Becoming a farrier; Lucy Hornsby's apprenticeship journey

I grew up in Devon around horses and always knew that I wanted to work somehow with animals. Initially, I wanted to be a vet, but after some work experience, I realised that wasn’t for me. Then I spent three days shadowing my farrier and absolutely loved it. 

It has taken me about four years to become qualified. I started with a year-long Preparation for Farriery course which is no longer compulsory but is a very good idea to learn basic forging. Since then I have been an apprentice with three farriers, including one I spent 18 months with back home in Devon. He was really good but for the most part, the work was quite similar, and I wanted to branch out to the remedial aspects of shoeing. The horses we worked with could be also tricky at times and in the end, I lost my confidence, and I had a period halfway through my training when I wondered what to do next…

They say you often hit a wall in your apprenticeship because you’re burnt out and can’t see the end goal. Not having the physical strength of a man is hard, too - especially if a horse doesn’t want to play. You just have to learn different techniques to handle them. 

I decided to carry on with farriery and was lucky to end up with Ben Benson - it is hard finding an apprenticeship as there so few training farriers out there. You email far and wide and then get taken on for a trial so they can see how much you know, how you communicate (a big part of the job) and how you are with horses. You also go to college for two weeks twice a year. 

Ben is amazing - with another farrier I might get bored, but we do so much remedial work, Ben takes time to work with the vets and it’s so nice to see the horse coming back each time a little bit better. And people really appreciate that. 

I’m staying with Ben until November 2025 and I suppose my ambition would be to one day have my own forge at home in Dorset with my partner, who is also a farrier. I’d love to have a business similar to Ben’s, with some interesting cases, working closely with vets and seeing how much I can help the horses’ outcomes. 

Farriery can be a tough job in winter when it’s rained all day and your back hurts; it’s hard. But on the good days it’s the best job in the world.