Reining
“Shoeing with Purpose”
By Stephenie Bjorkman
Jun 12, 2009, 16:46

There’s an old saying around horse people, “No foot, no horse”. A horse’s entire weight is supported by his feet. The average horse weighs about 1000 pounds. Without healthy feet, a horse could truly be in trouble. Proper shoeing is of the utmost importance, especially to the performance horse. Devoted horse lovers spend thousands of dollars every year to maintain their horse’s feet. Your hoof care program is very important because not only does it affect the quality of the horse’s performance but any future soundness issues. Shoes can protect the muscles, bones, and tendons of the legs from injury.

Your horses’ feet are everything to them. Horses that have issues with their feet such as laminitis or ringbone may not be able to be kept comfortable if not shod properly. This leads me to my story. I am 29 years old and have been riding horses since I was a little girl. In my entire “horse life” I was blessed with having horses that had great feet. Every horse person knows that it is important to have your horse shod properly or purchase a horse with good feet. To horse people this is just common sense, but sometimes you cannot avoid the unavoidable. Recently I had the experience of learning that the healthiness of your horses feet could be a life or death situation. It brings tears to my eyes to say my first experience with bad feet, was not a good one. I lost one of my all time favorite horses to a very severe case of Laminitis.

This makes me wonder, do all the horse people know what to do if you have a horse with bad feet? Do people know where to go if they have a horse that the farrier has “given up on”? Who do you go to when you are looking for that final chance of saving your horse? During my time of trying to “save” my horse I met “this person” a little too late. Maybe if I would have met April Canavan-Simmons a little earlier, I could have saved my horse? I guess I will never know…

I believe that you meet people in your life for a reason. During the last couple months of my horse’s life I met April. Obviously there was nothing left she could do to save my horse, but I do think I met her to help you or someone you know possibly save a horse. If what had happened to me hadn’t happened, then I would not be here writing this article. I hope this article reaches other horse lovers who have horses who need a last chance.
April spends most of her day shoeing the “normal horse”, but she does have a specialty. She specializes in shoeing horses with “issues”. Issues could be laminitus, quarter cracks, founder, ringbone etc. She is really good at the “tough cases” and finds healing these horses to be a rewarding experience. So, for all of you people who have horses with chronic hoof problems, there is hope! I think in order for you to understand why she is an amazing shoer it is important for you to hear her story.

April was born 32 years ago into a family of horse lovers. She was given her first pony when she was 18 months old. It is safe to say that April pretty much grew up on horses back. When she was 15 her first pony, Benny had Laminitus and her other horse, Nijinsky had ringbone. Being such a young age, April didn’t quite understand why her horses couldn’t be “fixed”. In fact April wouldn’t take “no” as an answer. This is when she decided that if she wanted to save her horses she would need to take matters into her own hands. This is when April became a farrier, at only 15 years of age.

Not too long after she began learning to shoe, she got a job as an apprentice to an older certified journeyman (farrier). She was a natural at shoeing horses. Since she loved riding and showing she knew how important balance was to the horse. In her late teens she developed a hydraulic shoe shaper to shape plastic shoes. Plastic shoes are mostly used for therapeutic reasons. Since she began her shoeing career shoeing horses that needed therapeutic shoes, this was a natural area for her to learn about. She traveled to many trade shows with plastic shoe companies explaining how to use them and the benefits. Horses with lameness conditions such as founder, arthritis, laminitis, ring bone, navicular, and tender stone bruised hooves are perfect candidates for plastic shoes. Not every farrier is going to like plastic shoes. In fact plastic shoes have been around since the 80’s but have not been widely used until recently. Some farriers are close minded to this type of shoeing. If they didn’t learn it in school then they don’t believe it. April is not close minded to “new concepts” and “ideas”. Whatever is best for the horse is her first priority, not whether or not the shoe looks funny. With April the horse comes first, period. In fact let’s just call her our “new age shoer”. April says, “The technology for plastic shoes is great now, and they are saving horses lives every day!” Just so you know, plastic shoes may not work for every horse with a hoof problem. April shoes all of her horses on a case by case basis.

Growing up April spent her time showing horses. She has shown reining, working cow, dressage, hunter, western pleasure, halter, sport horse, and saddle seat. Horses have always been her love. She personally owns 30 horses that she breeds, trains, and competes on. Her amazing shoeing techniques have kept her and her clients horses sound to perform to the best of their ability. “If the horse is confident with its feet, then it will perform its best”, say April.

In 1998, she met her husband Steven Simmons. They met at a ranch in Moorepark, California. April’s mom always told her that if she was going to stay with the horses that she needed to marry a vet, farrier, or feed guy. I guess she took her moms advice, because at the time Steven owned a feed company. About 2 years after being with April, Steven decided to leave the feed company and started working with April. This way not only could they spend more time together, but by working as a team they could do twice as many horses.

Today April and Steven work as a team saving horses lives everyday. They stay busy shoeing a 300 horse clientele in California and over 100 horses in Arizona. They currently live in California, but travel to Arizona every two weeks. They shoe every type of horse you can imagine and love what they do! They shoe with a purpose, to keep horses happy!

PS: You may want to know if April saved her first two horses from laminitis and ringbone, the answer is YES! The pony, Benny, lived many more incredible years and Nijinsky was almost sound immediately.



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