APPRENTICE farrier Ben Chamberlain devotes at least 12 hours a day to the job he loves. And that unstinting dedication has paid off, writes Roger Malone.

Ben, 21, from Mary Tavy, has been selected to join the English team in the national competition which takes place in Scotland next month.

'I was very pleased to be in the team. A total of 34 apprentices — including one girl — went in for it. We had to make three different types of horseshoes for the selection.'

A former Tavistock Primary School and Tavistock College pupil Ben is now in his third year of a four year apprenticeship.

'By 15 I decided to be a farrier because I have always found the work very interesting,' he said.

Ben originally met Mark Preece, the manager of the England team, in Launceston, to get some good advice.

'I watched him work and he told me how to get into the trade.

'You have to find a job with an approved training farrier — there are only 300 in the country,' said Ben, who was fortunate to get taken on by an excellent farrier in Wincanton.

'I love the work — it is brilliant. It is a fairly difficult job but I enjoy it because you are always meeting different people.

'And it is outdoor work — I never wanted to work indoors,' he says.

England is the only country where farriers have to go through an apprenticeship.

Ben says he would like to travel to America and Australia to shoe horses because he has never had the chance to travel.

Ultimately he wants to settle in Devon and set up his own business as a farrier.

As it is he comes home most weekends. But he doesn't stop working. He has a gas fire and an anvil in a stable at his parents' home.

'Being a farrier is pretty hard on your back and you know about it when you finish at the end of the day.

'But I wouldn't want to do anything else,' he says.

Currently he works from 7am to 7pm — and regularly puts in a couple of extra hours each evening perfecting his competitive skills.

It is that dedication that has ensured him a place representing England in the competition.