CONFERENCE (FRIDAY AND/OR SATURDAY)
The competition part of the Werkman Spring Games has become one of the largest competitions in the world. Farriers come from all over to take part in these both educational and super nice days. What can you expect? The traditional Werkman Spring Games comprise a quality programme with lectures by people who have earned their spurs in the world of hoofcare.
Dr. Simon Curtis
SPEAKER Topic 1: “The distal phalanx: It`s a funny old bone
Simon Curtis was a practicing farrier in Newmarket, England for 48 years. He has lectured and demonstrated farriery in more than 30 countries on 6 continents including the USA, Australia, India, Russia, and Brazil. He has published 4 text books on farriery and has been published in numerous journals. He was awarded an Honorary Associate of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (2002). The first time that any farrier has received this honour. Simon is a Fellow of the Worshipful Company of Farriers by examination (FWCF) and was awarded an Honorary Associateship of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (HonAssocRCVS) in 2002. In 2005 he was inducted into the International Farriers Hall of Fame at the Kentucky Derby Museum, USA. Simon gained a BSc. (Hons) in Farriery, University of Central Lancashire in 2011 and in 2017 a Doctoral degree in equine biomechanics and physiology. His thesis was The effect of weight-bearing and loading upon hoof shape of Thoroughbred foals. He was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of Myerscough College in 2017 and in 2018 the Sir Colin Spedding Award by the National Equine Forum. Dr Simon Curtis continues to broadcast webinars, The Hoof of the Horse podcasts, tutor farriers, write and lecture.
Monique Craig
SPEAKER Topic 1: How does the innate asymmetry of the bones of the lower limb affect trimming &shoe placement?
Monique Craig has a degree in computer science engineering with a minor in mathematics and physics. She was aiming at a PhD in computational linguistics at Stanford, when she purchased her Holsteiner stallion – Smirnoff. His chronic hoof problems made her take a very different direction in her career. She became a professional farrier and concurrently developed the software Metron with her husband John Craig. A few years later she invented the EponaShoe. Monique has spent many years researching, trimming and shoeing the hoof — as well as riding and training. Her research has been presented at several veterinary and farrier conferences and in various publications. She recently published a book: “A Modern Look at… The Hoof“. She gives lectures in the USA and internationally. She has been a visiting scholar at CalPoly San Luis Obispo for the past fifteen years where she lectures in a biomechanics course for pre-veterinarian students.
Prof. dr. Jenny Hagen
SPEAKER Topic 1: Rehabilitation of horses with tendon injuries from an orthopaedic and functional point of view. Topic 2: Uneven Feet-causes,effect and case management
Dr. Jenny Hagen is a veterinarian, associated professor and farrier specialized on equine orthopedics,rehabilitation and training. After her study of veterinary medicine, she did her doctoral thesis and post-doc thesis at the Leipzig University, where she established the research group “Equine biomechanics and orthopedics”. From 2011 to these days, she and her group examined several practical relevant topics about the effect of trimming and shoeing on the biomechanics of the distal limb and the equine gait pattern. 2003 to 2018 Jenny also did her farrier education and was employed at the farrier school at the Leipzig University. The last years, she did several specializations in different manual therapy techniques, gait analysis and rehabilitation training of horses. Since 2020, Jenny is self-employed in her practice for equine orthopedics and rehabilitation in the middle of Germany.
John Craig
SPEAKER Topic 1: Assessing medioal-lateral balance from radiographs
John Craig has a Phd from Stanford in engineering. He is the author of “Introduction to Robotics: Mechanics & Control” which is a leading university textbook for the engineering field of robotics. He has authored several papers related to robotics as well as equine biomechanics, and has chaired conference sessions on biomechanics and the connection between machines and the biomechanics of animals. He has researched the hoof and shoeing systems for the past 20 years, and has been a speaker at the International Hoof Summit in Cincinnati, and other veterinary/farrier venues. He is the lead software developer for the Metron Imaging system used for digital radiography and other modalities in veterinary imaging. For the past 8 years he has been focused on using artificial intelligence to automate the understanding of veterinary images.
Simon Alt
SPEAKER Topic 1: Analyzing and trimming hoofes in relation to the hoof capsule. Topic 2: Analyzing and trimming hooves in relation to the equine limb
Biography follow soon.
Berni Prins
SPEAKER Topic 1: Breakover, support and other myths-Shoeing the modern sport horse
Berni Prins is a qualified farrier, which means he obtained his diploma (2002) for full training as an independent farrier at the Nederlandse Hippische Beroepsopleidingen in Deurne.
In 2015, Berni Prins joined the board of the Dutch Association of Farriers. In addition to his role as vice-chairman, he is involved in education. In this role, he works with other stakeholders on the content and examination requirements of the European-recognised farrier training and is the contact point for schools, placement providers and the examination board.
