Article & photos by Nancy Brannon
On July 1, as I delivered the Mid-South Horse Review to Aintree Farms in Germantown, TN, farrier Chris Taylor was hard at work shoeing horses. Son of farrier Donnie Taylor and co-owner of Taylor Farrier Services, Chris is the third generation farrier in his family. He’s also an elder at City Fellowship Baptist Church in Jackson, TN, where he resides.
Chris’s father Donnie has been shoeing horses for about 30 years and Chris, for 15 years, so they formed a partnership about 15 years ago. They specialize in hunter/jumper and dressage horses, shoeing at barns like Aintree and Trinity Farms in Lakeland, TN and at Mid-South Dressage Academy in Hernando, MS. Donnie said he also shoes some Standardbreds, Quarter Horses, and barrel horses.
With both his grandfather and father being farriers, it might seem inevitable that Chris would become a farrier, too. But that wasn’t always the case. Chris said, “I must have tried at least 15 different jobs before I became a farrier. Nothing else seemed to work out, so I was like the prodigal son coming back to farrier work. I guess it was always meant to be.”
Chris said he has “always had a love for horses.” He grew up on a farm in Bolivar, TN where they had Standardbred race horses. For eight years they had horses in training in Chicago and other places in Illinois. In fact, he still owns three Standardbred horses and his brother, Robert Taylor, is a full time Standardbred race horse trainer. “He shoes horses, too,” Chris said. Wouldn’t you know it? Chris has plans to get more into breeding Standardbred race horses, he said.
