School Spotlight: Montana State University Farrier Program

When Diego Almeida, CJF EE, FE, TE, AWCF,  took over the Montana State University Farrier School five years ago, he brought with him a straightforward philosophy: teach students the fundamentals they need to succeed, and teach them well.

"I truly believe that if you want to be a good farrier, you gotta own your trade," says Diego, who leads the program from MSU's facility just outside Bozeman. "You have to understand horses. You have to understand how horses behave, how horses move. You have to have a good sense of horsemanship, and be good with the forge. You have to be educated enough to understand biomechanics and physiology so you can communicate with other professionals.”

Located on a 40-acre facility just outside Bozeman, the MSU program runs three intensive 12-week sessions per year, with a maximum of 12 students per class and three instructors—ensuring every student gets the personal attention they need to master the fundamentals.

Diego Almeida, an AFA Certified Journeyman Farrier with all three endorsements offered by the association (Educator, Forging, and Therapeutic Endorsements), an Associate with the Worshipful Company of Farrier in England, and an AFA Tester and Certification Instructor, sat down to talk more about the program he leads at MSU.

Your program keeps classes very small—with 12 students and three instructors. Why do you take that approach?
We keep it small because then we can see each student's progress and support what they need. Some students are great at forging but struggle in the classroom. Others are great with the classroom but need more time with the practical work. We can tailor our approach based on what each student needs.
 

What do your students learn in those 12 weeks?
Our program is very simple. Our students learn how to trim, they learn how to build and fit plain stamps—fronts and hinds. They learn how to fuller, and they learn how to build bar shoes. In the classroom, we talk about anatomy, physiology, and pathologies. But what I tell them is, “If you master these little blocks I'm teaching you, then you can build any shoe—all you have to do is combine it.” So we break everything down into little blocks. They learn how to punch nail holes, how to fuller, how to bump, how to make fronts and hinds, how to weld, how to make bar shoes, and how to pull clips. Any other shoe is just some combination of those basic elements.
 

How do you prepare students for the realities of running a farrier business?
We don't have a formal business class, but we do talk about it a lot. I run a farrier practice in addition to teaching at the school, so I can give students personal insight about how to run a business. We talk about profit margins, the cost of doing business, insurance, things they're going to need. A lot of people don’t understand the real costs. I’ll show them that the better they get, the lower their overhead is going to be—we'll do the math about what it means to be five minutes faster per foot, and it’s almost a brand new truck at the end of the year. So we do talk about business, but in a very informal way.
 

What happens after students graduate?
I encourage them to seek an apprenticeship and get certified before going on their own. I'm pretty honest with our students. Will you be able to graduate this program and then run your own farrier business? Yes, but you're going to have a lot of bumps along the way, because you can only acquire experience by doing it for a long time. Instead, if you can, you should go do an apprenticeship—then you’ll get to piggyback on somebody else's experience for a while, until you build your business. That's what I suggest our students do.

You’ve mentioned that your school offers essentially lifetime access to your training facilities. Is that right?
Yes. Once you come here, you can come back anytime, and never have to pay. Our doors are always open. All you have to do is call me, send me a text, and you can show up. Need help prepping for certification? Come here. Need a tune-up? Just let us know. We tell our students, once you come here one time, this is your home forever.

What's the most fulfilling part of teaching for you?
I like when my people pass the test and get certified—even more than when I passed it myself. You can see a change in these students in just three months—from when they walk in that first day to when they leave. Seeing how much they grow—I really enjoy that part. And selfishly, the main reason I teach is because it makes me a better farrier. If I push our students hard, I better be able to deliver too, because otherwise they will not listen to me.

What's your goal for students when they leave your program?
My goal is to teach the students to think for themselves. That way if they get into a situation where they don't know what's going on, they can break it down and figure out what they need to do. Our goal is to give our students a good foundation, making sure they know the basics and teach them how to be good apprentices. We focus on the things that are going to be the spine of their businesses.