Blacksmith Buddy Junior: The New Hoofcare Education Tool for Teaching, Practice, and Demonstrations

                             Sponsored Post from Blacksmith Buddy                                       

Practice makes perfect...sense, when a new student practices on a Blacksmith Buddy or Buddy Junior. Even an experienced vet or farrier can benefit from experimenting with a trimming or shoeing technique or even a crack repair using a plastic hoof before trying it on a living horse. The lightweight new Buddy Junior fits on a standard Hoof Jack and is portable for travel.

There’s a new kid in town. Kind of a little guy, but he fits right in. He hangs out with one of the most popular pillars of the hoofcare world, and the two of them work together like a couple of old pros. He’s a chip off the block, a new age version of his old man, The Original.



People see him in a trade show booth for the first time and crack a big grin. “That is cute,” they nodded at the American Association of Equine Practitioners Convention in Salt Lake City in December. “....And very clever!”

The Little Guy is officially known as Blacksmith Buddy Junior. He has the same features and usability as the original Blacksmith Buddy hoof-practicing tool, including the removable hoof. But instead of the solid base and arm, “Junior” fits right into a standard piece of equipment that most farriers and hoof trimmers already have on hand: their Hoof Jack stand.

With the flick of the wrist, the standard support or sling of the Hoof Jack pops out, and Buddy Junior drops in. Another flick of the wrist secures it, and the user is ready to rasp or nip or cut away.

As with most things California horseshoer Wes Champagne invents, you have to see it to believe it. And if you can get through the crowd at next week’s International Hoof Care Summit in Cincinnati, Ohio, you will see both Buddy and Junior in action.

A removable Blacksmith Buddy plastic hoof used for quarter
crack lacing practice at a veterinary college. Extra hooves
may be purchased separately.

Since “Buddy Senior” was introduced in late 2012, it’s taken the education scene by storm. Even if people aren’t actually using it, it has changed the way they think about teaching people to work under horses. This is especially true in veterinary colleges, where students need to learn to work on hooves, but find that learning on an inanimate, unmoving Blacksmith Buddy is infinitely easier than on a horse that shifts and pulls and snatches and leans. The student can concentrate on learning to use the tools and position the body correctly before factoring in the horse’s movement.

Buddy Junior also lowers the investment of the popular teaching tool, and makes it much more portable; it is even packable and can go on a plane, boat, or train as long as someone on the other end has a Hoof Jack ready and waiting.

Look familiar? The Blacksmith Buddy Junior slips right onto the pole of a Hoof Jack.

With both Buddy and Junior, the plastic lifelike hoof is fully trimmable and shoeable. Hooves can be purchased in lots of a dozen or 100, and students can keep their first nailed-on shoe, or pull it off and let someone else work on the same hoof.

At a veterinary college, one of Buddy’s hooves even was inflicted with a quarter crack so that a lacing repair demonstration could be given to students, who routinely use Buddy for practice pulling shoes and performing hoof examinations.

As Buddy Junior joins the team, watch for Blacksmith Buddy to spread to a wider variety of users in schools, vet hospitals and anywhere that training or demonstrations take place. It’s hard to imagine a trade show without a trail of Buddy hooves from booth to booth.

Make plans to try your hand at working on a hoof or shoe via a Blacksmith Buddy soon. You’ll think of a dozen ways it can be used--and have fun doing it!

Learn about Wes Champagne's new Blacksmith Buddy Junior at blacksmithbuddy.com.
Follow news from Blacksmith Buddy on the company's Facebook page.

Contact Wes Champagne and Blacksmith Buddy directly:
PO Box 660266
Arcadia, CA 91066 USA
Email: wes@blacksmithbuddy.com
800.856.SHOE (7463)
Wes Champagne YouTube Channel
Sales: Erin Baayen

Please mention that you read about Blacksmith Buddy Junior on The Hoof Blog! We appreciate Blacksmith Buddy's support...and their leadership in new ideas and support for education! Go, Buddy!

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing; Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is the news service for Hoofcare and Lameness Publishing. Please, no use without permission. You only need to ask. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a headlines-link email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page). Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.  

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