Today, I'm speaking with Ray Matthews. Before meeting Ray, I only knew him by his reputation of being the expert on trimming foals. This was because of his time spent as the resident farrier at Windfield's Farm in Oshawa, Ontario. Windfield's was a giant thoroughbred breeding operation that had over 700 horses at its peak. Through his time there, Ray's focus was on improving the rotational and angular limb deformities that would inevitably come up in a breeding operation of that size. I finally got to meet Ray in person at a Foot for Thought clinic we held this spring where he imparted much of his wisdom on an engaged crowd of roughly 50 farriers and vets. I was so impressed with his presentation that I felt many other farriers needed to hear the lessons Ray shared with us so I approached him with my idea of doing an interview.
Several months later we found ourselves at the same horse show for a short window of time, so we quickly organized a sit-down. A great farrier and friend Mark Struthers and his partner Lauren Hunkin of Synergy Farm were gracious enough to lend us their dressing room, so please pardon all of the horse show noise is going on in the background. I think you will find that they added some great ambience to the conversation.
Ray started shoeing in 1970 and spent 12 years shoeing mixed breeds from quarter horses to gaited horses. Then he was hired on as the resident farrier at Windfields farm where he was responsible for up to 750 horses during each breeding season. His main focus was the foals through two yearlings for the sales. He became a CJF in 1984 and then an AFA examiner for about 12 years. After three years as the resident farrier at Windfield's, he went back to private practice but still retained Windfields as a client at their request. In the mid-nineties, he moved to the U.S. for a year and then settled in the Hudson/St Lazare area of Quebec where he shod mostly dressage horses. He has done some lecturing, consulting and clinics over the years. He started to cut back on his workload about 15 years ago and now he was fully retired. As I suspected Ray had a lot of great advice to share in our conversation. Even the horse in the stall behind us seemed to get excited a time or two punctuating Ray's good points with it loud whinny. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
