Here at DFS we are very committed to education. Education for a farrier takes many forms; school, apprenticeships, clinics, hands-on practice, certifications, lectures, and books. While we have a lot of great options in each of these areas, one of the learning methods I see overlooked or misunderstood the most is books on farriery. In all the studying I have done, there are only two good book lists I have come across and no real reviews. I have however found many other farriers asking for book suggestions.
One thing that many farriers have in common is that we typically learn best through hands-on experience rather than in a traditional classroom setting or through books. Because of that many will find jumping into the more advanced podiatry texts intimidating if there is not a sufficient base knowledge first. By organizing farrier books into an appropriate order for study we will be able to get the most out of each one. This is a project I am going to endeavor to start in this blog.
Over several posts on this blog, I will be giving a brief review of many different books on farriery and putting together a list of books in a suggested order of reading so that each book builds upon the concepts presented in the previous books. There are of course different stages of learning that we are all in; these stages could be broken down into categories such as apprenticeship, basic/beginning farrier, seasoned farrier, and advanced/therapeutic farrier. We can also break books into different categories such as those that should be read/studied straight through and those that are best as reference books.
We will be going through all the farrier related books in my library as well as any new ones that I add. If there is a specific book you would like to see a review of, feel free to reach out.