10/09/2026
Joe Ludford caught the horse bug as a child when his family drove alongside Bowie Racetrack in their family station wagon while horses were breezing and racing. He started riding Hunter/Jumper as a boy and even competed to the Grand Prix level on two horses. Joe later got into owning, training, and breeding racehorses. Among his Thoroughbred accolades were breeding “AwesomeBirdie” who won 7 out of 11 starts, and 4 consecutive races. He bred “CashorCheck” a stakes horse, who broke his maiden by 20 lengths, went on to win 2 more stakes races, and was later named horse of the year at the same track in Central Canada. He pin hooked a 2 year old who breezed 10 seconds flat and purchased an allowance winner for $1,500 that went on to win 5 races in a year. His extensive horse resume would be enough to fill a career for many people, however that is only scratching the surface.
At 19 years old, Joe moved to Santa Barbara, CA to attend the Pacific Coast Horseshoeing School for a year and was hooked. He was a horseshow farrier the first year he was in business and was in the right place at the right time when a farrier quit working for one of the top Hunter/Jumper trainers in the country and offered Joe the job shoeing his barn of 40 which he did for 20 years. All his top customers at the time came through that trainer as well. As his business continued to grow, he started shoeing steeplechase horses (including an Eclipse Award winner), foxhunters, and eventers. He even shod 30 police horses for a period of time. In the height of his career, he had 4 men working for him and together they shod 1,200 head of primarily hunter/jumpers.
Joe is a true blacksmith, specializing in everything from self-made bar shoes to glue-ons. Although he claims that is all just a day’s work. His most interesting shoeing solution over the years was a steeplechase horse who severed his tendon in a race. Joe built a fully custom shoe with a hinged support that came up onto his ankle and up the back of his leg to brace his leg and was nailed onto his hoof. He never raced again but his tendon fully healed.
10 years ago, Joe and his wife, Shelly, moved to Ocala. Until recently Joe still made the drive once a month back to Maryland to shoe 60 horses over 4 days. Joe now primarily works on show horses who compete as eventers, hunters, and jumpers. To this day, his favorite part of the job is the interesting people and horses he works for and being able to share in part of their success.
Joe is an integral part of our team at Englert-Farren Sporthorses, keeping our horses comfortable and ready to step into the ring.
We are thrilled to recognize him as a sponsor of “Team Linus” on his road to Maryland. Thank you, Joe!
