Worshipful Company of Farriers Site Visit
Dennis C. Manning, CJF
The Worshipful Company of Farriers (WCF) has for several years made provision for AFA members who are Certified Journeyman Farriers to apply for the DipWCF. Mr. Stephen Newman, FWCF, an Examiner for the Worshipful Company of Farriers attended the American Farriers Association Certification Examination hosted by the Florida State Farriers Association, October 28, 29, 2011. He was there to observe the standard of work expected by AFA Journeyman candidates to ensure that the AFA Standards have remained at the high level of expectation observed on previous visits by representatives of the WCF. Immediate past AFA President, Eric Nygaard, CJF was there to offer support.
Continuing under assignment from AFA Certification Chair, Greg Burdette, CJF, I also attended the Florida examinations. My first purpose in being there was to assist Mr. Newman in his observations helping find answers to his queries while allowing the responsible AFA Examiner and Testers to be free to perform their duties to candidates without interruption. Another purpose was to further the AFA Certification Committee investigation into the possibility of a more through two-way reciprocity of credentials.
The testing went without any noticeable problems. The pass rate on the practical shoeing examinations was one of the highest I have witnessed in many years. This could be credited to the preparation and experience of the candidates. One candidate passed all three areas of the Certified level on his first attempt at being tested. Through fifteen years of field experience and a great deal of hard work he had prepared himself well. At the other extreme there was a successful Journeyman candidate who had previously taken the practical exam twelve times. I made opportunity to observe closely the workmanship of candidates and scoring by Testers and found all passing work to be well within the approved Standards of the AFA.
Mr. Newman availed himself of every opportunity to observe and question the processes and procedures of the examinations. He wanted to be able to explain in detail to his associate's processes of the AFA exams. However his main objective was to make an evaluation of AFA Standards compared to those of the Worshipful Company of Farriers. Verbally he expressed his approval of the quality of work accepted as passing by AFA Testers, under the supervision of Examiner Rusty Jenkins, CJF. He will recommend continued recognition by WCF. A copy of his official report will be sent to the AFA in due course.
I was allowed to study the latest revision of the WCF Examiners manual. It was interesting to note the strong similarities in the scoring forms and descriptions of areas to be evaluated in the shoeing practical exam. Some of the wording is almost identical. There is however an area the AFA no longer considers in the shoeing evaluations that should probably be revisited.
During our discussions Mr. Newman brought up the idea that the AFA should seriously consider sending one or two AFA Examiners to Britain to observe examinations conducted by the Worshipful Company of Farriers. He seemed certain that such a visit would further the exchange of ideas, possibly bring the examinations of each group into closer harmony, and certainly strengthen our ties and support for one an other.
