21 March 2010
Therefore it's a Sunday
And while Price is at a Willie Nelson concert this weekend, I can write with out the fear of repercussion.
Part II isn't coming out like I want it to. It has been tougher to write than I thought. Keith Hossman warned me about this. He was a television writer I used to shoe for. He was pretty good at giving me advice about writing back in the day. I told him like I used to tell another blogger I know that they should write a sweeping romance novel. Both told me "no, that's not what I do."
I never figured that out, being an amateur writer I guess I don't get it. Both of these people talked in such romantic tones about their horses, I couldn't figure out why they couldn't relate it to a person. A few years later I listened to a sketch on "A prairie home companion" and figured it out. It's an English major thing and since I didn't finish college, much less major in English, it's no longer any of my business.
One time when I was talking to Baxter Black, he told me the line from his book "Hey cowboy, want to get lucky?" (a great read btw) "Riding a saddle bronc is a lot like playing guitar, really easy to do poorly and really hard to do well." He added writing and I added horseshoeing and we both agreed. It was kind of cool. I only know one other writer who had actually made money writing, but it's horror, so I have never read any of his books.
The toughest thing about writing for me is the feeling that I am not getting my point across. I have asked Price for his opinion about this but he's not been much help in that aspect, his position is that of "nuts and bolts" man. Periods, commas, semicolons, and spelling. So I wander haplessly in to the abyss, to take my lumps, groping for the right words to express what I want and hearing A. B. Pearson's words "we're all the hero in our own story," and hitting the backspace button when I think the words I write are overloading my ass, hoping to do a little better with each post. Fran's fault, she encourages me, wait that makes one more writer I know.
Part II isn't coming out like I want it to. It has been tougher to write than I thought. Keith Hossman warned me about this. He was a television writer I used to shoe for. He was pretty good at giving me advice about writing back in the day. I told him like I used to tell another blogger I know that they should write a sweeping romance novel. Both told me "no, that's not what I do."
I never figured that out, being an amateur writer I guess I don't get it. Both of these people talked in such romantic tones about their horses, I couldn't figure out why they couldn't relate it to a person. A few years later I listened to a sketch on "A prairie home companion" and figured it out. It's an English major thing and since I didn't finish college, much less major in English, it's no longer any of my business.
One time when I was talking to Baxter Black, he told me the line from his book "Hey cowboy, want to get lucky?" (a great read btw) "Riding a saddle bronc is a lot like playing guitar, really easy to do poorly and really hard to do well." He added writing and I added horseshoeing and we both agreed. It was kind of cool. I only know one other writer who had actually made money writing, but it's horror, so I have never read any of his books.
The toughest thing about writing for me is the feeling that I am not getting my point across. I have asked Price for his opinion about this but he's not been much help in that aspect, his position is that of "nuts and bolts" man. Periods, commas, semicolons, and spelling. So I wander haplessly in to the abyss, to take my lumps, groping for the right words to express what I want and hearing A. B. Pearson's words "we're all the hero in our own story," and hitting the backspace button when I think the words I write are overloading my ass, hoping to do a little better with each post. Fran's fault, she encourages me, wait that makes one more writer I know.
Labels: Bax, Fran Jurga, Garrison, Scary Harry, Willie
14 March 2010
We interupt this train of thought with breaking news
(Writers note: Price Trosin is on vacation and this post has not been proofed. Boy won't he be ticked on Monday)
Oh Zenyatta, how wonderful you are let us count the ways.
If Mike Smith wasn't a jockey he would have made a good truck driver. The inside, back out, move he made yesterday on Zenyatta yesterday proved that.
She is not the daintiest of daffodils, she is huge for a mare, shit she's huge for a horse and while fast, she isn't most agile creature. But her move around Pretty Unusual, who was anchors away in the stretch was impressive to me at least. That and she was hand ridden trough out, so ........
Meanwhile, earlier in the day John Shirreffs J.V. mare (granted Zardanna is on the varsity squad in any other barn) gave Rachel Alexandra all she could handle and more beating her by a convincing 3/4 length.
So it's no surprise this afternoon that news out of Louisiana is that Rachel Alexandra won't make it to the Apple Blossom, it's all well and good as far as I am concerned. Contrived match races suck anyway and they don't prove anything. If these two mares were to cross paths it should happen naturally when both horses are ready, not because someone propped up and extra 4.5 million. Further, since the world believes these to mares to be the best horses in the world (I'm not the only one,) the race should be in an open stakes, not a handicap or a filly-mare restricted stake. Only then will we know.
Later this week I get back on track with "was it worth it part II"
Oh Zenyatta, how wonderful you are let us count the ways.
