Sunday mornings at horse shows in the spring are pretty much the same for farriers everywhere. There are shoes to tack on, the odd horse to shoe, clinches to check, coffee to drink, stories to tell. A farrier might even have time to sharpen a knife, sweep the mats or glance at Facebook before a long drive home.
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Badminton's Farrier Prize is
sponsored by the Worshipful
Company of Farriers.
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Hampson has been recruited and trained through a Worshipful Company of Farriers program to evaluate shoes in “best shod” classes at county shows and large events and races held in the UK. The tradition goes back hundreds of years--all the way back to the 1700s legend of Lorna Doone, if you believe that tale of how highwayman Tom Faggus lost his love because of jealousy over a best-shod prize won by his strawberry mare.
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Australia's Port Phillip Farmers Society
began a best-shod award for heavy
horses in 1848; this silver medal was
awarded in 1858.
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The certificates, plaques and rosettes awarded hang in places of honor in both ancient and modern farrier forges from Cornwall to the Scottish Highlands.
At Badminton, the judge was on a mission to determine which farrier in the world deserved the Worshipful Company of Farriers’ coveted Farriers Prize for 2019. He’d look at shoes, feet, balance, materials, support, fit, nailing and, above all else, the appropriateness and safety of the horse to do his job with the shoes on his feet selected by his farrier at home. The inspection took place on the last day of the event, after the final veterinary inspection of horses who had successfully made it through the dressage and cross-country phases, and who would go on to this afternoon’s show jumping.
Horse after horse, Will watched the hooves as the grooms or riders led through toward him. He walked around the horse, picked up hooves on some, gave others a pass. He knew what he was looking for, and he found it.
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| The Farriers Prize this year was awarded to the Dutch Warmblood mare Call Me Maggy May, owned by Sara and Tom Strong, and ridden by Izzy Taylor. The mare was shod by Antony Marris, DipWCF. (photo used with permission) |
In Bedfordshire, England, farrier Antony Marris received the phone call he wasn’t expecting, but was delighted to answer. A mare he has shod since he was an apprentice, the 12-year-old Dutch Warmblood Call Me Maggie May, had successfully completed her first Badminton for rider Izzy Taylor and owners Sara and Tom Strong of Oxfordshire. She finished 31st of 56 who completed; 82 horses started the event on Wednesday.
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Former Master of the Worshipful Company of Farriers
Simon Fleet presented the Farriers Prize to British rider Izzy
Taylor during the awards ceremony. Her horse's farrier
Antony Marris was not present. (Kit Houghton photo courtesy of Badminton Horse Trials) |
On the phone, Antony's enthusiasm for his profession and his affection for the horse and his longtime clients were obvious. At 27, Antony has been running his own farrier business for about five years, since completing his apprenticeship and working for a few years more with well-known farrier and horseshoe designer/manufacturer Billy Crothers, AWCF, of Bedfordshire.
It is possible that this is the first time that both a former apprentice, Antony, and former master, Billy, are both represented on the list.
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We haven't see this before. The Farriers Prize was awarded to a horse wearing plastic. The mare's Ibex pads have a
textured frog zone. The horse was shod all around with handmade concave shoes and Mustad's Endura-coated nails.
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“It’s something I always wanted to achieve,” Antony said. He said he had shod the horse on Monday, right before it left for Badminton. The horse lives at home with its owner, in a traditional yard with old cobblestone paving. Sara Strong hacks and gallops the horse between training sessions at the rider’s facility.
Like most event horses, “Maggie May” has hooves that tell a story, even though the farrier says she is “straightforward” to shoe. In 2018, she sustained an over-reach injury on the lateral heel quarter of her off fore. She evented that season with bar shoes and side clips in front as the injury grew out.
With the bar shoes, Maggie May and Izzy Taylor was first at the The Irish Field CCI3* at the Tattersalls International Horse Trials and Country Fair in Ireland.
