Alan Maraviglia

Alan Maraviglia, Master Farrier,  Idaho

Alan has had horses most of his life and part of being a good hand is his  ability  to trim and shoe his own string. He has worked on many ranches in the Bay Area gathering and branding cattle, packing, elk and deer hunting as well as team roping on both ends. This background led him to attend a horseshoeing school and later apprenticed for several years while building a clientele over the next 20+ years. He achieved his CF credential after studying with some of the best clinicians and educators.  He was once told that  " all we know is what we are taught early on..and it was about the shoe and T squaring off the long and short axis.."  He soon discovered our industry has had many examples and theories of a trim...He came to believe ..But we aren't building houses or fences!..we are aligment specialists or should be, it's the most important thing we do. Next we apply and fit a basic shoe to preserve and protect the alignment we performed. What he found and soon realized was very few farriers actually don't and they rely on gimmicks and fancy hand - mades. He prefers a proper alignment with an adequate fitting shoe rather than an improper trim and some fancy whip around bar shoe. While attending many clinics he gravitated to Bob Marshall. Very few can spin and fit a shoe like Bob. Next the TRIM and no one can understand the trim and anatomy like Michael Savoldi from Shandon CA. Alan credits him for changing his career. He lived within four hours of him and soon found himself spending weekends performing dissections and loading cadaver feet and understanding the P3 relationship within the hoof capsule. He came to the conclusion that it is impossible  to align P3 by "T - Squaring" it. Soon afterwards he was invited to help Michael with clinic demonstrations of his theory while Michael showed slides of his 40+ years of study and 30+ years teaching Farrier Science at Cal Poly Pomona CA. Alan shod many different types of sport horses and settled on Warm Bloods and Light Drafts. He soon built quite a good clientele of Dressage horses.  He also shod for rodeo families as well. One of his horses CC Slippin won the Amateur World Finals Amarillo TX in 2009 wearing frog support pads, putty and with concave shoes..quite a cutting mare. He  worked with one of his mentors,  Kerry Zuest, whom he first met in the early '90s, to help him prepare for his certification testing while part of a local farrier chapter. It was here  he learned to modify shoes, make hand - mades and practice for his testing.

He is appreciative of all the support and training he has received over his long career in the industry which helped him improve his knowledge and skills in Farrier Science. He is an advocate of helping others as he can and as they need in their Farrier endeavors. Alan lives in Riggins, ID on the Salmon River with his wife of 55 years. He can be contacted at armust4horses@gmail.com