Got all Horsed out yesterday!!! Long post warning LOL

I wrote about my grand daughters going on a trail ride last week. They had a blast and plan on going back next year for the early summer ride at the same place. The ride is for girls and women only. There where over two hundred girls/women on the ride. They camp out and the whole deal for the two days. The Summer ride is for a whole week.

All twelve horses got dropped off here Monday. The horse transport company will only haul them so many hours without them being stabled over night so they could not get the six horses back to the Chicago area without a lay over. I talked with the transport company and they are swamped right now an really did not want to do the final leg of the haul. They where going to charge the well off parents $1500 to take the six horses the remanding 175 miles. So I just told the parents I would finish the trip Wed.(school was out) The grand daughters could go and see how the other half (rich half LOL) keep their horses.

I have drop posts and gates the make my thirty foot livestock trailer into a six horse setup. It is not the handiest but is way cheaper than having a horse trailer around for a few trips each year. My younger brother and his wife have always had horses. So he uses it a few times each year.

So we loaded up and take of right at day light yesterday. The girls where all excited about seeing the big horse stables. The place where the horses are kept has 300 stalls. 150 of them are climate controlled ones. Those cost $2000 per month. The regular stalls are $1000 per horse. Plus feed. WOW makes feeding the brood cows look cheap.

The name of the place is some French name for Christi. I can't get my lips around saying it right and the girls just laugh at my way, so I just call it Christi's. It is about twenty miles south east of Lake Geneva, WI. It is in WI by about a half a mile.

We get there before lunch. My grand daughters met the well off girls there. They all took off for a tour of the place. It was real fancy. Real sharp looking and clean. I really felt out of place with my twenty year old pickup and common old aluminum stock trailer. I was waiting to told to go park around back so I did not make the place look bad!!! LMAO.

So I get my trailer all ready for the return trip and set down to wait for the girls to get back. Well they show back up with about five other women/girls too. One of them is the owner of the whole place. She was dressed in a riding outfit that probably cost more than my truck and trailer. Alice is her name. She is a real nice person.

Alice jumped right in and wanted to look at the girl's horses I had done the shoeing on. So the well off girls all went and got their horses. Alice wanted me to show her exactly what I had done and what had been wrong. I guess the girls Father had called and raised cain about the poor shoeing job. He had sent the pictures of the poor job to Alice.

Alice asked me if I would look at some of the other horses that the "bad" Farrier had done. I was real uneasy about doing that as I don't have any formal training as a farrier. I told her that. I just knew what My Grand Dads had shown me. I did not really know much else about a horse. Alice really twisted my arm to look at some of the other horses.

I told her I did not have any of the tools needed to do anything like that. She took me up to another part of the stables. She told me her family has owned the stables/farm for just at a hundred years. They have always stabled horses for Chicago people. Her Grand father was a farrier. They still had his shop/work area there and some of the farriers still used it. Well they have a real nice shop/setup there.

So Alice gets on her radio and calls some people. So they bring me about 25 horses to look at. She tells me that this is all of the ones the other guy had done at her stable. Ten of them where actually done pretty good. Those horses feet happened to fit the shoe blanks well. Then 7-8 of the others would do but really needed to have their shoes fitted better the next time they where done. So that left 7-8 that where terrible.

They all needed them redone. Alice wanted me to do it. I told her I was not in that business. I did not want in that business either. LOL. She talked me into doing the worst four of the remaining ones. She had another farrier that was rushing over in a few hours that would check the others.

I started with the one that was walking the worst. Alice told me this horse was not rode much because of behavior problems. Was not bad if lead but would try to buck/dump any riders that that rode him. He is real pretty gelding. So I removed the old shoes. His feet where in real bad shape. He is the type of horse that has fast growing hooves. You really need to be aggressive when you trim those type of hooves. So I really had to cut a lot off the bottom of his feet. On his left rear foot There was a bad spot when I got it trimmed back. I got to probing it. He had an abscess toward the center of his hoof. I just was working like I always do and Alice was yapping on her phone. How I have always handled an abscess is to drain it and let it drain while giving antibiotics at high doses. How to drain it?? Easy, heat a piece of hard wire red hot an burn a hole up into the abscess. Just like drilling a hole but it is cauterized so it will stay open and heal from the top out. So that is what I did. When I hit the abscess the blood and puss flew out under pressure. It sprayed all over the place. LOL about 4-5 of the girls watching got sick. Alice got sprayed. I sent one of my grand daughters to get my vet box out of the pickup. Alice was looking at me like I was from Mars by now. I had took my Vet supply box along so if I had any problems on the way over I had some stuff to use. So I figured the horse to weight at about 1800 lbs. I gave him a shot of penicillin to get him started to heal. I had some penicillin pills to use after that. I told the stable hand to give the horse one each morning and night for a week. Leave him with no shoes on and keep him in a dry area so his feet where dry. I also think that his behavior problems where caused by sore feet. I bet they can get him striaghtened out after his foot heals.

