60 SIDELINES OCTOBER 2013
FOR HORSE PEOPLE • ABOUT HORSE PEOPLE
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By Holly Hugo-Vidal
Ernest Woodward is most recognized as the expert farrier for
some of the country’s top dressage horses.
Born in La Jolla, California, he primarily shoes horses in the
San Diego area. His mother was a dressage trainer and he did
some riding, mostly dressage. Studying physics in college was cut
short due to lack of funds, causing Ernest to go out and look for a
job. He began working part time for Tom Reed, shoeing horses for
$30 a day. Jim Carr, one of Ernest’s mentors, was another farrier
he worked for when starting out.
Now, 17 years later, Ernest is regarded as one of the best farriers
in the country. Another mentor (from Germany) came into his life
in 2007. Ernest had the fortunate opportunity to work for Klaus
Balkenhol, the German Olympic champion who won a gold medal
in team dressage during the 1992 and 1996 summer Olympics.
Klaus was also the coach for the United States Dressage Team.
When the regular farrier for Klaus injured his back, Ernest was
there to step in and subsequently asked to stay on as the official
farrier. Not only did Ernest gain an important account, but he also
learned the German style of shoeing, which he is widely known
for today.
Ernest thrives on the details of working with dressage horses.
“The dressage sport for me is interesting because it is such a
closely graded sport where a two percent score difference is
the difference between first and fourth,” he said. “There must be
consistency. They can’t just go out and win one Grand Prix and
not do well for the rest of the season. They need to do well at
every single event. I really enjoy the minutia of dressage and the
challenge of the mechanics!”
He added, “I am very involved with managing dressage shows
as well. Last year, I was voted chair of the California Dressage
Society at the local chapter. I like to promote the sport.”
Ernest likes to watch the horses that he shoes work at home
as well as when they are competing, so when he’s eating his
lunch, he’ll sit by the arena and watch. If Olympic dressage rider
Ernest Woodward Is A Shoe-In
Steffen Peters, one of Ernest’s clients, gets a new horse, Ernest
will go over the day before he’s scheduled to shoe the horse and
watch it work and try to understand what changes might need to
be made. Some of his other clients include David Blake, Christine
Traurig and Nick Wagman, just to name a few.
At shows, he has learned to watch the warm-ups more than the
competition. He says that the riders usually work on the horse’s
weakness, giving Ernest more opportunity to see what changes
he can make to improve each horse.
“I sacrifice the numbers and do a higher quality,” he said.
“Instead of shoeing 15 horses a day, I prefer to do six really well!”
One of the many things Ernest pinpoints as necessary for
success in a dressage horse is lateral work. “For example, the
half pass motion is made easier when the lateral movements
are made more fluid,” he said. “This is also true with some of the
Warmbloods that don’t have much lateral movement. There is a
lot you can do to change that.”
Ernest says that in dressage one point can make all the
difference – which is why he did the math to find the average steps
taken in a Grand Prix test. He found the average amount of steps
is about 987, with 334 of them being in lateral motion - more than
a third of the test. Therefore, he believes improving the lateral
work and raising lateral scores by one point can be the difference
in winning and just placing. So, naturally, a lot of Ernest’s shoeing
methods have to do with improving lateral work.
“In a sport that splits a lot of fine hairs and where the divisions
are not that big and they’re measured by 10ths and 100ths of a
percentile, that’s where it gets really fun if you can find what each
horse needs and make it just five percent better,” he said. “It makes
a big difference! I am attracted to the mechanical standpoint of it.
Can we make it the same every time? Can we make it better?”
Ernest also works with hunters and various types of lame
horses in hopes of making them sound. He co-owns and runs
the Southern California Equine Podiatry Center in San Marcos,
California with Mark Silverman. There, Ernest works with the lame
horses to try to get them back on track as best he can.
Ernest has a strong belief in karma and feels that farriers should
give back to the community. “One of the things I do is sponsor
riders,” he said. “Right now I have about 25 riders that I sponsor.
Ernest thrives on the details of working with dressage horses.
Ernest Woodward
Photos by Holly Hugo-Vidal
Continued on page 120
