A former World Heavy Horse New Zealand champion Andrew Reader-Smith will be demonstrating his farrier skills at the Taranaki Pioneer Village open day on Sunday, January 12.
The Stratford-born farrier is visiting from his home in Britain and says, "the open day will be like a practise for me as once I head home I will be training again to defend my teams title at the International Horse Shoeing Classic in Kentucky".
Next month the team of Andrew, Jim Blurton, Mark Evans and Ricky Hilton will return to the United States to take on the competition again.
Andrew first began learning the skills of farriering when he was 18. "I have always had horses and enjoyed being around them so it was inevitable that I would end up working with them."
By age 26 Andrew was shoeing full time and eventually left for England. "I wanted to educate myself further and be able to enter in a higher level of competitions."
"Horse shoeing isn't a trade that you can pick up your tools and be an expert at by the end of the week, you have to work hard and really practise," Andrew adds that his ultimate goal would be to gain the world title. "I won't be satisfied until I am the best."
At the Taranaki Pioneer Village open day Andrew will demonstrate how to make horse shoes, how to correctly apply them to the horses and different types of shoeing styles.