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Ronan alum comes home to offer farrier services

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When it comes to horsin’ around, 21-year-old Levi Walchuk is all business. A 2009 Ronan High School alum, Walchuk has recently returned to the Mission Valley to offer his horse-shoeing services. After graduating from high school, Walchuk decided to stick with his life-long passion for farm life and horses when choosing a future career.

“I wanted to do something with horses,” Walchuk said. “I figured I’d pick a job that fit into my lifestyle.”

Following his heart, Walchuk headed to Bozeman, where he enrolled into the Montana State University Farrier School, and learned the proper techniques for shoeing horses from instructor Tom Wolf. Through the school, he received his certification and is now a licensed farrier. A farrier is someone who specializes in equine hoof care, including the trimming and balancing of horses’ hooves and the placing of shoes on their hooves. Walchuk combines blacksmithing and veterinarian skills to care for horses’ hooves. Upon completion of the school, Walchuk stayed an additional three weeks to apprentice with his instructor before returning to his rural home east of Ronan.

During his training, Walchuk learned how to make bar shoes, which are circular and help support a horses front feet if they have a navicular disease. According to Walchuk, navicular diseases occur when bones in a horse's leg get tender, requiring extra support. The disease is fairly common with domesticated horses.

“The bones in their legs can get tender and sore after awhile,” he said. “When this happens they need bar shoes. I would like to make bar shoes (for a living).”

According to Walchuk, it takes him an hour to handcraft four normal horse shoes, while bar shoes are more time consuming, taking twice as long to build.

“I make the bar shoe out of one straight piece of steel,” Walchuk said. “One hundred percent by hand.”

Fresh out of school, Walchuk aspires to own a shoeing trailer in the near future, which he would use to travel around the Mission Valley to work on horses. He recently began his own business called Peak Performance Horse Shoeing, and has since shod four horses in Arlee.

There are several different methods of shoeing a horse. Walchuk generally uses the heat method, burning the shoe to the hoof, which allows the shoe to sit down into the hoof.

“It’s been proven that the heat doesn’t raise the hoof temperature or hurt the horse at all,” Walchuk said. He then used nails to secure the shoe to the hoof.

When he’s not hammering out steel for a new set of shoes, Walchuk is actively involved with the local rodeo scene. He currently competes in steer wrestling, along with calf and team roping. He recently placed second in steer wrestling during a rodeo in Lincoln, Mont.

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