Foot Doc By Day, Hoof Doc By Night

Fort Smith Podiatrist is also a Farrier

John Werner, an instructor, watches Thursday as student Matt Hunnicutt of Berryville works on cleaning the hoof of a Clydesdale horse during a farrier’s class at the Wildcat Horse Center in Springdale. The class is one of Northwest Technical Institute’s longest-running community education classes.
John Werner, an instructor, watches Thursday as student Matt Hunnicutt of Berryville works on cleaning the hoof of a Clydesdale horse during a farrier’s class at the Wildcat Horse Center in Springdale. The class is one of Northwest Technical Institute’s longest-running community education classes.

— There aren’t many people qualified to work on the feet of both humans and horses.

Meet John Werner.

His regular job is as a podiatrist in Fort Smith, where he has practiced for 34 years.

At A Glance

Farrier Program

Northwest Technical Institute’s farrier program consists of four semesters. Here’s what they cover:

• First semester: Basic horseshoeing

• Second semester: Advanced horseshoeing

• Third and fourth semesters: Special problems in horseshoeing and more advanced cases

Source: Staff Report

In recent years, however, he’s also become a farrier, one who specializes in equine hoof care.

Werner and his wife, Gwen, travel once a week from their home in Alma to Springdale, where John Werner leads Northwest Technical Institute’s community education class on horseshoeing.

They are joined by their daughter, Kari Cannedy, and her husband, Josh Cannedy, a Cave Springs couple. Both assist the Werners with the class. Gwen Werner doesn’t teach, but she provides support in various ways, such as offering students food and drink and filling out necessary paperwork.

“It’s very much a family affair,” said Patty Hall, NTI’s community education director.

When asked which patients are more challenging — horses or humans — John Werner pauses before offering a carefully crafted response.

“I would say they both have their own idiosyncrasies,” he said.

When pressed, however, he will admit it: The human patients complain more.

Hooked On Hooves

NTI offers a long list of community education classes covering everything from computers to small gasoline engine repair.

Horseshoeing is its longest-running community education class, going back about 20 years, Hall said. It’s also one of the few horseshoeing classes offered in Arkansas. People have come to NTI’s program from as far as Fort Smith and Berryville.

Four 12-week semesters on the subject are offered. Students pay $275 per semester. The class meets once a week for four hours at Wildcat Horse Center in Washington County just west of Tontitown; it’s the only one of NTI’s community education classes conducted off campus.

By the end of four semesters, a student is prepared to be a professional farrier.

John Werner, 61, became interested in the class in 2007, when his daughter was going through it. At the time, Walter Kreeger taught the class. Werner went through the four semesters himself, then spent about two years assisting Kreeger with the classes.

Kreeger went through NTI’s program for four semesters before taking over the program in 2000. After he died in December 2009, NTI asked Werner to succeed Kreeger.

Werner grew up with horses in Clarksville. He and his daughter together have nine horses. Each horse needs foot treatment once every six to eight weeks, depending on the level of their activity. A typical treatment costs about $65. Werner, then, saw the economic benefits of being able to shoe a horse himself.

“It’s a total break from medicine, yet it pertains to what I do,” Werner said.

There are remarkable similarities between the anatomy of a human foot and a horse’s foot, he said, something he learned under Kreeger’s tutelage.

Students learn how to handle all sizes of horses, from miniatures to Clydesdales.

Knowledge of the horse’s anatomy is essential, Werner said.

“If a horse comes up lame, you can’t just look at it from the outside,” he said. “You got to know what’s going on inside.”

Learning By Doing

Wild horses tend to keep their hooves trimmed naturally because of the many miles they cover. Most horses in the United States, however, live in a controlled environment where they have little freedom to run. In addition, the weight of a person on the horse’s back can cause a horse’s nails to become too short; the attachment of a steel horseshoe helps prevent that.

In the stable at Wildcat Horse Center one recent Thursday evening, several students practiced working on three quarter horses, which for the most part were placid and seemed to have no problem having their feet hammered, filed and scraped.

Blake Hogan, 22, of Fayetteville, is in his first semester. On this evening he was trying to shoe a horse for the second time in his life. In doing so he accidentally shaved off a small part of his right thumb with a trimming knife. After a short break to get the thumb bandaged, he was back at work in the barn.

Hogan said he’s always loved horses and he wants to be a professional farrier.

“All my instruction has been great,” Hogan said, adding he learns from the more experienced students as well as the instructors.

Werner makes sure the students know their horse anatomy, but he also insists the students learn by doing, not just reading about horse shoeing.

“The whole idea is if you don’t have a proper balance, it’s going to hurt the horse,” Werner said. “You’ve got to balance that hoof just right.”

Jim Holbrook, a 54-year-old building contractor from Madison County, is a fourth-session horseshoeing student. Of 14 students who started in the program with him, Holbrook is the only one who’s advanced to the fourth and final semester.

“A lot of people are too lazy to advance,” Holbrook said.

Holbrook owns two donkeys and two horses. He said his desire to learn how to shoe a horse came from watching other professionals work on his animals.

He said the farrier trade is great for people who like to work with their hands, but it’s also hard work.

“If you don’t embrace this, if you don’t love it, you won’t last,” Holbrook said.

Werner agrees with that.

“You got to really love what you’re doing, and have a love of horses, because there are dangers involved in (the work),” Werner said. He has seen several professional farriers injure themselves on the job, often in the knees or the back.

A certified farrier should be able to recognize numerous different foot ailments from laminitis to white line disease to navicular syndrome, Werner said. Those are some of the most typical ailments, but, “I want them to learn if they get in there and see it’s something else, then you need to know what to do. They should be able to treat anything your standard horse will see.”

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