This is Marquessa. She is about 30 years old and is retired on 40 acres. She has a great mom who takes very good care of her.

I had an opportunity to ride with another shoer twice this fall to work on a hospital shoe for a horse named Dazzle. Dazzle lives up to his namesake, having shown up at the veterinarian clinic with silver hoof polish on his feet! I was able to see the new acrylic superfast pads that Vettec puts out.

One of my customers brought a show horse home from the circuit with what turned out to be a broken side-bone. The horse toes out on the front feet and has never had pathological shoeing to correct it. The horse is a young Arabian. I hope it heals OK, because it is difficult to ask an Arabian to be still for six to eight weeks.

Another of my customers went lame three days after I left. Everyone at her barn is trimmed. I know I don't take a lot of sole off trim horses because I don't want them lame. Of course, I heard all this second hand because she called one of my other customers to ask if it was something I did. She didn't realize how small the horse community is. I heard from the person she talked to, the veterinarian she called and the horseshoer who put a hospital shoe on her horse. I am still learning the more complicated shoes, so I was good with someone else going out, but I would have gone to watch and learn if I heard about it in time. The veterinarian said there was a distinct puncture wound. He also told me that he liked my trim work and that I did I nice job on the horse. Whew!

My fifth season is winding down. I have more time at home again and have already started hitting the gym so I don't lose any muscle strength through the winter. I did add several new customers for the barefoot trim and I really like doing that trim. This summer was difficult with it being so wet for so long, so there were some horses that I felt were better with shoes. Maybe next year they can try going barefoot.

What is in a name?

This miniature horses' name is Falaeo. His owner taught him to give kisses. It always amazes me how many names there are for our animals. The first horse I rode in 1966 was a buckskin pony named Sunray. After that came Cocoa, Blondie, Nosey, Freckles, Holly and Pockets. Other horses I met through the years are Whisky, Rocky, M&M, Arthur, Neesha, Cannon, Clavicle, Candle Power, Pamela, Blackie, Dusty, Buddy, Tucker and Bennie. This season I started marketing the barefoot trim and booting. I have a start on customers who are interested in natural hoof care. It is also getting toward the end of the shoeing season. September is when I buy enough supplies to be ready when the work ramps up in the spring. This was a tough year to keep ahead of scheduling. It rained all summer, some horses were rescheduled two and three times. I also saw more abcesses and lame horses this year than in previous years.

This guy is summering on fifteen acres of brome. He is very happy and is enjoying his temporary home.
These ponies are not my customers. The rig and ponies live near my inlaws in Missouri. Very cute, though!

Two Bit has to travel a lot of pastures, gravel roads and back country to trim and shoe horses. This road has two creeks that run across the road. If we have enough rain, I have to go around which adds about seven miles to my odometer. I had to reschedule my horses this morning. It has been thundering and raining for a few hours now. My next appointments start at four in the afternoon. Maybe the weather will blow over by then. The rain seems never ending this year. Horses that normally don't have any problems with their feet are blowing abcesses because their feet are so soft. Horse owners don't understand that they cannot ride the way they usually do when it is this wet. They have to stay off road gravel and rocky trails or put shoes on. Once they injure a foot, get tendonitis or throw their back out of alignment it takes several weeks for the horse to get better. But people want an instant fix and worse, don't realize they caused the problem.This is also the time of year that horseshoers have to fight off exhaustion. Working in the heat and with a full schedule starts to wear on your body. Trying to find holes in the schedule to fit horses in that you have to reschedule because of weather means that you work under more horses than your body can tolerate in a week. You leave the house an hour earlier and come home at dark. This leaves no time to contact your customers who are due, call customers to confirm upcoming scheduled appointments, or return phone calls. It gets frustrating. No matter how hard you work you are always behind.

The first four years I left my cell phone on all the time and I took it with me everywhere. This year I shut my phone off at 8pm every night and I never fire up the cell phone on Sundays. This is also the first year that I won't work on Sunday. To my knowledge I lost two customers totalling 5 horses this season. One woman called at 10:15 on a Friday night and left voice mail. I called her at 8am the next morning and she said she found someone the night before. Oh well. Another woman called me on a Saturday afternoon on my home phone, not my business line, to shoe her horse that day so she could go on a competitive trail ride the next morning. I already had a full day of horses. By the time I found her message on the home phone it was too late to shoe a horse before dark. Last year I did shoe her horse at a park in the dark during a thunderstorm.

