Monique Craig
SPEAKER
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
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
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
Biography follow soon.
Berni Prins
SPEAKER
Biography follow soon.
Simon Moore FWCF
SPEAKER
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
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.
