School Spotlight: Cornell University Farrier Program

When Steve Kraus graduated from Cornell's College of Agriculture in 1970, he had plans to become a veterinarian. Instead, he discovered his passion for horseshoeing—and never looked back. More than 50 years later, Steve is leading Cornell’s Farrier Program, which was founded over 110 years ago. 

One of the biggest things that sets Cornell’s farrier program apart is the kind of horses students get to work with. 

Because of the school’s close integration with Cornell University's renowned veterinary hospital, Cornell’s farrier students are regularly exposed to everything from basic horseshoeing to the most complex therapeutic cases, side by side with veterinarians.

"We’ll go from shoeing basic, easy horses to the most complicated horses—sometimes all in the same day,” says Steve, who’s been the program's head instructor for 15 years. “Our students get to see diagnostics. They get to see what veterinarians have to say about what's going on."

While students master the fundamentals on the 30-some horses used by Cornell's polo team, and the 60 or so horses in Cornell's Equine Park, they also work alongside some of the top veterinarians in the country on complex lameness cases. 

“The atmosphere around Cornell just really uplifts people. We work with very talented veterinarians, and they treat my students like friends. They explain things to them. They don't talk down to them. They trust us. I work with some of the top veterinarians in the country, and they come to me to see what I think needs to be done for certain horses.”

Steve says he transfers that kind of respect to his students. 

“I tell them, ‘Don't think of yourself as “just a horseshoer” or “just a student”. Build on what you learn and find people to help you—and, as you develop as a farrier, you'll have marketable skills that can make a life for you. That's what this school is all about.”

Steve Kraus has spent decades in the farriery world—from his early days as farrier for Cornell University’s polo team (and Mustad's first USA farrier consultant) to his current role training the next generation of farriers. We sat down with him to learn more about what makes Cornell's program unique.

Your program at Cornell is over 110 years old. How has it evolved over the years?
The current program has been running the way it is since about the 1950s. The only thing that’s changed is we've finally expanded. When Mike Wildenstein was the head farrier here, he was able to expand the shop size to accommodate four students, instead of just two. Which brings up another unique thing about our school: We have a very small student-to-instructor ratio—with only four students at a time for 16 weeks.

Why only four students? What's your philosophy behind keeping the class size so small?
Well, it's more of a space constraint. We have room for six anvils and six forges. So four students plus my anvil, that makes five, and then the extra anvil is for continuing education students who are sometimes here. It's a nice even number to work with—with four students, they can sometimes work in teams on a horse. 

What do you think students gain at Cornell that they might not get elsewhere?
Because we’re involved with the veterinary hospital here, our students get to see a lot of cases they normally wouldn't see. They get to see diagnostics. They get to see what veterinarians have to say about what's going on. They get to see—and help with—some of the procedures we do. They get to see the special shoes that have to be involved if we're doing something that concerns us. And they get to see the results. So they're not just learning the basics. They're seeing everything top to bottom.
 

You mentioned working with polo horses as teaching tools. How did that come about?
Before I was an instructor at Cornell, I had already been working on the string of polo horses for years. It’s over 30 or 40 horses. When I took over the farrier school in 2010, I spoke to the coaches and said, "Let's transition to have my students do these horses." I knew they would be great teaching horses—because if a horse is playing polo, there's usually not much wrong with them. So these are very straightforward, well-behaved, good-standing horses with fairly normal, easy feet to shoe. So those horses became very, very valuable for teaching farriery. It really changed the program and got the students under more horses. 

Your program is 16 weeks long. How did you settle on that length?
When I came in 15 years ago, I thought I would make it longer—because 16 weeks is barely enough, in my opinion. But with the people that were coming into our course, I realized that being away from home for four months was about all they could handle financially. Some of them have other types of jobs going on. Some of them are already shoeing horses and have a little bit of a business going and want to upgrade themselves. We can fit three 16-week sessions in a year, and we run close to the same calendar as Cornell. 
 

What do you look for when you’re selecting those four students?
We encourage the students to come in with as much hands-on experience as possible—ride-along experience, basic trimming, maybe working with a farrier as an apprentice. When we get students who don't have any of that, they spend almost half the course getting up to zero before they're ready to learn the real stuff.
 

How do you teach students about the business side of farriery?
Farriery is a business—it’s not a hobby—and if you want to be successful, you have to run a business of shoeing horses. I teach our students not just to shoe horses willy-nilly, but to go out there and build a life for themselves. I teach them to understand what their costs are for shoeing, and how to identify the fixed costs that will stay the same whether they shoe one horse or 100 horses. I teach them that their price structure has to reflect their fixed costs and their variable costs—and then give them something to live on while being able to save money and build a life.

 

What's the most rewarding part of what you do?
Well, for me, I like to see my students do well. I'm happy for them when I see that. But when I have a horse come in that’s not doing well,  and I figure out the issue, and then the horse is moving very nicely again—and the owner, and even the students, say, “Wow, look at the difference,” that's what I really like. That’s a great teaching opportunity for the students.

 

What’s the philosophy behind the way you teach?
I want my students to be able to repeat what I show them—so the method has to be repeatable. When I help fix a horse that people thought was lame, I'm not doing magic, I'm using sound principles for the right situation. And that's what the students need to see, that it's repeatable. Over and over, one plus one always equals two. 

 

You also offer continuing education for practicing farriers. How does that work?
That’s right. We have one extra anvil in the shop for two-week continuing education students. I tailor that training to whatever the farrier needs. So if somebody calls me up and says, "I hear you have this two-week short course, tell me about it," I say, "Well, tell me your background. Tell me what you need to learn. Tell me what kind of horses you want to shoe." In some cases, somebody has already gone to a shoeing school and they’ve got very good basics, but their forge work is lacking. Okay, we'll work on that. Or maybe they want to learn how to modify or make shoes better, or whatever they need. If they have something, I can build on it.