24 SIDELINES OCTOBER 2011
FOR HORSE PEOPLE • ABOUT HORSE PEOPLE
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Farriers Joe and Sandy Johnson
Photo courtesy of Sandy Johnson
Joe and Sandy Johnson –
The Farriers’ Art of Balance
By Laura Danowski
For Joe and Sandy Johnson,
each day is about more than
balancing horse’s feet. Married
in 1985, the husband and wife
farrier duo balance time, the art
of shoeing and their personal
commitment.
Born in Texas and raised on his
family’s ranch, Joe rode reiners,
cutters, broncs and bulls. At 17,
sensibility found him shoeing
and in 1984 fate appeared when
legendary farrier Seamus Brady
accepted him as an apprentice
and they headed East. Thirty-six
years later, thousands of happy
feet and three million miles of air
travel in the US and abroad, Joe
is still in demand. “Years ago,
I called Sandy and asked which
airport I was in and where was I
going,” Joe chuckled.
Many of those air miles
accumulated while traveling with
the US Show Jumping Team
from 1991-2002 as their official
farriers. That history includes 10
consecutive World Cup Finals,
the 1991 Pan American Games
in Cuba, and the 1999 Pan
American Games in Winnipeg
and the World Equestrian
Games in Rome in 1998.
Joe is more comfortable
under the horse than chatting.
But an ear to ear smile and a
mischievous twinkle offset any
lull in conversation – unless you
start talking Dallas Cowboys
football.
A petite blond with a warm, prevailing smile, Sandy
hails from Ireland where her father was a vet and
her brother, Martin Atock, owns Peden Bloodstock
International Transport. The self-proclaimed tomboy
grew up hunting, eventing and show jumping. After
university she traveled through Europe as a groom,
which included a two-year post with, “That crazy
Australian Kevin Bacon,” Sandy says. She came to
the United States in 1984 and met Joe while she was
working at Hunterdon.
Two years of traveling the circuit with Joe, Sandy
worked as a braider and eventually started to “help”
at the forge. Beaming, she says, “I absolutely love
shoeing horses because the results are addictive. Our
clients go out of their way to say thank you and learning
from Joe is a bonus!”
Shoeing Right Every Time
Consumed by the craft, Joe torments
himself with perfection. “You can’t buy
the knowledge you get from selecting
the right metal and forging your own
shoes. Now you can just buy a set of
pre-made heart-bar shoes,” he scoffed.
His early hands-on forge work came
from shoeing Walking Horses and
Saddlebreds and he brings the lesson
to his current work on high performance
jumpers and dressage horses. Joe
says, “Working with high-steppin’
shakytails taught me the importance of
how to translate balance and motion.”
Sandy remarked, “Up-coming farriers
have talent and credentials, but the
more experienced farriers know how to
tweak a pre-made bar shoe, why you
select one type over another or decide
not to use it all, even though every
textbook says you should. You have to
assess the whole horse.”
Their customers embrace the
suggestion of providing an annual set
of foot x-rays for comparison. “You
need to shoe the horse from inside the
foot capsule and I don’t want to guess
what’s in there,” Joe said.
How many do they shoe in a day?
“We don’t worry about numbers and
profit like that,” Joe says. Sandy adds,
“We try not to shoe more than four
horses a day, especially in the summer
with the heat. We are concerned with
quality, correct application and insist
on time with either the rider or trainer
to discuss progress.” An example of
a correct application compared how
they would shoe a horse with a soft
tissue injury on stall rest, vs. if he were in work, and included
differentiation of heel support, sole support, break-over, shoe
style and metal type.
Continuing Education? You Bet!
To stay on the leading industry edge, Joe or Sandy spend
a few days each month at Rood & Riddle Veterinary Hospital
in Lexington working with the Equine Podiatrist Department
to learn advanced techniques. They regularly attend farrier
clinics and make use of flight time to read technical journals.
One of Sandy’s favorite authorities is Fran Jurga and the
Hoof
Care and Lameness
blog. They endorse Farrier’s Formula
and emphasize balanced nutrients from feed and forage
types. Joe stressed, “The most important thing you can do for
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