Why did you stay to work in your master's workshop?
John held out his hand to me at a difficult time. After my internship I found a job at a saddlery, but at the end of the 90s an equine disease put the sector in crisis. Being the last to arrive, I was the first to be sent away. After an experience working alone in my parents' garage, John suggested I returned to work with him.
Why did you choose this profession?
Horses have always been a passion of mine, at 6 years old I already knew how to ride and I had my own pony. Also the help of John, a friend of my parents' friends, was decisive as he has offered to take me on as an apprentice.
© Andrew Hobbs
What was the most important lesson that John passed on to you?
The sacredness of work and never to be complacent. During the first months of my apprentice, I was even forbidden to speak in the workshop, the level of concentration required was high and you could not break it with useless chatter. At the end of a task, everything had to be perfect.
What experience in recent years has particularly marked you?
A few years ago I went to Central America with a charity to teach my craft to people of Honduras and Nicaragua whose main means of transport is still by horse. I became a teacher of a class of ten who are now pursuing my craft, which the Heritage Craft Association has declared at risk of extinction.