Clinic Host Information and Requirements

•        Find out if you have at least five participants in your area who are prepared to sign up and immediately pay for a clinic slot. These friends will get a five-day advantage over the public when registration begins. They will also serve as your down-payment to finalize our agreement to come to your location. Or, if you prefer, you could buy all or some of the slots, yourself, and offer them for sale locally (at face value -- no scalping, please).

•        Submit a host application form.

•        Someone will contact you to let you know if and when we can schedule the clinic.

•        If/when we mutually agree on dates for the clinic, you will be given a private access code to allow your 5+ friends to sign up and pay for their clinic slot -- they have five days to sign up. When the 5+ friends have signed up, we will then begin advertising the clinic, and make our own travel arrangements. In the event that we do not have at least 5 participants sign up within the allotted 5-day period, we will refund the money to any who paid, and the clinic planning will cease.

•        It is very important that you advertise locally - one idea is to print the flyer we provide and hang it up wherever horse people go (training/boarding facilities, feed and tack stores, vet clinics, etc.).

•        Rent the facility. You will receive 10% of the gross ticket sales ($1,000 USD, assuming all 40 slots sell) to help pay for facility costs. We will release funds to you as needed to rent a facility. Any remaining balance we owe to you will be paid at the clinic.

•        On the day of the clinic, you will be responsible for making sure everyone signs the waiver form, registering arriving guests, checking each horse's health papers, and deciding the order in which the horses will be worked on.

•        You will also be responsible for making the owner/manager of the host facility happy (cleanup, herding people/vehicles into the right areas --  whatever the facility owner/manager requires).

•        In addition to your own free admission, you may also invite one equine veterinarian and one farrier/trimmer at no charge.  Hopefully the veterinarian will be available throughout the day to take radiographs, provide sedation if needed, and consult with Pete as needed.

  Schedule

  The clinic will begin with a 3-hour lecture at 9:00am and then we will start the live-horse demos after lunch (3 horses on Saturday - the host decides the order - try to schedule the easier cases on Saturday, more difficult and likely glue candidates on Sunday). Depending on the horses, the clinic should be over around 5:00 on Saturday. On Sunday, we will begin a 2-hour lecture at 9:00, then work on the first horse (of 3) before lunch. After lunch, we will work on the remaining 2 horses, then a two-hour Q&A session will be added to the end. The clinic will be over at 5:00 or 6:00. Both days, we'll take a 30 minute lunch break at 12:00 or 12:30. Pete will evaluate and trim each horse, fit boots or glue-on shoes/boots as needed, and discuss any relevant nutritional and environmental concerns.

  Facility Requirements

  We don't need a fancy place, but we do need a facility that provides for the basic needs of the participants and horses. The following is required:

•        Rain or Shine.  The clinic host needs to provide a covered, enclosed riding arena, or other building large enough to accommodate a horse being trimmed/shod while 43 people observe, standing and sitting in camp chairs. The bare minimum would be a 40 foot x 60 foot open area of a barn. The ideal situation is a covered riding arena (with side walls). If you don't already have access to an appropriate site, check your local fairgrounds, riding clubs and rodeo arenas - wherever horse shows are held. Most university vet schools have perfect facilities for this as well.

•        Trimming/Shoeing area. Rubber stall mats are the ideal surface to work on - particularly if the Clinic is held in a riding arena. Electricity needs to be available for heat-fitting boots and glue-on shoes and for power tool use for boot and shoe modifications. A broom and poop scoop will be needed, as well as a bucket or cart for manure disposal.

•        Things for the host to provide. For clinics Pete has to fly to, he will need two 6'-8' (2+ meter)-long tables to set his stuff up on, 2 chairs, an extension cord that reaches to the trimming area, a small hand-held butane torch (preferably this one - most farriers and trimmers already own one), a cordless drill, and a white board, easel (or 6'-8' stepladder) with markers. If Pete drives to the clinic, he will bring the tools with him, but not the tables, chairs, or easel/step ladder.

•        Adequate Parking. There needs to be room for the participants' vehicles and horse trailers (30 cars/trucks, plus 8 trucks with horse trailers).

•        Boarding. We need to have boarding available on-site for 6 horses (plus some owners may request room for companion horses). The horse owners can be charged reasonable/normal fees for boarding and will be expected to follow the vaccination requirements and rules of the host facility.

•        Day Accommodations for Clinic Horses. If clinic horses are being boarded away from the clinic location (local horses), there must be a place on-site where they can spend the day before and after trimming. This could be individual small paddocks, stalls, or even rope zip-runs for the horses trained to deal with them. This is important, because it will allow participants who bring horses to attend the entire clinic, instead of spending the day holding their horse in the distance.

•        Toilet. Two rented porta-potties are okay if your facility doesn't have bathrooms.

•        Background Noise and Distractions. Are you next door to a shooting range or construction site? Will a load of hay be arriving on the day of the workshop? Are there non-participants in and out of the clinic area?  These are very important considerations that can ruin the clinic experience. If your home location is not suitable, perhaps look into your local fairgrounds, riding club or vet school.

•        Hotels/Motels. Traveling participants will be responsible for their own accommodations, but the clinic facility needs to have places to stay available within a 30-minute drive.

•        Airport. A two-hour (or less) drive from a major airport is ideal.

•        Participant information. The  clinic host will need to provide a list of directions, a  contact phone number,  local hotels and restaurants. Your facility and contact information will be shared with clinic participants only. The only information that will be made public will be your city, state and the date of the clinic.

Optional, but highly desirable:

•        Equine Veterinarian. Often, severe cases are brought into the clinics, and veterinary support may be needed to design a complete protocol for the horses' future care. It can also be nice to have access to sedation, medications and radiographs. If possible, it is best if the vet plans a Friday evening visit to the clinic facility in case Demo Horses have arrived who need fresh radiographs. It is best that we avoid taking radiographs during the clinic so both the vet and the horse owner can attend the clinic. As always, though, we work on horse time -- meaning that we deal with whatever pops up as we go. That said, the more Demo Horses we have with previously taken fresh radiographs and a recent veterinary diagnosis, the better.

•        Local Farrier or Trimmer.  Rarely is a hoof problem fixed in one day. Instead, the best you can hope for is to begin a process toward a healthier situation in the future - this, of course requires continued care. It is almost essential that whoever will be taking care of the hooves (after the clinic) be in attendance.

Host Registration

View/Print Waiver