Farriery is the major constraint that is being experienced in maintaining the feet of the sporting horses and attending to the hoof care/ Corrective shoeing on as required basis in respect of meagre strength of horses present in North-Eastern region. It is a well-known fact that, farriery is highly skilled and technically challenging task that is very essential in maintaining the horses in riding fit condition. Keeping this in view, the EFA alongwith DGRVS, Army HQs, conducted a training camp from 8th September, 2017 to 18th September, 2017 to upgrade/ refresh the shoeing skills of farriersof the horse holding establishments of the North-Eastern region.
STAKE HOLDERS:
The major stake holders were:
- a.Equestrian Federation of Assam.
- b.Assam Police.
- c.Manipur Equestrian Association.
- d.Assam Valley Public School, Tezpur.
- e.Royal Global School, Guwahati.
- f.Delhi Public School, Numaligarh.
- g.North Eastern Police Academy, Shillong.
- h.Other local riding Clubs located at some of the tea gardens etc.
TRAINER / INSTRUCTOR:
The training was conducted by RDM/Farr SUDHESHWAR SINGH, RVC. The camp was supported by The DGRVS, Vice President (Veterinary), EFI. The RDM/Farr, a highly competent, technically very sound instructor had taken very keen interest and pains to impart quality training to the participants in all aspects of basic farriery relevant to day to day up-keep and maintenance of feet of sporting horses of this region. The schedule followed is attached for information. The instructor had left no stone unturned to ensure that each participant got equal opportunity to understand and apply the knowledge acquired practically on ground.
FEEDBACK FROM THE PARTICIPANTS:
In all there were ten participants from various horse holding establishments of North-eastern region. Through verbal interaction it is learnt from the participants that each one had equal opportunity to practically apply the knowledge acquired on shoeing on horses and their confidence levels have gone up. All the participants were bubbling with enthusiasm to learn under the instructor and were always very punctual and ever ready to over stay beyond the scheduled timings. All participants have expressed their desire to attend such camps periodically in future so as to upgrade their skills from time to time.
FEEDBACK OF THE CONDUCTING ORGANISATION:
The conduction organisation (Equestrian Federation of Assam) feels privileged to express extreme happiness on the quality of training imparted by the instructor and the pains taken by him in equipping the participants with skills to accomplish their tasks of farriery with upgraded skills and renewed confidence. The organisation is extremely grateful and thankful to the DGRVS and EFI for accepting and providing a highly competent instructor and look forward for more such camps in future for development of equestrian sports in the country in general and North-East in particular.
Farriery being an essential and inescapable component of horse management, the need for regular and periodic upgradation of shoeing skill of farriers is inescapable. Overall, the Farriery Training camp was a grand success and delivered desired results. In the interest of the welfare of horses, such camps need to be conducted periodically at regular intervals so that the farriers will remain upgraded with requisite skills and competence.