When I rode with Bob for two years as an apprentice, it was like working with a machine. He left the house at 7:30 every morning. He shoes ten to twelve horses a day six days a week at the same steady pace all day long. He rarely stops to eat, almost never stops where there is a bathroom and always drive the shortest distance from barn to barn. He doesn't take breaks, answer the phone or stop working until his list for the day is complete.

For the past three years on my own I have followed much the same path, except not as many horses a day. This year I am not. I discovered that Starbucks is always on the way to a barn. I am not sitting on the side of the road waiting because I got to a barn early. I have actually been exactly on time or five minutes late for appointments. I have more horses a day now. As an old girl, I started staggering my day. I work until noon, then go home for four or five hours and rest. Then I go back out at four or five and work until eight at night. This give my body a chance to rest and has kept me out of the heat in the afternoon.

I was always an early morning person, awake and up by six. Now that I am in the throws of menopause I am not sleeping well at night. I sleep the heaviest from five to seven in the morning. To accommodate, I moved my first appointments this summer from eight to nine in the morning. While this is my busiest year, it is also the most relaxed and comfortable year.

New customer

This little cutie was born two days ago. I think he is adorable!I spent more time rescheduling customers the past two weeks than working. There have been storms every morning. I took one week for light duty only because of the surgery on my foot. It was just getting easy to walk again when I got bucked off my bicycle at Shawnee Lake. Not on the mountain bike trail. Oh no. That would be too easy. I was on the concrete trail where no one should fall. So, that means this week had to be overbooked. One of my customers is on vacation this week. She rode with me two days and was a great help. Except at one place where she forgot we didn't shoe. We only trimmed. She picked up the horse owners bucket of brushes thinking it was my bucket of nails and tools. We both watched her load it in the trunk of my car along with my shoeing box, waiting to see how long it would take her to realize she had the wrong bucket. She didn't figure it out until she saw us laughing!

I have three new stops this week with six new horses. One horse was a set of four shoes. He stood nice and quiet. I found out he and my horse have the same daddy. That explains why he is so quiet. I had two from last night that I walked away from. They were trims. One was new to the woman and he already had her scared of him. She can't catch him and has arranged for a cowboy to come in to rope the horse so they can get it on a trailer and gone. The other horse was a brat. She kept rearing when I would pick up a foot, then she would step into me and tried to push me down. I have three new ones tonight. The rest of the week should go smoothly with known good quiet horses.

When the horseshoer needs a farrier

I have been hobbling around all weekend because I had an ingrown toenail removed from my giant toe. I always thought it was called the big toe, but the nurse said it is officially a giant toe. Who knew? Tom laughed at me all the way to the walk-in clinic. He thought it was funny that the horseshoer needed a farrier. I had an appointment with a podiatrist two weeks from now, but the nail decided to get infected the day before a holiday. So on 4th of July I had minor surgery.

I have horses scheduled in the morning and hope I do OK. I am still pretty sore and can't take any more of the prescribed pain medicine so I can drive and safely work under horses in the morning. That is one of the joys of working for yourself. You don't have sick leave and you don't get paid if you aren't working. You also take a chance if you call your customer to reschedule. Sometimes, they will move to a different farrier. You just can't be sick or take vacation in this job and keep your customers. The strip mall where the clinic was also has a coffee shop that was new to us. They made great coffee and had awesome sandwiches.

Hubby was on vacation most of last week. Wednesday we spent the day bicycling the levee trail in Lawrence. At 5pm we stopped to regroup so I could trim horses on the way home. The horses are a mother and yearling baby haflingers. They are quiet good horses, except that the baby was taught to bow when you pick up a front foot. That makes it a little bit of a struggle to trim its' front feet. There is also a drop dead gorgeous Holsteiner dressage horse. He is black and all legs. He always trots in from the pasture when his owner calls him. He is magnificent to watch.

I have a new pony on my list that is cute as a bug. He is foundered, but assuming he is taken off grass I think he will come around pretty quickly. I had to move some horses around during the week it was over 100 degrees. Everyone was willing and understood. One afternoon, in the middle of the week, I just couldn't go out again. I had to reschedule a new customer. If I had just waited another two hours before calling him I could have used a thunderstorm as an excuse to cancel instead of sounding like a wimp and cancelling because of the heat! Both of his horses were quiet and stood nicely.

Tom was bicyling on the Landon trail this morning and saw one of my customers riding their horse. He stopped and got off his bicycle because he didn't want the horses to shy. He asked them where they were from and asked if they knew me. One of the horses was my customer. The horse owner said that I was just at the barn last week and that I was telling her how I drop him off at one end of a trail and pick him up at the other end. The Landon trail is only an eight mile round trip ride. Had my giant toe not hurt so much, I would have ridden with him.

