School Technical Ideas

Jason Wilson-Maki

What is a farrier? What do they do?

A farrier is a skilled tradesman who maintains horses’ feet. Often protective devices (horseshoes) are required to allow a horse to perform his duties; a farrier builds and applies these appliances. The shoes can be as simple as a basic shoe to any apparatus imaginable to support, protect or alter flight and weight bearing in a horse’s foot.

Why does the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) need its own farrier?

My role at the CVM is multifaceted, and ancillary to many of the other equine services. I trim and maintain the horses that are used in the teaching process. I also fill shoeing prescriptions for client horses to help alleviate lameness and am often called upon to create supportive shoes and devices for post-surgical animals. I am involved in teaching laboratories which are aimed at teaching students safe handling of horses’ feet, shoe removal and other physical skills involving the hooves of horses. I am also able to bring a farrier’s perspective to discussions about specific cases and hopefully assist in fostering better veterinarian/farrier relations. The farrier position at the CVM, in my opinion, allows for a more complete educational experience for the students and provides a full service facility for client animals.

Is this a lost skill or is there still a need for farriers?

The demand and need for trained farriers continues to grow. In recent years, through the work of local associations, national organizations such as the American Farriers Association and outreach programs by the American Association of Equine Practitioners and increased communications between individual farriers, the level of knowledge and skill has increased.

What do you like most about this career? 

Whats not to love? I am involved with horses and people on a daily basis. I am in a trade that demands a continual upgrading of skills and knowledge. I also get to fabricate intricate, individual animal-specific appliances from straight stock. I love the physical and mental challenges and the opportunity to help horses and horse owners.  The best component of my private career was the independence the work provided. Currently, the top aspect is the interaction with and education received by working with the veterinarians and other professionals at the CVM.

What kind of training/certifications does one have to go through to become a farrier? 

Wilson-Maki shoes a horse at the College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences.

In a strictly legal sense in the USA, any individual at any time may trim or shoe a horse and claim the title of farrier. However, the American Farriers Association (AFA) has a series of voluntary certification examinations. These range from an intern exam, a Certified Farrier (CF) all the way through Certified Journeyman Farrier (CJF). Testing for Specialty Endorsements is also provided. Many professional farriers attend farrier schools ranging in length from a few days to two years. The AFA examinations are stringent and exacting enough that most farriers who pursue the certifications serve some form of apprenticeship. These range from highly informal help sessions to contractually bound apprenticeships. I would guess that the farrier trade is one of the least regulated, yet complicated crafts in existence.

What equipment/techniques do you use on a daily basis?

Somewhere I saw a T-shirt with an interesting description of a farrier. Paraphrased, it stated: farriers are the masters of sharp knives, biting rasps, cutting tools, horses, hot steel and heavy hammers.

I will utilize multiple knives designed for specific detail work on a horse’s foot. I also work with many different rasps (a big fingernail file) and nippers for clipping feet. Ill use a forge for heating metal and an anvil for shaping or manufacturing various shoes. Myriad tongs for holding different stock dimensions, and more hammers than you would think one person would need. Ill sometimes use band saws, grinders, buffers, a mig welder, a jigsaw, and the list is endless.

The most important technique, in my mind, is using as much information as can be provided and thinking through your goals, options and probable outcomes before diving in: think before you do.

Is there anything that you would like to add about this special career?

Farriery is a mentally challenging, physically demanding trade which requires myriad and disparate skill sets. Knowledge of horses and multiple equine disciplines is required. The willingness to ignore aches and pains to accomplish your goals is paramount. I think communication skills are also important. In order to be successful, one must continually question what he or she is doing and accept failures as readily as successes. The willingness and ability to self-educate is invaluable. One must not only educate their mind, but master and refine their forging and trimming skills. Your hands must be able to produce what your mind dictates. This trade is not for everyone, but for the right people, it is the greatest (and one of the oldest) crafts in the world.

An Android phone has a lot of apps to go with, and they can handle just about any kind of task you might throw at them. For example, when you want to throw a party, you can use a ton of different apps.

Naturally, each type of party is going to be different, but Christmas parties aren’t too much different from any other kind. As the old saying goes, there’s an app for that. As cliche as it may sound, a Christmas party is a complex matter, and that mandates several apps.

Image via Flickr

Plot Out Every Detail You Can

Naturally, there are going to be last-minute things you didn’t plan for. However, your Android will be able to help you significantly. Christmas party planning on your Android phone starts with the Christmas Party App, which will allow you to plan out things like your timeline—your priority actions like purchasing non-perishable foodstuffs—and to keep you on track if you start to fall behind.

