Island Life Magazine Ltd August/September 2016 | Page 87

Equestrian

RETURN OF THE FARRIERS!
After a three-year break, the IOW
farrier championships are set to make a
comeback for 2016.
The competition, organised by Island farrier Simon
Legge, ran twice at Brickfields Horsecountry in 2011
and 2013 and proved to be a great success. It now
moves to Lake Farm in Rookley (by kind permission
of the Holmes family), and will be bigger and better
than before!

The apprentice classes will be run alongside the
open, with competitors working outside the main
arena from their vans, as is more usually seen on a
day-to-day basis. 
The apprentice classes will be judged by Nigel
Brown of Monmouthshire, while the open classes will
be judged by Jon Atkinson from North Yorkshire and
Jim Quick from Colorado, USA.
The championship will draw crowds of both farriers
and onlookers alike: with fire, smoke, sparks and
sweat, it really will be a sight to behold!

This year the Championships’ main sponsor is
Mustad (international farrier suppliers), whose
involvement has allowed for the expansion of the
event, attracting almost 100 farriers and apprentices
from across the UK and Europe - each hoping to
attain the title of IOW champion 2016!
Running from Thursday September 1 to Sunday
September 4, the open championship will consist
of two shoemaking and one leisure horse shoeing
classes. The top 28 competitors will go forward to the
cob shoeing class on day two. The semi-finals will be
held on the morning of day three, with the top five
entrants going forward to the final in the afternoon.

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