If Mike Smith wasn't a jockey he would have made a good truck driver. The inside, back out, move he made yesterday on Zenyatta yesterday proved that.
She is not the daintiest of daffodils, she is huge for a mare, shit she's huge for a horse and while fast, she isn't most agile creature. But her move around Pretty Unusual, who was anchors away in the stretch was impressive to me at least. That and she was hand ridden trough out, so ........
Meanwhile, earlier in the day John Shirreffs J.V. mare (granted Zardanna is on the varsity squad in any other barn) gave Rachel Alexandra all she could handle and more beating her by a convincing 3/4 length.
So it's no surprise this afternoon that news out of Louisiana is that Rachel Alexandra won't make it to the Apple Blossom, it's all well and good as far as I am concerned. Contrived match races suck anyway and they don't prove anything. If these two mares were to cross paths it should happen naturally when both horses are ready, not because someone propped up and extra 4.5 million. Further, since the world believes these to mares to be the best horses in the world (I'm not the only one,) the race should be in an open stakes, not a handicap or a filly-mare restricted stake. Only then will we know.
Later this week I get back on track with "was it worth it part II"
Labels: Good Time Charlie Cella, Rachel Alexandra, Zenyatta
10 March 2010
Was it worth it Part I
You have to know this before I can tell you the rest of the story. Please note this story is abridged for space concerns. One day I might tell you the story of Dad would have had a fit, or the days I spent in Mr. Haight's shop.
There is an old Japanese saying that goes along the lines of “when the student is ready the master will appear.
May will make eight years since Gordon C. Haight asked me to start working for him on his trips to Los Angeles. Gordon, in the vernacular of the horse world, and more east coast than west, is a Saddlehorse man. That is, his practice deals mainly with the long footed breeds (American Saddlebreds, Morgans, you get it, right?) I never had any inclination to shoe long footed horses. I was a hunter shoer, that’s what I did, and that’s what I wanted to do. However, the opportunity to work for a man with such expertise is rare indeed, and not to be passed on. Besides, what would Dad say if he knew I was asked by this man and said “no”?
I said yes with trepidation to say the least. Gordon had a reputation as a hard man to please. Shit, who am I kidding, at the time I had only met three other farriers who he trusted to floor horses for him. Word on the street was that there were countless men and women in his wake who washed out in a day’s time, but by the same token there were also at least three or four other kick ass farriers I had heard of that he had made, so before I answered I gave him one rule. He couldn’t yell at me. I don’t know if he has ever wanted to, but he hasn’t. Not to say we haven’t had heated discussions or that I haven’t more than likely given him reason from time to time, but he’s respected my one rule from the word go.
So to work we went.
I started with him at Park Place stables. Plenty of lesson horses there, so I went to work trimming feet straight away. Odd, I thought at first, considering his “if you want it done right, you do it yourself” reputation, but later it made sense. He had a lot of horses there and needed someone to help to keep up because his schedule had only allowed him to be there one day a trip. The second day was at Seamair Farm in Santa Barbara. I think I trimmed and reset one pony there that day. The rest of the day I pulled shoes and finished. As time went by, I was asked to start making the trips with him to Arcuri Stables, his noted Morgan farm in Oregon, and was given more responsibility at the accounts in Los Angeles.
Over the last seven or so years, I have become an exponentially better farrier because I learned and put into practice Gordon’s key tenets of shoeing a horse. Medial- Lateral balance (side to side), Anterior-Posterior balance (toe to heel), Centerline (fitting the shoe to the middle of the horses leg), Symmetry (horses feet are for the most part symmetrical and should have a shoe that is shaped in the same manner), and Support (that a shoe should support not only the hoof capsule but the limb it is attached to as well).
I sacked up and started building shoes from bar stock and actually nailing them on. I got to play with the power hammer in Gordon’s shop and built my own drifts, pritchels, and a head stamp for fullered shoes. I did a lot of basic forging practice in that shop as well; welding a length of cable in to a solid piece of material is a tedious task at best (but you get hammer control galore).
But with all this there was quite a bit of sacrifice as well, most I can’t blame on Gordon at all. I was gone on AFA business quite a bit, but it seemed every time I was at Arcuri’s I lost at least two horses at key accounts, and soon I lost what were key accounts. I lost some accounts, I’m sure, because of my transition from doing things the way I had been doing them to trying to shoe horses the way I was being taught. I won’t waste your time with these instances, but nevertheless it was like starting all over again.
As Jim Croce said “now I’m in my second circle.” Because I make a daily habit to practice the tenets I have been taught, I have a better understanding of what I am doing and fewer lost shoes. I am able to take lame horses and make them better, but more importantly I am better able to explain to the horse owner what I am doing and why it is going to work, a skill that eluded me for nearly seventeen years.
