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
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