Thomas N. Trosin, CF

I'd like to take a second

2011-10-25T22:10:00.000-07:00

Denny Bryant was a hell of a man. While I never got to know him to the extent of the men and women in the farrier business in San Diego County, California, he still had an impact on my dad and I.

At one point when Dad was having an issue forging shoes, Don Reed sent him to Denny for help. Denny was also nice enough to tell me stories about different things from shoeing harness horses to his thoughts on the Buck Branaman clinic he attended. Once Denny was wearing a horse hair belt which he proudly proclaimed he had paid $20 an inch for it's production and was kind enough to laugh when I suggested that he had eighty bucks wrapped up in the deal (Denny was a slight man for those of you who didn't benefit from knowing him.) Most of all, was the day he stood watching me forge shoes at a clinic and he told me no matter what anyone else ever told me, that I belonged behind an anvil. That I fit there. That statement coming from him meant as much or more as anything I have ever been told. (Denny also laughed when I responded that I wish Homer Tosh had survived to hear him say that, but that is a story for another day.)

So as farriers do we celebrated Denny's life with a contest named in his honor. Building a replica of shoe Denny had built, a fullered harness horse hind with calks. Rightly so Jason Harmeson won the class with a pretty spot on match to the original. I gave a good effort and took second. All things considered, I'll take it.

Though I wasn't a "San Diego" guy, I still treasured Denny as many people did. A cigarette and a coffee before the clinic or a cigarette and a beer after dinner, it was always a highlight to visit and get something from him. A laugh, a though, a story.

Counting your lucky stars

2011-08-05T10:25:00.000-07:00

It's a day like any other day, you're rushing around to get your business handled, and then it happens.

While it's not really your business why I moved out of the wilds of Agua Dulce and back to the big city (besides, it's not the point of the story), but the fact was that I had made several trips that weekend to get stuff moved out of the old place and in to the new. Between that and going about my normal business of shoeing horses, criss-crossing every major freeway in north L.A. county, I was behind and bound to catch up. Needless to say, the throttle on Ruby (the 2003 shoeing rig) was running pretty near wide open.

I had completed most of the tasks that were required of me prior to going to Oregon to work for Gordon Haight for a few days, but I was running late. I was on my way to the Flyaway, the place one goes in the San Fernando Valley if you don't care to drive to LAX, when it happened. I hit what could be considered a tremendous bump and something was wrong. I looked in the rear view mirror and could see that the shoeing body that had been attached to my truck for some 200,000 miles was, but wasn't. Realizing that I didn't want the thing to come completely off the truck, I limped it to the safest place I could, which happened to be the Flyaway parking lot. Besides, I had a plane to catch.

Ya know, 15, 20 years ago if something like this happened, I would have been having a case of the "poor Me's" but at this stage of the game, as I stood there and looked at shoeing body setting crooked on the frame (no other damage I could see), I was thankful. I was thankful that my rolling machine shop/hardware store didn't come completely off the truck, and I was thankful that it happened on a street rather than a freeway. As I reflected, I also thought, what if it had come off when I was going 65 miles an hour down the 14, or worse yet, the 5 or the 405. Nope, I was and still am pretty thankful that no one got hurt, and that the contents of my truck weren't strewn about some metropolitan thruway.

Several years ago I started telling my help that "it could be worse" when something didn't go our way, and it always could. All I can say is; the next time the Fates deal you a blow (and especially you who are younger than I) think about it. Often times it could have turned out way worse than it did, but for some reason it didn't. Count your lucky stars, shut up and drink your coffee.

A public apology to Mike McCarthy

2011-01-27T19:37:00.000-08:00

Dear Mike:

I know that I have been one of your harshest critics since you joined the Packers, but I would like to take a moment to apologize for the things that I have said here and throughout the Internet.

I apologize for making you 3 of the 5 people I would punch in the face on facebook, for on several occasions trying to mathematically eliminate you from your job, for threatening have you sent back to Ft. Hayes State on a Trailways Bus. I apologize wanting to kick the pens you keep in the back of your hat up your ass, and for most certainly underestimating your abilities to coach a professional football team.