So I just kept at it and was able to use the old shoes on all of the other horses. They just needed to have a good hoof trimming and the shoes shaped to their feet.

I had noticed that there was a short teenager/young woman watching me real close on the last several horses. Alice finally brings her over after I finish the four horses I said I would do. Turns out she was the farrier that had done the two horses that went on the ride, that had a good job done on them. Her name is Mandy and she is twenty-eight years old just looks real young. Only 4 foot ten inches tall too.
She had about a hundred questions for me. LOL I tell her to pick one the worst of the other horses and she could start an I would copilot.

She picked a real big mare that had to have some work horse in her blood line as she had huge feet for her size. The horse's shoes where a good inch too small. There was a finger width around the back corners of the shoes. Mandy removed all of the old shoes and did a real first rate job of trimming them up. We then ran into the problem that we did not have any blanks that where near larger enough for this horse's feet. Alice and Mandy said they would just have to leave the mare without shoes until they could get some larger blanks ordered. I was kind of puzzled by that. So I just took two of the old shoes we had taken off the other horses an straighten them out. So I had two pieces of steel with a few holes in it but either would be too thin if shaped into a shoe large enough for the horse we had. So I just laid them on top of each other and heated them up until they where white hot. Then I forge welded them together. So I now had a enough metal to make a good shoe. So I just pounded the steel out into flat bar. Then I just made the first shoe we needed. This really got Mandy going she had never seen a shoe made from scratch. Plus never made one out of some scrap shoes. About this time one of my Grand daughters had found a piece of scrap rod that I could make shoes out of. So I worked with Mandy an made one more out of two old shoes and then showed her how to make them real easy out of rod bar stock. She was bouncing of the walls after that. LOL

Alice tired once again to get me to come and shoe horses for her. I said NO Way No how. Not in this life time. I told her she had a good farrier right there in Mandy.

So by this time it was getting late in the afternoon. The well of parents had shown up by then and insisted on taking us out to eat. Well I never could turn down a good steak. LOL The Dad wanted to pay me for hauling his daughter's horses. I told him we where even as he had paid to get my grand daughter's horses down to the ride. Real nice fellow.

So we went back to get my truck at the stables after a real fine supper. Alice caught me and had me talk to the Veterinarian that had come to look at the horse with the abscess. He just want to meet me. He had heard of draining an abscess that way but had never had seen it done. He told me that my way should work just fine for the horse. We will see. Alice is going to keep me informed.

Mandy is going to be coming over twice each month with some shoe patterns/measurements. She wants me to show her how to make shoes from scratch and how to forge weld. She also likes to make wrought iron things. I told her I would show her a few tricks my Grand Dad's showed me.

So me and the grand daughters had a real fun trip. Got to meet some good people. The girls had a blast. The family we hauled the horses for are going to come for a visit after the first of the year. So made a few new friends. All in all a good day.

Great story! Thanks for sharing!

Just another example of the lost arts. If the younger generation can't buy it off the shelf they're lost.

JD- the multitude of your talents, both personal and professional, never cease to amaze me!

If I had the abscess I would be bucking also, fine work there.
Good you have a keen Lady in Mandy, seems she has a zest for learning, should do well in that field.

Great story about your interesting day.

Understanding metallurgy and making shoes that actually fit can be a tough thing for people used to utilizing off the shelf shoes. As a kid, I worked for a neighbor that was a world class judge of 3 and 5 gaited saddlebreds and driving ponies. He had at his disposal, 3 different farriers that he used due to differences in their abilities and specialties. It always amazed me how he could watch a horse and could tell the farrier what to do to correct the problem. I could not see any differences in the way the horse performed either way but it is interesting to note that some people have the uncanny ability to view such things. The farriers always fit the shoes hot...not sure if that technique is being used anymore. It is interesting to note that a farrier would shoe a horse with undersize shoes just to get the job done (and collect the big bucks for doing so) I think that the state of the nation dictates that. No one seems to care or take pride in their work anymore.

That is a nice interesting story. Hope you have more oppurtuities to teach your talents to young people with a desire to learn lessons in their vocations as well as life lessons.

That's a real interesting post. Thanks for sharing!

Great story! At your first post I said the time spent with the younger generation would be priceless and worth the effort, I hate to say it but I told you! I admire you for your talents and the satisfaction you must feel for doing the right thing. The knowledge you will pass on to Mandy about horses and life will be priceless also. Keep up the good work, people like you are what makes this life/hobby great.

Did you get the tiki bar set up?

