ARCHIVE - European federation of farriers association (effa)

February 2012 - Report on the European Federation of Farriers Association AGM

April 2011 - Have you renewed your Certified Euro-Farrier Registration?

February 2011 - EFFA's AGM in Newmarket

February 2010 - European Update

Gary Burton, DipWCF, CE-F, describes events that took place during EFFA’s meeting, which was held in Stockholm in November 2009.
The Annual General Meeting of the European Federation of Farriers Associations (EFFA) is a two-day event chaired by the President, currently, British farrier David Gulley FWCF, CE-F. I am the other UK delegate and also a member of NAFBAE’s Executive Committee. Miles Williamson-Noble is Registrar of EFFA and represented Howard Cooper (Chairman of the Accreditation Board) as he was not able to attend.
Day 1 is informal, and allows all involved to become acquainted or re-acquainted, and to catch up with the happenings and events both professional and personal from the previous year.
The Swedish Farriers Association arranged for delegates and partners to visit the Royal Mews in Stockholm, this included a comprehensive tour of the ceremonial carriage collection, which is housed on site. We also visited the military stables for the Royal Guards and the police, where we learned about Swedish farriery training as well as other aspects of horsemanship taught in the Swedish forces.
EFFA’s annual general meeting was held on the second day. During 2009, it was reported that the Accreditation Board had visited the Czech Republic, which was recommended for accreditation as a result, and Sweden, which was not yet considered to be up to standard and will require a further visit. Other visits planned include Holland and UK (both being reaccredited after six years) and Germany, which has asked for an initial visit. Spain has also asked for a revisit following its earlier failure to reach the standard.
We British farriers, although I am ashamed to say that few of us will admit it, are privileged to have Certified Euro-Farrier (CE-F) status by virtue of our training and registration system; other countries are desperate to improve their education to allow them to gain CE-F status, their enthusiasm and desire is commendable.
The Czech Republic recently became accredited but had to lobby its Government to change the law to allow it to do so, and Swedish Farriers are so keen to be accredited they are working really hard to make the improvements required to meet the standard.
The annual fee for registration as a CE-F is being held at €10 and the Certified Euro-Farrier logo has now been registered as an EU Trademark, and as a result is protected in all EU countries.
The German Metalworkers Union had requested that it become a member of EFFA, and this was agreed. The EFFA Handbook, which covers training up to the level of the EFFA basic standard, was discussed following its presentation to the AGM the year before. It is available in French and English, and will soon be available on EFFA’s website, and will be translated into German too. A comprehensive computer-based manual known as e-hoof was demonstrated to the members. It is currently only available in German, but plans to translate it into English are well advanced.
The European Championships will take place in France in February and the 2010 AGM will take place in Newmarket from 18 to 21 November.

 

About EFFA
In November 2008, the European Federation of Farriers Associations* announced the launch of the Europe-wide qualification Certified Euro-Farrier. Working farriers who have been nominated by their national associations as having completed a course of formal training and having passed an examination recognised as meeting EFFA’s Standards of Competence are awarded a certificate, receive an annual vehicle window sticker and are entitled to put CE-F after their names. Countries currently registered as being eligible are Switzerland, Holland, Austria, Great Britain, Czech Republic, Denmark and Finland. Other countries will be accredited as they reach the necessary standard.

The aims of the Certified Euro-Farrier scheme are to:
Provide recognition for those who have achieved the necessary standards of competence
Provide a means of identifying properly trained and qualified farriers from other countries. This is particularly important for horse owners in view of recent EU legislation allowing farriers to practise in other countries purely on the basis of experience
Encourage countries without qualifications or with lower level qualifications to raise standards of farriery to meet the EFFA Standards of Competence

* Currently the countries that belong to EFFA include Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Germany, France, Austria, Norway, Switzerland, Great Britain, Ireland, Holland, Spain, Hungary and the Czech Republic, only seven of these are accredited to CE-F status

April 2009 - Register of Certified Euro-Farriers

February 2009 - Presentation of Certified Euro-Farrier Certificates

December 2008 - UK takes over Presidency of the European Federation of Farriers Association