The education to blacksmith: from basic course to journeyman certificate.

Farrier is one of the country's smallest and most specialized crafts — and the only place to take the entire training is HANSENBERG in Kolding. Farrier is a vocational training under the Vocational Training Act regulated by the regulation on vocational training for farriers and follows the alternation principle: most of the time takes place in training with an approved farrier company interrupted by school periods where theory and disciplines not encountered daily in practice are trained systematically.

§The structure

The path starts like other vocational educations with a basic course — for young people coming directly from 9th or 10th grade basic course part one and then part two aimed at the trade. According to HANSENBERG the main course lasts 3 years and 6 months of which 21 weeks are school attendance; the rest is apprenticeship in the company. This sets one great practical requirement: you must find an apprenticeship with a practicing farrier. Because the trade is small the number of training companies is limited and many prospective apprentices contact farriers well in advance — preferably with a couple of days of shadowing as a mutual trial.

§School subjects — the full breadth of the profession

• 01Basic smithing: steel types, heat treatment (normalising, hardening, tempering), forge welding and workshop safety.
• 02Anatomy, physiology, and behavior: the horse's skeleton, muscles, tendons, hoof structure, hoof mechanism, leg positions – and safe handling based on the horse's behavior.
• 03Trimming and shoeing: warm and cold fitting weight-bearing overreaching and landing sole care barefoot concept and boots and working environment and posture.
• 04Production of parallel shoes and production of therapeutic horseshoes: hand forging, material selection and history of horseshoes.
• 05Late- and leg positioning disorders in foals: growth lines flexor deformities and correction techniques.
• 06Diseases and injuries: hoof conditions from hoof boils to contracted heels, diagnostic imaging and collaboration with the vet.
• 07Business operations: record keeping price calculation insurance and digital tools.

§Progression of apprenticeship goals

The training in the company is not a random shadowing arrangement — it is governed by practice objectives that are stepped up between school periods. Before the first main course, the apprentice must, among other things, be able to handle horses, foals and young horses, use and maintain tools, remove old shoes, clean up and trim an uncomplicated horse, and work with hot shoeing. Before the second main course, requirements for balance assessment and hand forging are sharpened: the objectives list specific shoes such as heel-calk hind shoes, extra-skewed hind shoes, rolled-toe shoes, interference shoes, straight-toe hind shoes, concave hind shoes and aluminium front shoes. Before the third main course, the level is experienced: foal trimming, cutouts in the hoof, handling of embedded nails and hoof abscesses, and hand forging of egg bar shoes, heart bar shoes and laminitis shoeing.

§What the finished craftsperson should be able to do

The regulation's competency objectives outline the finished farrier in fourteen points: he or she can work independently with the production of all types of shoes for horses, including special and therapeutic shoes; can trim hooves and apply shoes based on knowledge of the horse's anatomy; can handle and manage horses safely based on knowledge of horse behavior; and can assess whether there is a need to call a veterinarian in acute conditions. In addition come the broader objectives: quality-conscious planning, collaboration and customer communication, business management, environmental awareness and sustainability, innovation — and responsible, critical use of digital tools, including generative artificial intelligence for professional information retrieval.

§After the journeyman certificate

HANSENBERG mentions the career paths themselves: work at blacksmith workshops, riding schools, stud farms and racetracks — and for many their own business with a fixed clientele. Completion of a vocational education of at least three years' duration also provides access to study further at vocational academy educations. Technically, development does not stop at the journeyman's certificate: international certifications, courses in equine orthopedics and therapeutic shoeing, and competition smithing are the classic ways to hone the craft throughout your career.

“You don't become a blacksmith in 21 school weeks — you become one through a thousand hooves with a skilled master by your side.”

— Experienced instructor in the trade.

For the one who wants both fire in the forge and animals in everyday life there is hardly a more concentrated trade: one school few apprenticeships high professional pride — and a job market where a skilled journeyman quickly becomes a known name in the area.