horse Hall of Famer for 16 and a half years, his son Scott did the work for Mr. Patterson for 15 years. He learned more about Harness Horses from Bruce Daniels and Bob Scages (both Hall of Famers) than any other horseman or farrier he had been around.

He was flown to Japan in 1994 to work on Wimpee Hirsiho, Olympic horses, two of which were shown in the Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia in 1995.He also has been to over 40 states to shoe several different breeds of horses, most with lameness or gait problems.

He has shod in many local, state, and national championships and has been blessed to be around some really nice horseflesh. He continues to shoe 5 days a week at the age of 65.

Things that are important to me: God, family, community, country, and my vocation. 11/3/07 will be 46 years married to the same person and living in the same county in Georgia since birth.

TOM WHALEY 2006

DOUGLAS EIDENIER 2009

RONNEY DEBOARD 2010

TJ JONES 2010

MAX WILLIAMS 2011