There is an old Japanese saying that goes along the lines of “when the student is ready the master will appear.
May will make eight years since Gordon C. Haight asked me to start working for him on his trips to Los Angeles. Gordon, in the vernacular of the horse world, and more east coast than west, is a Saddlehorse man. That is, his practice deals mainly with the long footed breeds (American Saddlebreds, Morgans, you get it, right?) I never had any inclination to shoe long footed horses. I was a hunter shoer, that’s what I did, and that’s what I wanted to do. However, the opportunity to work for a man with such expertise is rare indeed, and not to be passed on. Besides, what would Dad say if he knew I was asked by this man and said “no”?
I said yes with trepidation to say the least. Gordon had a reputation as a hard man to please. Shit, who am I kidding, at the time I had only met three other farriers who he trusted to floor horses for him. Word on the street was that there were countless men and women in his wake who washed out in a day’s time, but by the same token there were also at least three or four other kick ass farriers I had heard of that he had made, so before I answered I gave him one rule. He couldn’t yell at me. I don’t know if he has ever wanted to, but he hasn’t. Not to say we haven’t had heated discussions or that I haven’t more than likely given him reason from time to time, but he’s respected my one rule from the word go.
So to work we went.
I started with him at Park Place stables. Plenty of lesson horses there, so I went to work trimming feet straight away. Odd, I thought at first, considering his “if you want it done right, you do it yourself” reputation, but later it made sense. He had a lot of horses there and needed someone to help to keep up because his schedule had only allowed him to be there one day a trip. The second day was at Seamair Farm in Santa Barbara. I think I trimmed and reset one pony there that day. The rest of the day I pulled shoes and finished. As time went by, I was asked to start making the trips with him to Arcuri Stables, his noted Morgan farm in Oregon, and was given more responsibility at the accounts in Los Angeles.
Over the last seven or so years, I have become an exponentially better farrier because I learned and put into practice Gordon’s key tenets of shoeing a horse. Medial- Lateral balance (side to side), Anterior-Posterior balance (toe to heel), Centerline (fitting the shoe to the middle of the horses leg), Symmetry (horses feet are for the most part symmetrical and should have a shoe that is shaped in the same manner), and Support (that a shoe should support not only the hoof capsule but the limb it is attached to as well).
I sacked up and started building shoes from bar stock and actually nailing them on. I got to play with the power hammer in Gordon’s shop and built my own drifts, pritchels, and a head stamp for fullered shoes. I did a lot of basic forging practice in that shop as well; welding a length of cable in to a solid piece of material is a tedious task at best (but you get hammer control galore).
But with all this there was quite a bit of sacrifice as well, most I can’t blame on Gordon at all. I was gone on AFA business quite a bit, but it seemed every time I was at Arcuri’s I lost at least two horses at key accounts, and soon I lost what were key accounts. I lost some accounts, I’m sure, because of my transition from doing things the way I had been doing them to trying to shoe horses the way I was being taught. I won’t waste your time with these instances, but nevertheless it was like starting all over again.
As Jim Croce said “now I’m in my second circle.” Because I make a daily habit to practice the tenets I have been taught, I have a better understanding of what I am doing and fewer lost shoes. I am able to take lame horses and make them better, but more importantly I am better able to explain to the horse owner what I am doing and why it is going to work, a skill that eluded me for nearly seventeen years.
Labels: AFA Convention, Dad, Gordon Haight, Jedi, NCC
06 March 2010
5 weeks to review
Home again home again Jiggity Jog:
The American Farriers Association Annual Convention (hence forth to be referred to as convention or Portland) had so much happening for me at least, it will take me more than a month to go over it. To complicate matters Meg Whitman changed her campaign ads while I was gone and I want to address that as well. All of this is going to take me awhile so bear with me.
A week later there is still so much swimming through my head that I don't know where to start. But I will get there I promise.
Coming Up:
Was it worth it
Peace and Tranquility in the land
Why you can't trust Meg Whitman
Oh snap, research that validates
Deal with it
The American Farriers Association Annual Convention (hence forth to be referred to as convention or Portland) had so much happening for me at least, it will take me more than a month to go over it. To complicate matters Meg Whitman changed her campaign ads while I was gone and I want to address that as well. All of this is going to take me awhile so bear with me.
A week later there is still so much swimming through my head that I don't know where to start. But I will get there I promise.
Coming Up:
Was it worth it
Peace and Tranquility in the land
Why you can't trust Meg Whitman
Oh snap, research that validates
Deal with it
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]