BFBA Focus 2024
When: Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th September 2024
Where: Hall 2, NAEC Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire CV8 2LH
- Huge farriery and blacksmithing trade fair
- Lecturers from world-class clinicians
- Live demonstrations
The BFBA are delighted to confirm that Focus 2024 will take place over the weekend of 28th and 29th September, with the BFBA International Team Horseshoeing Championship taking place on Friday 27th and Saturday 28th September. We’re also delighted to bring you both the BFBA International Bladesmithing Competition and BFBA International Team Blacksmithing Competition on Sunday 29th September.
Focus is a highlight in the farriery and blacksmithing calendar with the event being valued and enjoyed by blacksmiths and equine professionals including vets, physiotherapists, nutritionists and barefoot trimmers.
Lectures, demonstrations and trading will take place on the Saturday and Sunday, enabling the International Team Horseshoeing competitors to enjoy the Focus event once the competition is complete. If you have any queries, please call Head Office on 024 7669 6595.
Speaker Programme
The lectures are recorded. If you can’t be here in person, listen to the lectures shortly after the event in the BFBA Members Area!
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SATURDAY 2.45pm-3.45pm: Management of Toe and Quarter Cracks
SUNDAY 10.45am-11.45am: Injuries around the Coffin Joint
Stuart Muir NZCEF, CJF, DipWCF, APF
Stuart Muir, originally from New Zealand, is now the resident farrier at Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Ky, USA.
Stuart’s clientele at Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital consists of sport horses and horses that have diagnosed pathology. He thoroughly enjoys the challenge of working on complex pathology and enjoys rehabilitating horses.
Stuart offers education and lectures for organisations and veterinary clinics throughout America and Canada.
SATURDAY 1.30pm-2.30pm: Two-Way relationship between conformation/posture and hoof morphology
SUNDAY 9.30am-10.30am: The details of hoof deformation patterns determined by specific conformational configurations
Ula Krzanowska MSc Architecture
Ula Krzanowska, The Hoof Architect, is a full-time farrier with an architectural background. She graduated from the Technical University of Lodz, achieved her MSc degree in Architecture and practiced as an architect and illustrator in Poland and the Netherlands for a couple of years whilst trimming horses alongside her main work, until she decided to follow her passion and fully switch profession.
She currently works on all types of horses, from pasture pets to high performance horses and referral cases from veterinarians. She incorporates the understanding of three-dimensional space and physics into assessing hoof form, with the emphasis on the two-way relationship between hoof morphology and conformation/posture. She aims to combine both a scientific and empirical approach in order to understand and explain the changes occurring within the hoof in a way that is easy to comprehend for hoof care specialists and all equine practitioners.
In her free time she travels extensively, developing her own personal research regarding hoof morphology and educational hoof care projects, including online publication, The Hoof Architect.
SATURDAY 10.45am-11.45am: Demystifying Sport Horse shoeing: Practical Application Function and a bit of science thrown in
SUNDAY 12noon-1pm: Applying Orthotics: What considerations do you make in your shoeing plan?
Haydn Price DipWCF, GradDipELR
Haydn Price graduated in 1983 and has run a mixed practice in South Wales for 38 years. During that time, he has developed a special interest in performance and lameness shoeing techniques. He has also established both a need for, and been instrumental in the practical application and understanding of Farriery specific biomechanics, along with utilising equine gait analysis systems for both profiling and quantitative data collection.
He held the post of lead consultant farrier for 20 years to the British Equestrian Federation (BEF) and World Class Equestrian Programme (WCP) before retiring in March 2019. His responsibilities included the development and implementation of proactive assessment profiling, along with performance limiting factors of elite competition horses.
Hadyn is a regular international lecturer and contributor to equestrian-related symposiums in farriery, primarily in North America, South America, Australia, Mexico and Europe and he continues to operate a mixed referral practice for all equine disciplines with a particular interest in lameness and poor performance.
SATURDAY 12noon-1pm: Hoof Distortions Unveiled: Exploring the Connection between Hoof Capsule Changes and Internal Tissues
SUNDAY 1.30pm-2.30pm: Tracing the Path: Understanding the Palmar Digital Nerve in Equine Hoof Health
Paige Poss
Paige Poss has dedicated over 25 years to the hoof care industry, where she specialises in trimming horses’ hooves, conduction distal limb anatomy studies, and creating educational materials. Holding a BS degree in Animal Science from North Carolina State University, Paige initially ventured into the field as a lab tech at various research facilities. However, her journey took a turn in 1999 when a lame horse ignited her passion for hoof care.
In collaboration with her business partner, Jenny Edwards, Paige co-founded Anatomy of the Equine, LLC, a platform that publishes and sells education materials tailored for farriers and veterinary professionals. Paige’s unique approach blends her love for photography, science, anatomy and art. Her fascination with hoof and horse anatomy has led her to dissect and photographically document hundreds of lower legs and even whole horses. Her most impactful dissection images, to date, focus on the palmar digital nerve as it descends deep into the hoof capsule.
SATURDAY 9.30am-10.30am: The foot is not always at fault: A short presentation on recognising some postural adaptations that influence our shoeing plan
SUNDAY 2.45pm-3.45pm: Remembering the toe: A mixed presentation and practical session focusing on building the toe into a shoe combined with fitting keg shoes
Ian Gajczak DipWCF
Ian has been shoeing horses for over 20 years and runs a small professional multi-discipline business in South East Scotland. During his time as a farrier, Ian has had the opportunity to compete, present clinics, and judge at a number of events both nationally and internationally. It is at these events that Ian has been able to gather snippets of information and skill sets from a vast array of fellow colleagues, which has put him where he is today.
Ian has enjoyed a successful career to date with multiple successes under his belt, including some major competitions such as 4th at the World Championships in Calgary, 1st in the individual at the International at Stoneleigh, Swiss International Champion and 6 times Overall Champion at the Royal Highland Show, just to name a few. Ian was also the Scottish Team Member for a number of years.
SATURDAY 4pm-5pm
Open Forum
Managing our finances and achieving a better work/life balance.
Hosted by Liam O’Hara, Claire Brown, Billy Crothers and Danny Elliott
Focus Exhibitors
Sharp Zone Exhibitors
Demonstration Area
Saturday Demonstration Area
(times are approximate and may be subject to change on the day)
1pm: Handmade Shoes (UK) Ltd – Concave Shoemaking Demo. Billy Crothers will make a set of concave shoes using the new concave section from Handmade Shoes
Sponsors
We are indebted to our generous sponsors who provide unrivalled, ongoing support to this event and the association.
Thank you to our sponsors