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!