You are a man of many talents and someone that is not affraid to use them. The ability to put a day like you had in a story like that is also a great talent you could use long after you are not doing the work. Have you ever published amy of your stories? If you do write anything I would buy it.

JD Seller,
Neat story!

Right nice piece of vit'nery work, there Mr Herriot! Seriously, you should also think of writing some short stories, you have a knack for it, as well as other things.

I am not a horse person, never have been, never will be. I really enjoyed reading your post. I always like watching the blacksmith work at threshing shows

Interesting reading that the horse transportation company would only haul for x number of hours and then they have to be stabled overnight. When I drove a horse van back in the 80's we never laid horses over unless we broke down. We did not run coast to coast, but mainly eastern half and just over the river. We hauled mainly race horses out of the tracks and farms. The company was one of the oldest at the time, in fact Hull and Smith used to work for the company and Sallee used to lease their permits from it. On over the road we ran tandem drivers, would stop for fuel and water the horses every 6 hours or so, and change out their hay rack. This included hauling mares and foals out of the Keenland sales.

That is a great, well written story! I'm not a horse person, but I remember a farrier coming to the farm to shoe mules. I was impressed that he would pick up that big mule's leg to work on the hoof.

Re the red hot wire: I was working one summer in a factory, mashed a finger and got a blood blister under the nail. The factory nurse used a little drill to drill through the nail and drain the blood. She said another method was to heat a straightened paper clip red hot and burn through the nail. I've never had the nerve to try it.

KEH

Glad to hear it all turned out to the good. The way things are today I kept waiting to read where you were slapped with a lawsuit or arrested,fined or something. Especially since that place was so high priced and fancy. Never would of guessed the warm welcome and the eager young lady who actually wanted to learn the oldfashioned way.

INDY DIRT FARMER MR TIKI

Great sory JD

Great story JD

Enjoyed your story - as usual!

The problem as I see it is: How do we download all of that knowledge and experience to the future generations. JD Seller, You need to open The School of Hard Knocks, have multiple seminars on all of your varied talents(writing short stories also) You could charge a small fee for tuition. I think you'd be surprised at the turnout. Thanks for contributing to this forum gobble

I have an abundance of "Bad Farrier" experience. Only have one horse working now that we keep shoes on. I do some of the trims on the others, but my back does not like it very much. I mostly envy that you have most of 20 years on me and can still stoop over and do 4 horses in an afternoon.

Would be really curious if the guy with the abscess comes around and is much more rideable once he straightens out.

You do seem to have a wide variety of skills/talents.

Thanks for posting,

Kirk

Yes the method of shoeing horses with hot shoes is still used today but in my opinion it"s not good practice since the hot shoes dries the hoof out and they will split. I was studying to do farrier work by our farrier that had a heart condition three months into my training he had heart surgery they fitted him with a valve from a cow. A week and a half later he passed away was/is real hard for us as he treated my wife like his daughter actually his widow had us up for thanksgiving dinner with her real family. And she gave my wife papas buckskin gelding. We have been doing what we can to help her out by hauling hay and fixin things for her. He had taught me enough I can shoe my own horses but there"s so much more I need to know but don"t have access to that info anymore.

My dad has taught me most of what he knows. It would take another life time to learn about half of what you know. It is too bad there is no way to learn it short of shadowing you for twenty years. Your children are fortunate to have been raised by such a learned line of ancestors.

Shaping the horse shoe hot will not dry the hoof out. I do not char the hoof. Some claim that that will "seal" the hoof. I just hold the shoe up to the hoof for the shape. I also only make flat topped horse shoes. I also have made many shoes from patterns. I have card board patterns for all of the horses/ponies the girls have. Just trim your horse's hooves. Then stand him on a piece of card board. Draw the out line on the card board. Then just make the shoe match the outline. I make them maybe a 1/8 of an inch smaller than the pattern. So you can use a rasp to match the shoe exactly to the shoe.

There are a few type of horses hooves that are kind of soft. Those you have to char to get the hoof to hold nails. Those type of hooves are usually on a horse that has had hoof problems in the past.

As far as learning the trade. Look around for others that are doing the work or some one else that has retired. There are guys that know how but can't do the hammering, because of health reasons, to make/shape a shoe. Find one of them and you do the hard work while he instructs. There are several Farrier groups in the US. Contact them and see if they have apprentice programs. Maybe you can find one that will allow you to learn part time.

Also find a good older Veterinarian. Have him teach you about the antinomy of a horse's legs and hooves. This will help you in seeing if there are troubles. The rest is just doing the actual thing hundreds of times until it is a remembered thing.

Money does not make people arrogant. Matter of fact I have found those with real serious money usually are not the arrogant ones. It is the ones that are in the middle that are the problems usually. Kind of a want-a-be/jealous type of thing.

