With the old JHU test, you had six hours to make four shoes and shoe one racehorse. The state test now involves shoeing one horse and no knowledge of forge work is required. The new test, the way it's written, says that there will be two horseshoers, two trainers, one state veterinarian, and one state steward on the Board, but how this last one was run, we don't know. We understand there were no horseshoers involved. To my knowledge, that's correct.
Statistics indicate that they are passing a lot more people now than they ever have before.
Yes, because they are not required to do any fire work to prove their ability to make a bar shoe, for example. If it's easier for a person to get into a trade, he's going to be less interested in preparing himself. I'm here to make the money. But for many years it wasn't that way, everyone had pride in what they were doing. I think the horse isn't going to benefit from this outlook on the racetrack, and the horse owner isn't going to benefit from it, either.