I have six new horses scheduled this week that I am looking forward to meeting. I also have to make a stop to check on one customer who's horse probably has a rock bruise on a front foot. I hope not, because he has his horse for sale and if it goes lame he will have to hold onto the horse awhile longer. Truthfully, if I thought I could keep a horse right now I would have bought this one already. It is a good broke quiet horse.

The advertising I did in May is still working. I have two new customers that will be regular trims and occasionally shoe. They handled their horses exceptionally well. Both horses are older, but recently trained to ride. In my little world that means the horses didn't have much patience. The owners were right on top of it, though. One new customer is the cutest white welsh pony. He was a sweetheart to work under. Two horses last week are customers I would love to have on my list. I was filling in for an injured farrier so I probably won't see them again. Too bad as the horses stand quietly and don't have any issues. I may be slightly one sided, but I also like the barn because it has cats that enjoy human contact.

Knock on wood, but my shoes are starting to stay on 8-10 weeks like they were when I first started. This work is so frustrating. The harder you work at some part of it the more frustrated you get. When you get to the point that you want just to hang up your apron, things start to go better. There are feet I put shoes on that I would swear won't stay on a day because of all the issues the foot has. Those are the shoes that stay on eight weeks. The hoof that doesn't seem like it should lose a shoe at all are the ones that come off right away. Go figure. Without fail, every shoer I have met is a perfectionist (Although I am not! Am I?)who can and will spin themselves in circles trying to make a foot or a shoe come out just so.

So what have I been doing differently? First, I realized that I started dropping shoes when I started using city head #5 nails. I started out using combo #5 nails until I got brave enough to go with a bigger nail. I went back to the smaller nail. Then Bob came out to help me with a barrel horse that needed front shoes. He showed me that I was not rasping the toe level. So I started rasping the toe differently. Finally,another shoer showed me a different way to clinch the foot. The good thing is that my shoes are hanging in there now. The bad thing is that I don't know for sure what I was doing wrong or which of the three things I changed was the right thing.

The weather is a pain in the neck this spring. I had to reschedule several appointments because of storms, rain or 100 degree temperatures. Most customers understand and are happy to reschedule. The storms really wreck havoc with my schedule. The horses act stupid just before a storm front. The bugs go on an eating frenzy and chew on the horses so they are contantly stomping their feet and lashing you with their tail. The horses feet are soft from all the moisure and their is mud everywhere. The winds we have this spring make the horses spookey. The outlook this week is for 100 degree temperatues. I know at least on customer will want to reschedule. The rest are morning appointments. If I pace myself and drink a lot of water I will get through it.

A Half Century

I have several new shoeing customers this spring. The horse that belongs to this foot is a tall lanky grey that is used as a trail horse. This week is the end of three long weeks. You have to make hay while the sun shines, but I am not sure my body is up for it. I have one more long day Monday with four horses getting shoes and three trims. After that, I need to get control of my schedule and tone it down. At up to $700 a week gross, I can sleep at night. Over that and my body hurts too much to sleep.

Funny how the weather affects horses. I have one stop with three horses that are fairly well mannered. We had weather moving in the other morning when I showed up. All three horses acted silly. In the first half hour, one horse broke his lead rope, one knocked over my shoeing box, the third got loose. It started raining and we decided to drop back five yards and come back another day.

One of my long time customers began riding her horse again after taking some time off to have a baby. Her horse tends to have soft spots just behind the toe. I asked my mentor, Bob, to help out. His front feet have soft spots just back from the toe. That spot was soft to the touch three weeks ago, so I thought he would need pads. Of course, by the time I met Bob at this barn we had been several days without rain, so the soft spot was not as sensitive anymore. We think he will do just fine with St. Croix Eventers. That shoe is wider in the web and has a bit of a roll to it.

Playing Fetch

When you work outside all day you quickly find out that perfect days are rare. The summer heat in the Midwest is brutal. The wind blows every day in Kansas, and the winter wind will cut right through you until you are chilled to the bone. When I moved here in 1989, a real estate agent told me that if the wind stopped blowing everyone in Kansas would fall down. It didn’t take long to understand what he was talking about. About six months after I moved to Kansas, on a spring Saturday, we had seventy mile an hour sustained straight winds for about six hours.

This week, however, was amazing. The sky was as blue as could be, with no clouds. There was very little humidity and, most of the week, very little wind. It was pleasantly warm and still quite cool at night. I worked at one of my favorite stops this week. It is one of the barns I go to where I am usually alone. The horses are quiet and easy to catch. I don’t have to race against a clock to get there, since no one is waiting on me.

