England Farriery Team Victorious in Italian Championships!
The 24th Italian European team farriery Championships held at the amazing “Fieracavalli” Festival of the Horse in Verona, Italy began on November 6th with teams from Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Switzerland and England. This year’s England team consisted of three members from the current ‘International’ Championship team; David Smith, Gavin Golby, Matt Randles and joining them former England team member & World Champion finalist Nigel Fennell .With only 2 weeks’ notice, practice of the shoes was limited but thankfully all four of the team were familiar with Italian shoemaking from previous experience at the competition. The four shoes to be made were the Italian Bar shoe, Hind “Rabbit” shoe, Italian Jumping Hind shoe and a Mule shoe with round Calkins - all to be made in 1hr 50 minutes with just a 5mm tolerance.
The first day was the beginning of the shoemaking with all the members of the teams battling throughout the day to gain as many points as possible for their country. One team member from each country with the highest shoemaking score qualified to represent their country in the shoeing final. Following a tense night (aided by a relaxing drink in the bar!) the results were announced the following morning - England were well in the lead as a team and dominated the top five placements as individuals with Nigel Fennell winning the shoemaking and so qualifying to shoe in the final.
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The final consisted of making and fitting an Italian Fullered Front shoe and a Italian Jumping Hind shoe; each shoe requiring an exceptionally high level of detail in both the forging and the fitting. With the assistance of David Smith acting as fireman the class ran fairly smoothly with the only exception being a slightly uncooperative horse! Undeterred an excellent job was produced ensuring Nigel completed a terrific competition for England with team and individual wins, Nigel said “we all had such strong shoemaking rounds the previous day anyone of us could have made the final and it really put us in a good position for day two, we had such a great time together, and it was a real honour to be in such a strong team with David , Gavin and Matt, three of this year’s England team International Champions”.Results
1st England Gold
2nd Italy Silver
3rd Switzerland Bronze
Italian International Show Champion Nigel Fennell
