Frequently Asked Questions
1. Why do we begin a small group every Monday?
This means that our shoeing customers have a high degree of confidence in our work and they are always bringing their horses. In fact, we have horses backed up on our appointment calendar for two months. We have shod for some of these people for almost 40 years.
Suppose we did not do this. Our work would be of a very inconsistent quality for the first couple of weeks of a cycle in which we would have all brand new students. We would lose customers. Then we would have to go out hunting horses and go out in the field every day to have enough horses for you students to shoe.
Figure one hour driving out and one hour driving back to the school. That makes two wasted hours driving time every day instead of teaching time. That is how it is done elsewhere but not here. All of our clients bring their horses in for us to shoe in our shop. No wasted time and an average of two more hours per day of instruction.
2. Do we really get to do corrective shoeing? How do you get these kinds of cases?
We do not just pay lip service to teaching corrective shoeing; we actually do it day in and day out. The only possible way to have the necessary cases for our students to learn corrective shoeing is to always have advanced students who are capable of performing the craftsmanship necessary to shoe these difficult cases. These cases do not just crop up at our convenience. They must be done on an as needed basis. This means that we must always be ready to serve these cases if we are to get them and to keep them.
3. How can I expect to have the confidence to do corrective shoeing for my customers?
When we have a particularly interesting case come into our shop (which is on most days) and the instructors shoe the horse, the students think “Of course you can do it, you are an instructor”, and never learn to do it themselves. However, if they see the advanced students in class doing the work they quickly realize that they will be able to do that work later on in school.
4. Will we always have our instructors in school or do they have other duties like going off to do lectures elsewhere?
We make sure that our head instructors do not leave to give lectures and seminars at conventions and horseshoer meetings. They belong here at the Oklahoma Horseshoeing School, teaching our students. They serve only ONE MASTER – which is teaching the very best quality horseshoeing that they can. They stay here and do their job.
5. How demanding is Oklahoma Horseshoeing School that we produce quality work?
We are pretty hard core here. This is the only horseshoeing school in the world that works on Saturdays and even on holidays (including on Christmas day). We always encourage you to do more and sometimes it may seem that we are never satisfied but this is how we get the fine craftsmanship from our students that we do. Our shop is open during the evening for our students to prepare assignments for the following day. We do not encourage other activities other than learning horseshoeing so that you will be able to start your own horseshoeing business the day you return home from school. We encourage our most advanced students (the last four weeks of the twelve week course) to shoe with hand made shoes on most days.
6. Will we be practicing shoeing horses on live horses or dead hooves?
The only “dead hooves” on the place are professionally preserved anatomy specimens. (There is no way you can learn to shoe live horses by practicing on dead hooves.) We shoe live horses all day every day.