Last saturday, July 9th, a team of european top farriers sponsored by Mustad and including the likes of David Varini, Grant Moon (6-times World Champion at the Stampede Blacksmith Championship), Billy Crothers (5 World Champion titles) and Paul Robinson (World Champion in Calgary in 2008), won the Team Competition for Draft Horses shoeing held at the Calgary Stampede (all 4 pictured below, left to right).
The Calgary Stampede, also known as the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth, attracts every year an average of 100.000 people/day across a 10-day program full of events, demonstrations and shows where horses are at the epicenter of all activities.
After a full round of forging and shoeing classes started 3 days earlier, the World Championship Blacksmiths' Competition was conquered for the third time in a row by Steven Beane, from Yorkshire, England.
Beane took home the winner’s cheque for $10,000, as well as a gold-and-silver Stampede championship buckle, a limited edition bronze trophy, and a champion’s jacket. Final standings showed Beane with 152 points. Robinson was second with 115 points, Derek Gardner of Scotland placed third with 111, Crothers was fourth at 102 and Moon finished fifth at 95.
The european successful participation was also marked by the presence in the Top 10 of the WCBC of Yoann Policard. The frenchman was surrounded by his fellow french mates Christian Albergne and Ludovic Mathieu and Vincent Lamaille from Belgium.
The WCBC, known as the “Olympics of blacksmithing,” attracted 56 modern-day Vulcans from 13 countries around the world this summer: England, Denmark, New Zealand, Scotland, Australia, Ireland, Norway, France, Wales, Belgium, Northern Ireland, the United States, and Canada, with more than $50,000 in cash and prizes up for grabs. Sunday morning’s semifinal saw the 10 remaining contestants shoe the front feet of a light draft horse in 60 minutes.
Top 5 finalists from the United Kingdom, plus another 3 european farriers among the top 10 qualified for the final of the WCBC (Henirk Berger from Denmark pictured above): Europe took it (almost) all!
The finalists were given another 60 minutes to shoe the hind feet of that same horse. Judges Ian Allison of England and Dan Haussman of the United States based their decisions, through a blind judging process, on shoe forging, finish, and nail placement, as well as preparation and balance of the horses’ feet.Henrick Berger of Denmark, Scotland’s David Varini, Jim Quick of the United States, and Yoann Policard of France also made the top 10.
