A STRONG contingent of farriers from home and abroad descended on Clifden in the heart of Connemara last weekend to show off their skills at the now annual Farrier Competition.

Organiser Bryan O’Halloran, who was also competing on the day, explained how the event has grown in recent years and how the classes work.

“I had been competing and representing Ireland in farriery competitions for shoeing and shoe making abroad since I was an apprentice, but they were dying out in Ireland, so I said that I’d get one started,” he said.

“Originally, it was all done for a bit of a laugh. We had about 30 competitors for the first few years, but since we got started again after COVID it’s been growing. We had almost 70 competitors this year, including some that came over from the UK.

“We’re very lucky to have had so much help on the day, but it’s getting so big that we’ll need to get a committee started for it next year. My wife and I have been running the competition ourselves and we had to turn some people down, because we couldn’t cope with the number of entries.

“There was a class for first and second year apprentices, there was only a small turnout for it this year, which was a shame, but they did very well. This class was won by Paul Coady.

“There was also a class for apprentices in their third and fourth year of apprenticeship, which was won by Oisin Quill. The objective of these classes was for the competitors to make a pair of shoes replicating a pair that the judge had made to be handed up inside a certain time.

“We had a shoe making class open for qualified farriers, where the objective is for each farrier to make a pair of shoes to the judges’ specification and replicating a pair that he had made. One was to be nailed onto a horse’s hoof, and the other was handed up to the judge. It’s all down to how well you’ve finished your shoe, how well forged it is, how well your nails fit and how level, trim and balanced the hoof is. This class was won by a gentleman called Rodney Ross.”

The shoeing class for qualified farriers was also won by Ross, who has represented Ireland at other competitions on several occasions.

There was also a prize for the most dedicated and committed farrier throughout the year, which went to Killian Moore.

“It’s been a big challenge to gain sponsorship and to find horses to use in competition, but we’re going from strength to strength. Everything went smoothly, it was a fantastic day,” concluded O’Halloran.