How to Choose a Horseshoeing School
Location: Don't pick a school based on location, pick a school based upon curriculum. You wouldn’t marry someone just because they lived next door, close and convenient. Why use that criteria to pick a school?
Instructors: If your instructors are recent graduates of the school you need to rethink your choice. Unless they have supported a family, made the house payments and bought the groceries shoeing horses I don’t think they are qualified to teach. Call the school and ask to speak to an instructor not the guy who owns the school or a secretary.
Availablity to practice: If you are going to be away from home to learn the art of horseshoeing you need the opportunity to practice after school and on weekends. The best way to get good is to practice and you have to be provided with the opportunity.
Schedule: If new people are arriving every Monday, someone gets shorted. The new student who is in a class above his/her head or the older student who has to listen to a repeat of old material instead of moving on to new material. An eight week program would have 8 different levels of students!
Horses: PCHS does not bring in rank, ill-mannered, dangerous horses for students to shoe. You can not learn how to balance a moving foot! Make sure the horses you work on at the school are going to be the same type of horses you plan on shoeing when you go home. Students need good quality horses that allow them to practice professional skills. The opportunity to shoe 10 horses per day means nothing if you can’t shoe any of them because they are dangerous.
Consumer protection: Make sure you understand the refund policy of the school. What happens if you decide after the first week that shoeing horses is not for you? Will you get a full refund?