There is also a Labrador retriever who loves to play. Since it was so nice out, we played fetch for about a half hour. Actually, I sat in the shade under a tree while the dog fetched. I think we both had a good time, even though the dog did all the work. Retrievers always have to have something in their mouth. Two winters ago, this dog took one of my gloves and dropped it in the pond. The owners found it and left it for me when I came back eight weeks later for the horses next set of trims!

The advertising I paid for is producing a lot of calls. I seem to be catching a break this year. So far, all but one new stop resulted in good horses to work under. I did get one phone call where the man insulted me, propositioned me, and then tried to bribe me to come out to trim his horse at supper time on a Sunday. He probably still doesn’t understand why I hung up on him.

One of my new stops this week was a coming two year old who was passive aggressive while I was trying to trim her front feet. When that didn’t work, she started rearing and striking. I told the owner we were done for the day. She got the filly settled down and removed the halter and lead rope. As the owner turned to walk away the filly tried to run her down. I stepped forward holding my arms up and growled. The filly did a sliding stop and started to turn away, which is what most horses will do. Then she turned back toward me, ran at me reared and tried to strike me. The owner came in beside me and used her lead rope to hit the horse. The filly turned around, backed up and tried to kick the woman. The filly didn’t back off until we were out of the paddock. I have had horses that were too ill mannered to work under, but have never had one attack me. This is why stops like the one with the fetching dog are the ones you treasure.

A couple of years back I trimmed a mule. Their regular shoer had injured his back and the mules’ owner was taking her in a 4th of July parade. He needed her feet to look good. I knew it was a one time stop, but was happy for the money.
He called this week and wanted me back out. He tried to trim the mule on his own last year and didn’t like how hard it was on his back. He liked the way I handled his mule so he had me back out. I was happy to go because several times the past two years I received calls from people he gave my name to. His mule is well mannered and has a great paint job.

The Drama Queen

It was a busy week with a lot of new customers that are a result of the advertising I did this month. I am fortunate this year that all of the new customers I have met the past couple of weeks have good quiet horses that stand tied. Things come in three's, they say. Last week I wrote about falling in the mole hole and hitting myself in the chin with the car door. This week was the third thing. I usually just motor along, but lately I feel like a drama queen.

One of my regular stops is a barn where I am alone while the owners are at work. There are three mares and a pony to round up and trim. We had a front moving through Wednesday, so the flies were biting the horses mercilessly. That means the horses pull their feet away from you constantly so they can stomp or kick at the flies. It also means you get hit in the eye with their tails as they swish the flies away. I finished with the first mare and put her back into the pasture. Before I haltered and tied the second mare I went into their barn for fly spray. While I was under the third mare, I realized my heart was racing and I was sweating a lot. It was humid, so I drank water and slowed down.

The mares were all back in their pasture and I was left with the pony, who is foundered and has a lot of foot to take off. Taking this much foot off is hard work. I was bent over working and started to feel nauseous. When I stood up, I was lightheaded. So, I took my water and sat in the corner of the stall for about twenty minutes. I don't usually get this tired or sick to my stomach, but I figured it was weather related and I was pushing myself too hard.

By the time I was done and in the car, my right arm started hurting at my bicep, which was weird as the none of the horses did a lot of violent pulling. I hurt enough that I called my evening appointment and rescheduled, so I could go home. The next morning I found two small holes in my forearm with a halo like bruise circling it. I didn't feel anything bite me, which usually indicates a brown recluse spider. I stopped in at the doctors office today. She thought the bite marks were too large. She did say that whatever bit me was venomous and to watch it closely for a couple of days. This is the stuff you don't read about in the horseshoeing books. Like two years ago when I got ringworm from the horses at one barn. They got it from the feral cats in the barn. I noticed the cats had ringworm, so I stayed away from them but didn't realize the horses had it too.

The Lead Mare

This horse is recuperating from an injury on its' left front foot. You can see how the hoof became distorted from the injury. There is a distinct line where the new hoof is growing in and the older damaged foot is almost grown out.

The first summer I worked with Bob, there were a couple of horses in his customer list that were intimidating. One was a roan horse who is a bully. I pulled front shoes off him, but had a hard time. When Bob worked under him that day he had to get after the horse. The next time we went to that barn, I was too scared to work under him and declined to do so.

It was the first time I told Bob I wouldn’t work under a horse. Up until then, I worked under any horse that Bob said. The first rule Bob set was that there is not crying in horseshoeing. The second rule was that if I didn’t feel safe working under a horse it was OK. The horse was still a bully and he had to get after the horse again. I watched closely to see how the horse acted as a bully and how he acted when Bob got after him.

