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!