Page 44 - The Hunt - Summer 2021

“When I started, there hadn’t been any progress. We were still shoeing horses like they did in Washington’s day.”
It’s been an inevitable trot to the finish line for Teichman, who’s 48-year career ended late last year. He continues as a consultant, helping others in a profession that craved his innovation and expertise. “When I started, there hadn’t been any progress,” says Teichman, who turns 63 in September. “We were still shoeing horses like they did in Washington’s day.”
Hunt Country provides significant geography for farriers. The profession is as niche-driven as the horse hierarchy it serves. Event, dressage
and show horses are the Olympic threesome. But there are also jumpers, thoroughbreds,
and hunt and hobby horses. Eventing took up 50-60 percent of Teichman’s time. Hunt horses never really interested him, and he admits he could’ve made more money with the show variety. “If a horse isn’t worth $2 or $3 million, it doesn’t get in the ring at Devon,” he says.
“West Chester’s Dave Werkiser has been a farrier for 40 years. You really, really have to want to do this,” he says. “If not, you can’t overcome the discomfort or the working conditions.”
Teichman’s right hip wore out and
was replaced four years ago. He was shoeing three weeks later. “If you haven’t been cut or burned or hit a finger by 7 a.m., you will have by the afternoon,” he says.
Teichman grew up in St. Davids and graduated from Radnor High School. His father, a geologist for the Pennsylvania Railroad, didn’t think much of the farrier profession. He died at age 95 last fall, just as Teichman announced intentions to step down from the U.S. Olympic Equestrian Team after a 23-year run. In the end, his father was somewhat proud. “But he basically blew me off until I went to the Olympics,” Teichman says. “Then he realized I must be pretty good.”
An Eastern University alum, Teichman earned his second master’s degree this past July in a satellite program with the Royal Veterinary College in London, the world’s largest vet school. Under the Equine Locomotor Research program, he studied how a horse’s shoe surface modifications impact the speed of break-over, a term used to describe when a horse’s heel moves to its toe off the ground.
Teichman holds a patent for a medium-weight sport horseshoe. Because event horses challenge their hooves in ways others don’t, he often ignored the veterinary playbook. “They’d say, ‘This is the disease, and this is the treatment.’
42 THE HUNT MAGAZINE
summer 2021