World Championship Blacksmiths compete in Amarillo for first time

AMARILLO, Texas (KFDA) - Ruben on the Road visits the West Texas Ranch Rodeo and learns about the World Championship Blacksmiths competing in Amarillo for the first time.

“What we have, is this is our season opener for the 2025 season,” said Craig Trnka, World Championship Blacksmiths CEO. “This is our 19th season. We go to five locations and there’s four classes here.”

Trnka says the classes participate in practical blacksmithing, like tong making, making horseshoes and increasing their skills.

“And since we’re set up in go rounds, you come and you compete once. But since we have 10 go rounds, you’re a student nine times. You’re watching and you’re doing way better when you’re watching than you’re actually competing,” said Trnka. “But competition is what makes the world go around.”

Trnka says everybody is in it and invested. He says everybody’s got skin in the game.

“So the end result is that horses get shod better because the mark on the wall just keeps going up and then we just go to different locations,” said Trnka. “And now that they’ve got the West Texas Ranch Rodeo, we got an invitation to come. It’s just a rising tide that helps everybody.”

Trnka says being in the horse industry, it’s an honor to be in West Texas for the first time.

“Oh it’s amazing. I’m having such a ball. And it’s a good opportunity just to learn and try to get better,” said Czerna “Zern” Richardson, a farrier.

Richardson says it builds efficiency.

“When you’re at the horse at the anvil, it builds efficiency. So you’re actually faster and you get better quality of work,” said Richardson.

“It’s overwhelming. Randy Whipple did a good job in promoting the whole thing, like the farrier supply. John Harshbarger over at Well Shod said he couldn’t turn on the radio and they weren’t advertising it,” said Trnka.

Trnka says it’s good for the community to bring in outside people and to spend a little bit of money in the community.

“It’s been great the way the community has really opened their arms,” said Trnka.

Richardson says it means a lot when you see all the support of everybody wanting to be there, watch you and cheer you on.

“It opens their eyes to a lot of things that they don’t see because everything’s behind closed doors most of the time,” said Richardson.

Richardson says it makes him happy because they are encouraging the younger generation coming up, wanting to learn skills and keep the tradition alive.