Another eight weeks goes by and we are back with the roan. I worked under the horse. He repeatedly yanks his front foot off the hoof stand as I am rasping clinches in preparation to pull shoes. He won’t keep his hind foot on the stand on his rear leg. I see Bob coming in the barn to stand at the horses’ head. I tell him not to do that. By the hangdog look on his face, you would think I just kicked him out of his own barn. He asks why.

I tell him I can’t have him in there because this horse scares me. I chickened out working under him the last time and I need to know I can do it. He doesn’t answer me, but he does leave the barn to lean against the shoeing trailer. I do have to get after the horse. Once. Twice. The horse is still moving around a lot as I try to pick up a hind foot. I asked Bob if I am in over my head yet. He said no. “Look at the horse”.

The horse is just starting to lick his lips in submission. Very soon, the horse finds a comfortable spot to stand and I finish pulling the other three shoes, paring the sole and trimming. For me this was a big day. I was able to work under a horse I was previously scared of. I also had to work under his hind end without my stand and was able to do that.

I bring up this story because I had to work under a horse this week that has been in my customer list for almost a year. He is a big boy and is the dominant horse in his herd. This horse keeps me up at night. I probably should not work under him, but I like his owners and the rest of the stop is great. I keep trying different ways to work with the horse so we are not struggling so much, but so far nothing seems to work.

I think, though, that we finally figured it out last week. We came to the conclusion that he is afraid of the hoof stand. He doesn’t seem to care about putting a front foot on it, but he is scared of resting a back foot on the stand. Once I threw the stand out of the mix on his back feet, we seemed to do OK.

One of my newer customers is Nova. He is a miniature horse stud horse that is two years old. His owners said that he is about two inches short for his breed, so he should not pull a cart.
He was a little shy about getting his feet trimmed last year, but settling easily into it now. When they are young, no matter what their size, they don’t like to have their feet trapped (flight instinct) and they don’t know how to balance themselves.

I read a western novel last week called Holmes On The Range by Steve Hockensmith. His character, Otto Amlingmeyer, said "We had places to go and people to get the hell away from." I had a lot of fun reading this book. Two brothers are cowhands in the old west. One of the brothers had just read a Sherlock Holmes novel and thought he was an investigator. He worked hard at getting his brother and himself in a lot of trouble.

I have to go pee pee

Riding in the confined space of a pickup truck for 20 months with a man can be a humiliating experience. You have absolutely no privacy. Horseshoeing in Kansas is an extremely rural experience. There are no bathrooms and no one has time to add 20 miles to the day driving to town every hour just to use a flush toilet.

Stalls, trees, sheds, around and behind buildings are now my bathrooms, whether it is 100 degrees or 10 degrees out. However, we are two adults of the opposite sex so bathroom breaks need to be announced. Bob, the shoer I apprenticed with mentioned that he sometimes feels like he is back in kindergarten asking permission to go pee pee.

Two years is common for an apprenticeship. I preferred to complete the two years with one person. That gave me the time I needed to get comfortable with the tools and my skills. After I gained some confidence, I rode with other shoers. You have to work hard every day to keep your life at bay while you apprentice. Every day there will be people and circumstances that will pull you away from your apprentice time. Since apprenticing is not work that pays a salary, you have to structure your time to apprentice, work at a paying job, and find time to work on your own horseshoeing customer list. Actually, Bob did pay me. He was very fond of telling everyone we met that he paid me $25 a day and all the hoof trimmings I could eat!

You need to be able to learn enough to be exceptional at a basic shoeing job so you can earn money. You can’t do that if you keep missing days in the shoers truck. You can learn the more advanced shoeing methods as you are working (corrective and therapeutic shoeing and your blacksmithing skills) but you need the time to become capable. Two years is a long, long time to put your life on hold. You will be at the mercy of someone else’s schedule.

When I am working with a shoer I don’t say anything bad about his other clients or other horseshoers or veterinarians. I don’t work on their customers horses if they are not comfortable with it. Be honest with the person teaching you. They are investing $87,000 a year worth of their time educating you. A person has to want to do that, so don’t take advantage. You will be working in extreme weather conditions, when you are sick, hurting, sore and tired.


Should you go to school? There is a debate concerning the schools. I have avoided the topic of schools since I started this BLOG because I don’t have anything good to say about the one I went to. I won’t mention their name.