JD, thanks for caring and sharing! Really enjoy your stories! As a carpenter, I started just as window weights were completely eliminated! The young carpenters have no idea how or what to do if a window with weights is involved!

JD, that sure as heck was worth reading, interesting as heck too, given the situation.

There's a lot of fuss made over and sometimes between farriers as I have seen over the years, further complicated by the nature and extreme sensitivity of the work itself.

The fuss is sometimes made by those who do not know this trade/craft, lots of opinions based on nothing, the whole equine world or that particular sector of it, stables that cater to showing, and similar.

You take a person like yourself, and apply the knowledge and experience, a lot or most from long ago, passed on, really exhibits how detailed the work is, the ability required, as well as the knowledge and experience. I've held horses and worked with farriers quite often when at the barn for seasonal things, all the horses getting done or specific work, its incredible what they do, especially when done as best as can be done, humanly possible, even more so when things are complicated like that abscess, founder and anything in that part of the horse anatomy, it sure does not take much to go wrong down there to cause major problems. I've seen them down in the stall writhing in pain from similar or the same kind of problem, both vet and farrier working together. Though I'm sure you have other interests, likely more than enough to do with the endeavors you pursue currently in agriculture, sure sounds like even if you were to participate as an adviser with someone else doing the work as you oversee it, these people would be happy to compensate you well, given the results you were able to achieve and not to forget the relief some of those horses must have gotten from getting things corrected. I've never understood how these guys have any kind of back left after doing that work for many years, heck, I have a hard time with just picking and cleaning the hooves, especially if one wants to toss you around or fight you about it, we had a couple that were always fidgety, just wreaks havoc on the back when one pulls or pushes you in a funny direction, others being calm about it makes it so much easier. I used to do 20 horses a day at peak, to keep thrush at bay, very clean and picked over stalls with dry bedding and I still had thrush in varying degrees, could never trust the help to clean, check and or treat for thrush on every one, usually easy to eradicate, but let one go far enough, each one needed to be looked over daily, could never really figure out why so many had it, be it mild or a little worse, pastures being muck, winter weather, but very clean dry stalls and regular hoof cleaning, even one of the riders said the same, eventually once the spring weather hit it occurrences of it dissipated, sure makes a lot of work though.

JohnDeereman: I just googled Farriers and a lot of forums and other informatiom came up. The first was a lot like the blacksmith forum I Forge Iron with a lot of topics and information flowing. Latly on ifi I saw a vidieo on making a horse from scratch but now I can't tell you how to get there from here. The farrierss forum should have this information also. Armand

what a pleasant read. much more interesting that reading the news.
thanks for sharing.

JD,I've always read your posts with great interest. You can do many, many things I cannot do. You have done many things I will not do. Add standing behind an 1,800 pound horse and poking a red hot wire into the center of its sore foot to that list.

JD I couldn't disagree more about people with money. A lot of rich people are very arrogant. In my dealings with them the ones that have have money for a while or are from old money are in fact very nice. It's the ones who only in the last few years came into money who are bad about.


Interesting story.

Rick

First you should put all these stories in a book or some magazine should hire you as a columnist. Some of the authors I have enjoyed reading tell tales about life as it used to be and they defined and wrote about the traditional values your stories speak of. It is refreshing to hear about such values in today's society, and how they are conflicting with some of the new values being shoved down our throats. I often wonder if the decreasing value we as a society place on manual labor is part the reason we are finding it hard to get a horse properly shod, or a roof installed so it doesn't leak or your car repaired right the first time. Or maybe it's just our move to large corporations and employees vs tradesmen or small businessmen have left the person actually providing the service with little input or reason to do it right. About rich people- before we moved to the farm in Michigan I lived in a small town in Northern Illinois. It was mostly ethnic Italians and blue collar, it is where my paternal Grandmother grew up. To the south and west was a larger affluent city, another to the north, to the east- Lake Michigan. While we lived there my Dad worked for UPS, most of the time on a package route in the city to the North. Many of the houses he delivered to had last names like Swift, Armour and Stuart (Quaker Oats). He often spoke well of his customers but usually didn't have much good to say about the folks to the South. One day I asked him why, he explained the folks to the south thought they had money and wanted to impress everyone, the folks to the North KNEW they had money and didn't really feel they had to impress anyone. I have also heard explanations between first generation wealth and subsequent generations having a much different outlook on money and life. The family I worked for when I was in exile down South was an example, the older Brothers running the place were about the age of my parents, the younger brothers about my age and younger. The older children grew up as the old man was struggling to get the business going, by the time the younger ones came along the family was wealthy and they grew up in a different environment it showed in the different ways they interacted with the employees.

I trim cows for a living. I take pride in taking a lame cow into my chute and making her walk and feel better. The dairyman appreciate it too.

what a pleasant read. much more interesting that reading the news.
thanks for sharing.

Great story.