BWFA Chapters

S.H.O.E. Awards Banquet

The 2010 SHOE awards banquet was held February 5th at Troutman's restaurant in Concord NC. R.C. Clark took home the top honor of S.H.O.E. Farrier of the Year. This year the association also recognizes the late Ben Pierce and his wife Ann for all their hard work with the association over the years. Ann Pierce and the whole family were in attendance. Janet Stipp, Debbie Campbell, Randy Baker and Dwayne Holder all gave nice tributes to Ben.

The S.H.O.E. Patriot award went to Paul Warner. Paul owns Warner Feed and Tack.  The store was started by Paul’s mother and father and has been helping horses, horse owners, and farriers since 1969.

The winners this year are:

S.H.O.E

Born to Forge, Mind Games & Farrier Contest

This year for the 20th year in a row, Ben and Ann Pierce of Pierce Farrier Supply sponsored the Born to Forge Mind Games. It was held at Third Charm Training Center in Midland NC. This year was a two part contest. Part one was the Mind Games, run like the 4H horse bowel. Where farriers have a buzzer and ring in as questions are asks about horses and horseshoeing. S.H.O.E. has a very large Q&A pool with questions from history to gaits.  Part two was a forging contest where the farriers are asked to hand forge a horse shoe in the fire. The first part got off to a fast start with Dwayne Holder jumping off to a strong lead, only to be challenge by Marcus Pierce and Randy Baker at the end. Marcus put on a hard charge at the end but Dwayne held on barely   to win part one. The forging part two was won by young Nathan Campbell who had  finished 4th in the Mind Games ,he made  up for it in part two and won by just one point over Randy Baker. All the shoes looked great, and everyone had a great time. All points counted for S.H.O.E Farrier Team. Thanks again to all the good people at Pierce Farrier Supply, and Third Charm Training Center for all of their help.

 2009    S.H.O.E. Farrier Team Standings

TOP Four for 2009 as of May 1st 2009 

 # 1 Dwayne Holder     Midland NC             25 points

#2 Marcus J Pierce      Indian Trail NC         20 points

# 3 Randy Baker         Lancaster SC          18 points

#4 Nathan Campbell    Monroe NC            15 points

S.E.F.H.A.

Extreme Cowboy Competition

On May 30, 2009 SEFHA, the BWFA chapter in Danville Virginia held an extreme cowboy competition.  South Eastern Farriers and Horse Owners Association was founded in 2007 to bring together Farriers, Horseowners, Trainers, and Veterinarians to broaden their knowledge of the horse.

Since its beginning, the association has held many exciting events such as Proper Shoeing your horse for gait, Safe Horsemanship, Proper Bitting, A Round table discussion, a Benefit Trail Ride for a Cancer Child, a fun show, and many others.

This Competition was another educational and fun activity that SEFHA has had.  President of the Association, David Tuggle opened the competition with a demonstration of what was expected to do the obstacle course safely and effectively, explaining the importance of you and your horse working as a team.

The obstacle course included such tasks as opening and closing a gate, carrying a dummy, passing thru branches (which were pool noodles), dragging a tree, mounting and dismounting your horse, picking up all four feet, and other obstacles.  These were everyday jobs for your horse and by doing these safely and calmly it also reinforced the importance of your horse being willing to face challenges with a calm behavior.  Whatever your horse is asked, whether it be a trail ride, or being hauled, the farrier or the Vet work, it needs to use the thinking side of its brain and not the reactive side.

We had eighteen participants and over fifty spectators.  Our desire was that everyone went away a little more educated about horsemanship while having fun doing it.