I probably should not have gone to school right away. The end of a two year apprenticeship would have been a better time for me to go because of the way I learn. The school I attended did not have a set syllabus. If I knew how to shoe and knew basic forge work, this would be a good school to attend to learn better blacksmithing skills. There is no one at the school I attended who knows how to teach. I don’t care how good a shoer you think you are, if you can’t teach you shouldn't own a school.

My hands were not strong enough to accomplish much of the blacksmithing. I quickly figured out that it would take lots of practice when I got home. They didn’t teach much in terms of horseshoeing. I found out later, that the two instructors make a bet every class on who won’t make it. I am pretty sure I was their choice in my class.

I left the school two and a half days early. I was so upset that I did not finish the school that I didn’t tell Bob for three months. I was afraid he would kick me out of the shoeing truck if he knew I was a failure. One afternoon at Bobs barn, he was teaching me how to use my hoof nippers and he asked how they showed us at school. I said they didn’t.

This was about the 8th or 9th thing throughout the week that I had no answer for what they were supposed to teach us at school. It was the first time I saw him mad. He left the shoeing stall and paced in the barn. I knew he was disappointed in me. (He wasn’t) It was important to me to be able to do a basic shoeing job out of school so I would be able to be helpful to him when the busy shoeing season started and I failed that goal.

I confessed that I had left school early and that I was afraid to tell him. He was quiet for a bit. Then said that he would have done the same thing, except that he would have punched the instructor in the nose before he left! I still feel like the school owes me my $2100 back. They didn’t even try. They treated me as if I was a fat suburban housewife who had money to waste. I could have made four mortgage payments with that money.

Several months later, Bob and his wife took me to Ardmore, Oklahoma where there is a shoeing school and shoeing supply store. I spent almost 2 hours watching the students. It was a whole different atmosphere. The parking lot was full of horses waiting to be shod. The students were working under horses all day. We only worked under one horse one time at my school and we had to share it.

Most people who go to shoeing school quit within the first year. They don’t have anyone to apprentice with when they get out of school. Having worked for almost two years now under a horse I agree with Bob when he tells me that two things will get to a shoer.

What breaks a shoeing career is getting hurt by a horse and pain in your hands and arms from hammering. That is why learning horsemanship is so important. It lessens your chances of getting a crippling injury. The industry makes good shoes now. All you have to do is a little hammering to shape and fit them. Use that technology. There are so few shoes that need to be made with bar stock anymore. Save the blacksmithing for competitions. You are not paid to make shoes. You only get paid when you nail them on.

Nugget

One of the miniature ponies that I trim is used by his owners regularly with a cart. They drive him to town to run errands. They even have the local gas station owner trained. He comes out with horse treats when they pull up to the gas pump to ‘fill er up!’ The owners purchased the horse at an auction for a nominal amount of money when Nuggest was a young colt. He had not been handled much. They worked with him daily and taught the horse to pull a cart. He is one of the few miniature horses or ponies that has no sign of laminitis because of the care this little dude has had with this couple.

I took a chance and advertised again this year. It didn’t get me that many new horses last year. It did get me some horses that were dangerous to work under. It won’t take much to get where I would like to be. Just another 150 horses on my customer list, most of who are trims.

One of the horses I trim is older with some hind leg issues and tends to walk on the medial, or outside, of the hoof on the left rear leg. This one hoof grows too much foot on the medial side and it distorts the hoof wall. The horse has too much toe on all four feet, but has soft spots just back from the point of the toe. That makes it difficult to get the toe cut back. Even though this horse does not grow much foot, it needs to be trimmed regularly to keep those two issues in check.




As far as trims go, I seem to be popular with people who have geriatric horses and foundered ponies. This pony was rescued and placed into a good home, but they could not find a farrier to come out for one trim. He ended up going without hoof care for almost a year.

The owners have been willing to have the horse trimmed every six weeks until we get the damaged hoof grown out. They are also feeding and dry lotting the horse to help maintain the condition. I have not been able to get as much foot off as I would like, but we are making progress.

The owners of older horses are so thankful that I don’t beat their horse for being a senior citizen. A good growl and thump on the side gets the attention of spoiled horses or horses that are bullies. But it generally doesn’t make arthritis go away. Ponies are difficult to work on because they are so short it makes them uncomfortable to have their leg between a horseshoers knees. That means you have to trim one handed. In addition, a lot of ponies don’t stand well, so you can’t kneel down and trim them for fear of them trampling you or rearing and getting struck in the face with a hoof.

