Friendly Faces and New Classes Offer Excitement at the 2016 AFA Convention

The first day of the American Farriers Association (AFA) Tradeshow gave us an opportunity to reconnect with the farriers from the U.S., Canada, and overseas that we had met in the past years. We were also able to meet new attendees — including Mike Bagley from Ohio and Russell Bloodworth from Alabama, who you may remember as the recipients of the free registrations from AFA and FPD during FPD’s recent Facebook drawing. We also met Melinda Harvison from Mississippi and Jason Usry from Virginia who received the same offer from AFA and the Diamond Farrier Company. Everyone was excited about the activities during the convention, including the annual competition, demos, and lectures by AFA. This surely won’t be their last convention!

Day two of the convention, which included the featured live shoeing class with the top 20 competitors from the forging classes, went successfully. An interesting part of the class was being able to witness the two father and son combos — Craig and Bodie Trnka and Chris and Cody Gregory — participating at this level. It was also exciting to see Victor Frisco, 2014’s Kerckhaert-Liberty intermediate division winner, make top 20 for the second year in a row.

And, as always, we were amazed with the artistic talent that many of the farriers in the industry have in addition to their skill in the farrier trade. We brought a beautiful handmade piece by Tadao Onishi — a Japanese farrier that makes the trek to the AFA Tradeshow each year. We purchased this piece at the AFA Auction in Reno.

Stay tuned for an update as we head into the final day, which will end with the auction and awards ceremony this evening!

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