Know foot know horse.com

Know foot know horse.com is a farrier education website built by farriers for farriers. The website brings together the traditional skills of the farrier and the modern teaching techniques of e-learning. For many years farriers have developed their skills by watching others demonstrating their craft, be it as students, apprentices or by attending clinics. More recently videos and DVD’s have become available that offer distance learning.
Home computers and the internet provide a whole new learning experience, streaming education directly into your home or workshop from around the world, which brings us neatly back to 'know foot know horse.com', the front runner in horseshoeing education websites.
Know foot know horse.com was the brainchild of two of the UK's top farriers; England’s three times World Champion farrier Darren Bazin, and former Scottish team member Brian Saunders. These men have a passion for teaching and encouraging excellence in the farriery profession.
The movies created for the website are filmed, edited and produced by Darren and Brian to get a true farriers' perspective. 'Know foot know horse' wanted to go beyond the usual one-dimensional front view, with the demonstrator describing what they are doing as they do it. Therefore, most of the movies are shot from six different angles, with innovative angles such as overhead shots and slow motion film edited together to create as much visual education as possible. A script – written by Darren and Brian – covers the important aspects of the subject, and if an educator other than Darren or Brian is used, then they are questioned about what they are doing and why? Their answers are used to create a script for their subject describing how and why they do what they do. From an educational point of view, and to make things as clear and understandable as possible, Brian narrates the scripts over the film work. Still images are also used to demonstrate points in more detail, and lines, angles or text are added to the still images for further clarity.
From the beginning, know foot know horse.com set out to provide a balanced education and not just one farrier's ideas. Many well-known World and National Champion farriers have agreed to be part of this initiative, and the list keeps growing. The website is also a means of capturing these farriers' skills and knowledge for future generations. The 'Know foot know horse’ team see the website as another tool in the farrier's box, a means of referral, it is not meant to replace the practical teaching methods, but to be used alongside them.
As an appropriate starting point,
Know foot know horse.com, starts at the beginning of a farrier's education with fundamental information, such as hints on basic body posture at work, the geography of the anvil and health and safety. The initial movies have been based on the British farrier apprenticeship curriculum, and have been strongly supported by the National Farrier Training Agency. The website has also been accredited by the Worshipful Company of Farriers, the Farriers Registration Council and the British Farriers and Blacksmiths Association as proponents of continued professional development, which helps to maintain the standards of farriery in the UK.
Apart from movies for beginners, others offer techniques and help for those farriers wishing to improve their shoemaking skills and more experienced farriers undertaking remedial work.
The website is a library of educational movies that can be used to further farrier education, and the library is constantly added to, while the website is continually improved as software becomes more advanced. Know foot know horse.com is a member-based website with three options to view the movies:
Option 1 allows anyone to view our free movies without signing up as a member.
Option 2 offers free membership, but movies are charged on a pay-as-you-go rate ($10-$30 approximately) although once purchased the member can view those movies as many times as they like for one year.
Option 3 is premium membership, where for an annual fee of around $150 members can view all the movies in the library, as many times as they like, this also includes the movies released during the year's membership. 'Know foot know horse' also offer a premium membership 20% discount through various farrier associations including the British Farriers and Blacksmiths Association.
As a consequence of developing specialised filming and editing techniques for farriers, the company has produced a number of commercial movies for Mustad, Jim Blurton Specialist Shoes and Londonderry Forge. Enquiries from manufacturers wishing to promote their products in a promotional movie form, through the website are welcome. 'Know foot know horse' also offer advertising oportunities within the website and would only be too happy to discuss these opportunities.
There are exciting plans for the future of
know foot know horse.com, but perhaps the biggest change to the website has been the addition of an online farrier shop selling products and tools associated with the movies, as well as commercials for the individual items.
As Darren and Brian explain: 'it is not often that you get the chance to have the choice of watching and learning from various World Champion farriers, in the comfort of your own home, but by becoming a member of knowfootknowhorse.com, this is now possible.'

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