Last year, I worked on four miniature donkeys. One of them is a year old. She is passive aggressive and lay down on her shoulder while I was trimming her front hoof. At first I thought that was OK and just kept trimming. But after she kicked me in the same hand twice I revised my opinion of that. I should have broken bones in that hand. The owners’ son spends his recreational time bulldogging. Before I could object, he picked the donkey up and laid her not very gently on her side, laid his chest and shoulders over her, grabbed three of her legs in one hand and held a hind leg up in the air for me to trim. It worked great. By the time we got her up to do the last front foot, she didn’t argue at all. I thought about hiring him for the summer, but I don’t think I could afford to feed him!

One of the new ponies I have kicked me pretty hard in the right calf, just to the right of my pirates face on my tattoo. I told everyone that I had been kicked in the tattoo. Hubby wanted to put up hurricane signal flags because he said it looked like there was a hurricane behind the pirate.

Last week was my 15th wedding anniversary. We celebrated with good friends and one of my favorite horses, Arthur. He is pictured horse on the right or outside of the carriage along with his brother Andy.

Stretch came into my life in the fall of 2005. He had just bucked a trainer off and the trainer was injured. Arthur is an imposing 17.2 hands tall. At this time, though, he had not filled in yet and was almost two dimensional in width.

The owner asked Bob to take the horse to an auction to be sold without papers. Knowing the fiscal and emotional investment she had in the horse, Bob brought the animal to his barn to try to find out what was going on. The horse has a kind eye. He is a very giving animal, loves to be with humans and is very willing. Bob knew there was something going on. In short order, he figured out that the horse was in some significant discomfort.

Arthur grew so tall so fast, that most of his body had not caught up with him yet. We nicknamed him Stretch. His rump was higher than his withers, so the saddle was laying downhill on his shoulders instead of resting where there was muscle support along the back. The horse was sent to pasture to rest for three months.

Arthur has always been treated like a prince. He has his own dry lot where he was raised, served his meals and was never out with other horses in fear he would be injured. Every training session was began and ended with a full body grooming session. He had the best veterinary care. Getting put out with a herd of horses was a life-changing experience for him. He had to learn how to be part of a herd. In time, this taught him how to act more like horse and provided him with the skills he would need later for his training.

I was able to see him run out in the open the first time he was turned out. He was unsure where to go or how to act, but he did move out. He also had to learn to drink from a pond instead of a bucket. His first trip to the pond, he startled at the water and ran away. The second trip to the waters' edge, he had to spread his front legs apart to get his head down to the water. The cold water touching his nose startled him and again he ran off. The next time, he settled in for a drink.

Bobs' next step with Arthur was to bring him in for ground work in a round pen daily for a short strengthening session. He was encouraged to walk and trot around the pen to help heal the tendons and muscles that were sore. This process also kept him used to being handled, standing tied quietly, getting used to ropes around his legs, loud noises and scary objects.

An apprentice horseshoer either is not paid at all, or is paid very little. Bob amused customers by telling them that my salary was $25 a day and all the hoof trimming I could eat. While I was apprenticing, I would take about three months in the dead of winter and work any menial low paying job I could get. One of those jobs will not pay the bills, so I usually had two to three going at a time in the winter. I would have a day off about every 20 days or so.

Late January of 2006, I had not so much as seen a horse for three weeks. One of my part time jobs that winter involved merchandising at several Walmart stores and somehow the car ended up at Bob and Carols’ barn. I was dressed in work clothes but I didn’t care. I keep riding boots at the barn, so I tucked my work pants in them and start cleaning stalls. Stretch came to the door, so I let him in and give him some grain.

I had started riding him under Bobs' supervision a couple of months earlier. He gaits were jerky and uncoordinated. I don't think he was hurting, he just didn't understand where to put all the leg he had. Riding him is part of his therapy. A lot of walking and circling, with some light trotting. Our goal was to strengthen his muscles and help him find his sense of balance and coordination. As he got stronger, we were able to lope a little.




On this day, I opted to ride in a western saddle instead of my hunt seat saddle. For the first time since Arthur showed up at this barn he feels like he isn’t sore. His gait is so different, light with a bounce and flare. I can’t believe it took three months for him to heal and feel better.

I had no idea when I left the house that morning that I would end up at the barn, but I felt so much better. If we do have other lives to live, I hope that in my next one I don’t wait 25 years to live the life I am meant to live. I had so many signs growing up that pointed to this.

I don’t know if anyone remembers the movie North. It was about a kid that traveled around the world looking for better parents, but ended up realizing his own parents were wear he belonged. I spent the past 25 years always feeling like I was with the wrong people and in the wrong job. I stayed in my work field and moved around the country. More than once, at different jobs, I have said to myself that these are not my people.