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| Antony Marris took these photos of Maggy May's new concave handmade hind shoes on Monday. Badminton began on Wednesday. The shoes are made from 13.5" of ⅞ x 3/8” concave stock and are drilled and tapped for studs and equipped with road pins in the heels. The nails are Endura-coated Mustad e-heads. |
Antony knew he was taking a chance when he set up Maggie May for Badminton with a set of Ibex plastic pads and hoof packing. As far as anyone contacted knows, no horse has won the Farriers Prize at Badminton when shod with pads. The Ibex pad has a chevron-like raised pattern on the frog zone, which he described as different from a solid frog support pad. She’s been wearing the pads since the bar shoes came off for “concussion issues” and protection.
“She gets a lot more grip from the pattern,” Antony said. “They’re great for dressage, to prevent slipping on the grass, and they help on cross-country and with concussion.”
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| The horse suffered an overreach injury early last year and was shod with side-clipped front bar shoes while it grew out. In this photo, the defect is almost grown out. The side-clipped bar shoes were replaced by toe-clipped open shoes with plastic pads and support material. |
Judge Will Hampson wasn’t put off by the plastic. While he describes himself as a traditionalist who prefers handmade shoes in his practice, he said he has respect for modern materials, and was pleased to see the modern and the traditional come together on Maggie May’s front feet.
All four of the mare’s shoes are handmade from ⅞ x 3/8” concave stock. Both the fronts and hinds called for 13.5" of stock, although the outside heels of the hinds are bumped 1/4" or so. The hinds have road pins in the heels; the fronts do not. If you look at the front shoe carefully, you can see the selective rolling of the edge on outside.
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One of the side-clipped front bar
shoes the mare wore last year.
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For nails, he used the new Endura-coated Mustad e-heads. According to the Mustad website, the nails are coated for strength, which allows farriers to use a slimmer but stronger nail to reduce hoof wall damage and improve driving, while also eliminating oxidation marks under the shoe.
Antony recognized his suppliers: Handmade Horseshoes and Stromsholm Farrier Supplies for pads and tools, and Mustad for nails.
Traditionally, British event horses are shod with concave stock, with toe clips in front and side clips behind. Antony said he doesn't make all his shoes, but added, "For some horses, I don't like machine-mades, I can't do the horse justice."
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| Antony Marris and the five-star "best shod" eventing mare Call Me Maggie May. This photo was taken last year at the owner's yard with her trophy after she placed first at the Tattersalls 3* event in Ireland wearing front bar shoes. |
He gave credit to the owners for the diligent care given to the mare, and to their veterinarian, Sarah Randalls, BVetMed, CertEP, MRCVS of Chiltern Equine Clinic, a leading British multi-site practice.
Will Hampson described his judging experience like a treasure hunt. He knew what he was looking for, and he found it in three horses, who were separated by as little as half a point. He said he was not very impressed with the foreign horses, who were mostly shod with manufactured shoes, including some aluminum. Although these shoes are designed for performance under the horses, Hampson quoted, "You shoe the horse behind the anvil," he said. "The horse is weaker if you use machinemade shoes. You want the horse to be comfortable."
Hampson described the Ibex pad and hoof packing as "sympathetic to the horse." He said he saw horses with "quite a few issues", including wedges and a horse that was shod with four different shoes. He commented that, in general, the foreign horses wore shoes that looked too big.
Will works out of a forge he inherited from his father in Hampshire, where he shoes hunters and Shire horses, and a mixed list of pleasure and show horses. His original forge was part of the estate of the Duke of Wellington in a hamlet that was built to accommodate horses visiting the estate and a nearby hotel in the coaching days. "My father used to have three forges going," he recalled. "I was brought up very 'old-school'."
In addition to running his shoeing practice, victorious farrier Antony is an avid downhill mountain biker and owns a company, "Out Skill the Risk", which makes and sells sustainable, organic-fabric technical clothing for cyclists.
The Hoof Blog continues our tradition of recording the winners of the Farriers Prize at the Badminton Horse Trials with the addition of Antony Marris's name:
Another farrier deserving recognition is Steven Derek Green, DipWCF, who shod 2019 Badminton winner Vanir Kamira, ridden by Great Britain's Piggy French. Congratulations also to Piggy's veterinarian, Alex Knott, MA, VetMB, MRCVS of Oakham Veterinary Hospital in Leicestershire, England.
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