The NOK&H Foundation, of which he is chairman, is a peer review group of farriers attached to equine clinics who have specialised in orthopaedic hoof care. This intervision group aims to establish and describe quality guidelines for regular and orthopaedic hoof care. These guidelines serve as a basis for promoting the quality of hoof care in the Netherlands.
Currently, Berni Prins works as an itinerant farrier where he visits clients at home. His work as an itinerant farrier mainly consists of assisting (large) sporting stables. His work is diverse: trimming, regular and sport shoeing, cutting out hoof ulcers, position corrections in foals, (light) orthopaedic hoof care.
Berni Prins also runs his own farriery in Bears next to Arts&Dier’s horse clinic. Here he works as an orthopaedic farrier on Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons. On the premises, horses can be monitored on hard and soft surfaces, this allows for a good analysis of movements. At the farrier, he therefore mainly receives clients with horses that have orthopaedic hoof care. Examples include: treatments for lameness, uneven feet, laminitis, straal cancer and other hoof diseases, tendon problems, horn columns and more.
Simon Moore FWCF
SPEAKER Topic 1: Shoeing Hind Feet. Topic 2: Understanding and protecting the dorsal wall
Simon Moore was born into a circus family in1971, where his father was a lion tamer. Deciding not to follow his father’s career, he started his farriery apprenticeship with Paul Atkins RSS in 1989 and passed the Diploma of the Worshipful Company of Farriers (Dip WCF) in 1993. After finishing his apprenticeship, he set up business in Essex where he primarily shod sports horses, with a particular interest in shoeing showjumpers.
During this time Simon would meet his future wife Ruth and they married in 1996 and have four children. In 1998 they relocated to Cornwall for ‘a slower pace of life’ but farriery soon took centre stage. In 2003 he established Cornwall’s first farriery practice Equine Foot Care, in partnership with Paul Martin Dip WCF, concentrating mainly on training apprentices. During this time, he was directly reasonable for training 6 apprentices, of which four have successfully passed the AWCF exam, one of those being his son Callum. An achievement he is particularly proud of.
In 2011 he passed the Associate of the Worshipful Company of Farriers (AWCF) and then passed the Fellowship of the Worshipful Company of Farriers (FWCF) in 2016. He was appointed to the Worshipful company of Farriers examination board in 2016 and continues to be an active member.
He is a proud father and grandfather and spends his leisure time with he’s family or cycling the Cornish countryside.
He is regular tutor and clinician.
Florian Haefner
SPEAKER Topic 1: Breakover, support and other myths-Shoeing the modern sport horse
Born 1980 in Heilbronn/Germany, Florian Häfner started a career in the equine industry in 1998, working for different farriers and horse trainers. 2006, after his graduation as state certified farrier, he started a farrier and horse training business in Weinsberg/Germany. In 2009 he joined Werkman Horseshoes in Groningen/Netherlands. At Werkman he was first responsible for sales in central Europe and then became the head of the research & development department. In the following years he was involved in scientific studies about the effect of orthopaedic horseshoes, co-authoring several research publications and developing related products such as the Orthokit® or horseshoes as the Werkman Warrior Ice. Since 2017 Florian Häfner is the owner and editor of Farriersjournal UG. 2018 the company was relocated from Belgium to Germany. By 2024 he still continuous shoeing horses for one day a week. He is father of one son and spends the non-working time with his family training dogs and horses.
Henrik Jansson FWCF
SPEAKER Topic 1: Coffin Bone Fractures-differentiating and shoeing for injuries of P3
FWCF Henrik Jansson is one of only three Fellows of the Worshipful Company of Farriers from the European continent. The title of Fellow is internationally recognised as the most difficult examination in farriery and is currently held by only about 200 farriers worldwide. Henrik has been working as a senior clinical farrier and researcher for the University of Uppsala/Sweden for many years. At the Spring games 2025 he will talk about different injuries which can occur to the coffin bone and explain how to treat them.
Jamey Carsel
SPEAKER Topic 1: Shoeing the Western performance horse for Rodeo disciplines
Jamey continues to shoe horses and do seminars for Werkman USA as a team farrier, his business consists of mainly quarter horses and therapeutic work with some warmblood work as well.
Daisy Alexis Bicking
SPEAKER Topic 1: How to glue-the do`s and don’ts of glue application in different scenarios
Daisy is a dynamic person who loves to mentor, teach and cheerlead those around her. Her passion is helping horses live their best lives through providing and teaching hoof care in a truly integrative whole horse platform.
Daisy has been a farrier practicing around the world for 18 years, and supports horses who need more intensive interventions on site at Daisy Haven Farm in Pennsylvania as well. In 2009 Daisy started teaching hoof educational courses and since then travels the US and abroad teaching and speaking about the horse and hoof.
More recently, Daisy has taken a lot of her educational content to online platforms due to social distancing and quarantine restrictions with Covid-19. She is glad to be able to get back to in person workshops and continue the virtual courses as well.
Daisy has been a keynote speaker, guest lecturer, moderator, and given live demonstrations at many international conferences and diverse educational venues.