I now feel like I am with people I am comfortable being around. I feel like myself. I can’t believe I spent so much of my life without horses around me everyday. I figured out I didn’t even see a horse for 12 years. I survived that, but now that they are back in my life I couldn’t even get through three weeks without them.

Arthur stayed with Bob for about 14 months. By March that year, Bob realized I was going to stay another shoeing season. He started putting me under tougher horses. The kind that don't stand still or are always pulling their legs away from you. I was constantly sore, brusied and exhausted. I also had a broken metatarsal bone in my right foot. Then came a one-two punch. The dog died. A week later my husband was diagnosed with diabetes.

A couple of days later, I was at Bobs' barn pulling shoes off two horses. Both horses were bullys. They would pull back on their ties, slam me against the wall and jerk their legs away. Something inside me just snapped. I started crying. Not the nice actress girly crying. I mean whole body shaking, snot running, sobbing. Bob hates crying women. I knew he would be coming back out to the barn any minute, so I went out to the pasture.

Half way to the horses, Arthur saw me and left the herd to walk over to me. When he got to me, he laid his head against my chest and stood there while I cried all over his face and neck. He never tried to pull his head away or move. When I could stand on my own, he began grazing in a circle around me. Everytime he came past the front of my body, he would come back over to get his face rubbed. He stayed with me until I was ready to go back to the barn and start pulling shoes again.

People worry so much about buying a horse that is a certain color or a certain breed. None of that compares to being with a horse that wants to please and wants to be with humans. Arthur's owner was so happy to have her horse back. Arthur spent a year on the hunter show circuit. This winter, he and his full brother Andy went to an Amish community to learn to drive.

Jan, Arthurs owner, asked Bob to bring me out for a carriage ride. We scheduled it for our anniversary and what a great gift it was! I have not seen Arthur for three years. He is no longer gangly and awkward. He is filled out, taller and still has that kind eye. I'd like to think he remembers me. He obviously has found his niche pulling a wagon. He even found time to pick on his brother as they were going down the road.

Getting to know the rasp

My first day as an apprentice was surreal. I had not spent much time around horses for about ten years. I had forgotten how to even pick up a foot to clean it out. As a kid, I just threw myself into horse ownership without knowing what I was doing.

As an adult, I not only had to remember all the ‘stuff’ from when I was a kid, I also had to learn additional ways to handle horses based on the owners’ way of doing things. Bob Grady, the person who offered to apprentice me, was one of the first people to correct my old habits. Or, if you will, teach me additional ways to do things.

I was extremely nervous my first day at work with Bob. I know it showed. He was very patient with me. Three years later, he told me that he was sure I would not last one day. When I showed up the next day for work, he figured I would not last a month. I am starting year five.

Through the whole two year apprenticeship, he was incredibly patient, making sure that he did not teach me a skill until I mastered the one before it. Rasping was the most frustrating to learn and took the longest. And then one day, without my realizing it, the rasp and I became one. Bob spent most of the two year apprenticeship treating me like his kid sister.

The rasp was just one of the catalysts he used to pick on me. A rasp is like a giant finger nail file. It should only be used in one direction to ensure it stays sharp longer. Like any tool you use for work, you want to get the most use out of it as possible.

After I rasped most of the skin off my knuckles and had blood running down my nipper handles, Bob took a thick red permanent marker and made a line the length of the rasp with an arrow at one end. The arrow showed the direction to rasp. Good training tip. Except that the next stop was at a veterinarians’ barn to shoe seven head of horses. After watching me finish rasp a hoof with my brilliantly marked tool, he asked Bob if I was having issues with my rasp. Very embarrassing!

Welcome to There Is No Crying In Horseshoeing. This BLOG will relate the experiences I had as an apprentice farrier, as well as what life is like daily in my business as a horseshoer. When I was a teenager I would go through the Western Horseman magazine and cut out ads for horseshoeing schools. I contacted a couple of the schools and was told that girls can’t shoe horses because they are not strong enough. Remember, this was before EEO laws and that much after Woodstock.

After college, I spent 25 years in the natural resources field. In my mid-forties I decided to quit a perfectly safe government job and go to shoeing school. The schools are happy to take your money, but many state on their application that if you are over 35 it will be difficult to get a business started because of the length of time it takes to become accomplished and the physical toll on your body.

A neighbor introduced me to a farrier who said he would take me on as an apprentice. It was all uphill from there. I was not willing to be away from home for too long, so I attended a four week school. After that, I apprenticed four days a week for two years. Two months into the apprenticeship I started building a customer list that consisted of trims. By the time I was finished with my apprenticeship I had a tidy customer list to build from.