Food, Decorations, and Other Stuff

Image via Flickr

December is supposed to be a snowy month—there isn’t a snow-making app, unfortunately, but if you have any problems related to making sure your food is sufficiently delectable, try the Recipe Quest app to get some great recipes in a hurry. Maybe it’s intended to be a gift or it’s just a showcase of your cooking prowess, you can get Recipe Quest for free. If you think your guests will enjoy drinks, you might also want to download the Mixologist Drink Recipes app, which has a few thousand drinks of both the alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages.

Keeping the Memories Alive

Nothing makes July more enjoyable than relieving how drunk and bundled up everybody was at Christmas time. So the Camera Zoom FX app will give you plenty of laugh-out-loud all next summer.

Now, you have Android phone as your pocket-sized personal assistant with lots of apps to showcase, so what are you waiting for? Get the party started!

Image Via Flickr

Being organized allows you to enjoy the little things in life more. By taking time to organize your home, you give yourself a clutter-free home that is easier to clean and find things you need. You can also teach your child how to remain tidy in the process. By making household organization a habit of nature, you will never worry about picking up a cluttered home again.

Delegate Responsibilities

Keeping things tidy takes responsibility. Delegate a room to each member of your family. That person is responsible to ensure that everything is in its place at the end of the day. For example, if someone has the kitchen, he or she is responsible for putting all the dishes in the dishwasher, for any clutter to be put where it goes, and for any trash to be disposed of.

Do Household Errands At Home

Keep yourself organized in terms of time by utilizing little snippets of time, five or 10 minutes, for a chore. Online faxing with Metrofax allows you to save time and space. Simply upload a document to the database and fax it away. You can save a copy of the file to your computer (no paper!) and be done with the chore.

Create An Easy-To-Read Schedule

When children know what is expected of them, they follow orders. This means if a child knows he has a Boy Scout meeting at 7 p.m., he will begin to clean up ahead of time and put his toys or school-related things away beforehand. By taking his own things into account, he becomes responsible for his things and helps you to keep your clutter-free home clean.

Image Via Flickr

Organize Each Room

Purchase organizational tools such as shelves, toy boxes or bins in which to place things. Make sure your children know where everything is to be placed. This allows them to clean up each day and also know where their things are when they need them. By having an organizational process in your home, you cut time spent searching for things you need and can use that time enjoying your family.

Ultimately, keeping an organized home doesn’t have to be difficult. Make it a family effort to clean the home each day and have an organizational process. This teaches your kids to value their possessions and also to focus on more important things, such as their chores, homework or just spending time with their family. In the end, the time spent organized is an investment toward the happiness and success of your family.

There is an innate fear people—usually men—have in admitting that they don’t know the answer to something. If you look closely you’ll see them all over the place. Men standing on the side of the road staring blankly under the hood of a car or staring mystified by a map or even GPS in front of them refusing to acknowledge they are indeed lost.

Image Courtesy of Flickr

It’s most prevalent and obvious in politicians. Instead of just admitting they don’t know something, they come out with a wild, improper, and often inane answer to even the simplest question.

These people are all victims of Male Answer Syndrome. Despite the name, it is a problem shared by both men and women. It was first discovered in men back in prehistoric time and has appeared in every generation since. The reason that it’s so hard to catch and cure is that no one will admit they have it. If directly asked, sufferers will often spin a wild rambling yarn that usually ends with a tale of how they became the hero in high school because they caught the game winning touchdown. It’s quite sad really. Especially when there is ample proof that they never played football in high school.

Diagnosing the Male Answer Syndrome in the Workplace

In general, it’s a harmless syndrome only requiring emergency intervention when a person suffering from the Male Answer Syndrome gets locked into a conversation with a child who constantly asks “Why?”

Where it becomes highly problematic is in the workplace. Too often, when you asked someone if he/she knows how to do something, he/she will merely give a knee-jerk positive response. The consequences can be quite harmful. It is especially damaging when it comes to the IT department.

Image Courtesy of Flickr

In smaller companies, too often the IT duties are thrust upon an employee who has a “knack” for computers. He will happily run the IT department with little to no-true knowledge of how IT really works or how important it truly is. It’s only when servers fail and infrastructures crumble that the reality of the problem becomes apparent.

Avoiding Male Answer Syndrome

To protect your company, find a trained and certified IT professional before it’s too late. IT recruiting services can help you find the right person or people for the job. They specialize in placing IT professionals in industry-specific jobs where their experience will minimize training and maximize results.

You can find staff for every IT duty, from the help desk up to project management.

Protect yourself from Male Answer Syndrome and let IT recruiting services find the right candidate for you.