Heartland Horseshoeing School Trains Farriers from Around the Globe

By Heather Reynolds  

“If you bring willingness, desire and dedication, we will provide top-notch, proven education that will propel you to the top of this industry.”—Chris Gregory  

Cowboy, rancher, teacher, author or pilot. Chris Gregory, co-owner of Heartland Horseshoeing School in Lamar, Missouri, could go by many different titles. Farrier is probably the title he is most well-known for.  

“When you’re a farrier, it’s in your blood; it just draws you in,” says Chris. Chris, along with his wife Kelly, have been in the horseshoeing business for nearly 40 years, and this year marks the 30th anniversary of the Heartland Horseshoeing School. Chris, who found his love for horseshoeing shortly after graduating college, soon turned his passion into a family business; he and Kelly, along with their children, are all now a part of the horseshoeing school.  

Chris’ love for horseshoeing began with his love for horses. Chris attended a two-week horseshoeing school and felt like he didn’t learn enough, and then he chased farrier clinics all over the country and spent the next five years adding to his knowledge of the trade. His passion for it soon led to him and Kelly both becoming farriers.  

“I married a woman who was willing to do with her husband what the husband’s going to do,” says Chris.

Chris and Kelly met at a community college in Iowa and eventually started shoeing horses in Colorado, then moved to Missouri where they started the school. Heartland–the school and the farm–now rests on the outskirts of Lamar just off the highway.  

It’s a Lifestyle

So, what made the Gregorys choose to start this business and continue to keep it running for the past 30 years? Their answer: the lifestyle. Since they run the school, they only keep it open for about half the year.  

“It has been a great life for us to raise a family,” Kelly says. “We have opportunities that other people don’t. We get to see new people every day.”

“We turn away about 50% of students,” says Chris. “The school operates on a first come, first served basis, which means we are not open the other 25 weeks a year, so we work on the farm, write, take care of grandkids and teach farrier clinics around the world.”  

Think of a clinic as a bootcamp or a workshop. A group of farriers, a farrier supply or company will hire them to go to a place for about three days and give lectures, shoe horses, make shoes and teach shoeing.  

“Nobody would think horseshoeing would take you all over the world,” says Kelly. They’ve been to places like Poland, South Africa and Australia. Chris was an examiner for what is known as the FITS exam, or Farriers International Testing System. He was also asked to write different certifications for multiple farrier exams happening in several countries. Chris speaks Spanish and has been able to give exams in both English and Spanish.

Heartland is a school where people from all over the world learn to become farriers in a matter of weeks rather than a matter of years. They have both a 24-week program and two 12-week programs. The 24-week class and the first 12-week class starts in March and goes until June, and the second 12-week class starts in July. They shut the school down in September, and their daughter then turns the bunkhouse into an Airbnb.  

Being a farrier is not an easy trade, and in order to succeed in the horseshoeing school, a student must work long hours in the heat near a fire and then shoe horses on top of that. It takes time, skill and dedication to become a farrier.  

“I’ve made a career of setting unrealistic expectations and then fully expecting people to achieve them,” says Chris. Although it’s a hard trade to learn, the people who truly want it can do it well.  

“If you bring willingness, desire and dedication, we will provide top-notch, proven education that will propel you to the top of this industry,” says Chris.  

Technology Comes to Heartland

Before Heartland had the website, YouTube or any online presence, most of their students came through word of mouth.  

“I thought the internet was going to go away. I thought my job was internet proof. I didn’t think I would ever need a Facebook or a website, or email or YouTube,” says Chris.  

In 2010, Chris and Kelly started their YouTube channel while Chris was working on his textbook. One of their former students, Brian Mullins, even convinced Chris to start a podcast, which he called Final Approach with Chris Gregory. You can read more about Chris and the Heartland Horseshoeing School on their website, as well as listen to their podcast or watch them on YouTube.  

Family Ties

This is a family business. Their son, Cody, and his wife are farriers, and they also teach at the school. Chris and Kelly’s daughter and her husband have a farm-to-table business and they shoe horses on the side. They also have a few Airbnbs and help with the school from time to time.  

Chris and Kelly acknowledge they are probably hard to work for and they’ve stayed small enough they don’t need to hire employees.  

“We demand a lot. We also didn’t want to get big enough that we had to have employees,” says Kelly. They are happy with the lifestyle they have chosen and are expecting Cody to take a larger role in the business when they eventually decide to take a step back.  

Cody has been around horseshoeing his entire life and trimmed his first horse at only 4 years old, and then shoed his first horse at 8.  

“They (Chris and Kelly) would be shoeing until midnight or one in the morning and we were right there with them,” Cody says about his childhood.  

“The kids would straighten nails and clean shoes,” says Chris.  

In addition to taking over the school duties one day, Cody also owns a business, Cody Gregory LLC, where he makes his own tools for the farrier trade.  

“He’s better than I ever was,” says Chris when talking about Cody’s skills as a farrier. Chris obtained his journeyman certification, which is the highest certification a farrier can achieve, at the age of 22 and was the youngest journeyman in the country at the time. Cody received his own journeyman certification at only 15 years old and was the youngest until another young man beat him by only one month.  

“If you’re made to be a farrier, it will grab you,” says Chris. “You’re never going to be good enough, there is always a challenge. My mind is still learning but your body starts to not be able to do what it was able to before.”  

In addition to his other jobs, Chris has also written a textbook called “Gregory’s Textbook of Farriery,” which also has a Spanish translation and an audiobook that was read by former student Brian Mullins. Chris has plans to write novels but has yet to release anything to the public.  

For more information on Heartland Horseshoeing School, go to www.heartlandhorseshoeing.com.

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