While I still don't think you're that great at communicating to the rest of the world, at least you get your message across to my beloved Packers. With the odds stacked against you this year, you managed to get a team that most of the world wrote off in getting to the Super Bowl due to all of the injuries.

At any rate, please find it in your heart to accept this apology, because it is the best I come up with. Thanks for getting us the Halas Trophy, and for this year. Even if you don't win the Super Bowl, true Packer fans appreciate you beating the Bears 2 out of 3 and the Vikings twice this year.

Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T13:30:00.000-08:00

Several years ago there was a horseshoer in the greater Los Angeles area. While I'm not certain that it was her favorite thing to do in the world, she was sure fond of saying; "If I shod horses like that, I would be out of business."

The great thing about the Los Angeles market is that there are horses for just about everybody to shoe. I have estimated (and keep in mind that Los Angeles is a large county and several farriers come in from neighboring counties to shoe horses here) that there has to be close to 1,500 people who shoe here I have really never needed to crack back on someone else's work in order to get it. It just kind of shows up when it does and while the economy has taken a chunk out of my business, I'm still able to shoe horses and make a living.

So, yes, here is comes. Yes, an infomercial.

I am thankful for the American Farriers Association (AFA) and the members of that organization that have helped me be as good a farrier as I can be. I can't imagine where I would be in this trade if I had not learned what I have from not only the lectures and the clinics I have attended, but from the interaction with AFA members who have so willingly shared their knowledge with me. I believe that because I have had these opportunities and I have learned from them, I don't have to resort to practices that I view as questionable in order to get work and for that I am grateful.

Happy Thanksgiving to my brothers and sisters in this business, to my many clients, and to my dear friends near and far. I have thought about many of you today and how thankful I have been to have had you in my life if even for a brief moment. I have learned from each of you.

2010-09-18T06:01:00.000-07:00

I have lamented the fact that that every horse that has been presented to me with a suspensory issue, that was wearing barshoes, have all gotten sounder once I have been allowed to take the barshoes off. This was triggered by yet another horse that came to me with a hind limb suspensory issue that was "treated" with barshoes. The horse was so sore behind that he was a fight from the word go to the point where we had to lip chain the poor bugger to get him to stand. We reset him yesterday and he stood like a broke horse should. Amazing how good they can be when they don't hurt. Yet farriers, veterinarians and trainers still hold to the theory that the best thing for a suspensory issue is a stinking barshoe.

While I'll admit it's a stupid looking shoe and not the prettiest one I have ever made, sadly it's the only picture I have of what Big Roy Proctor called a "run down shoe." I call it a suspensory shoe. I have no idea what the French call it but thanks to Greg Gilchrist, I know that they manufacture such thing for the same purpose, so I know I'm not completely crazy. Further, for all I know, I have a 100% success rate with the thing. That is to say every horse that I have put this type of shoe on to help with a suspensory issue has gotten "better." Keeping in mind that nothing is perfect or is going to work and that part of the success of this shoe depends on proper hoof prep.

The theory behind it is that the broad toe and the tapered heels create a lower capsular angel when the hoof is loaded, thus taking the strain off of the suspesory ligaments of the lower limb. One thing Greg Gilchrist did note in our conversation about this shoe that you had the potential of irritating the coffin joint on the effected limb. I can't say that I have had that problem, but I have only applied it to two horses that have remained in work, both were horses with hind suspensory issues. Of the ones that had front suspensory issues, they were all on extended lay up, so I can't really comment to that.

A few words about your rasp

2010-09-18T05:15:00.000-07:00

If you want to know what a new hoof rasp is good for, the answer is, well, hooves. Yep, that's about it. Dead hoof rasps, that is to say ones that aren't useful for trimming feet are good for several hand grinding applications, but a new rasp, much like horse nails, are a specific use item, so again we should be thankful that someone is willing to make them.

The hoof rasp has evolved so much over the last 15 years since Simmonds first came out with the "Big Hoof" rasp. When I started twenty something years ago, you had a choice of manufacturers, but the length was a standard 14 inches and a cutting width of about 2 inches. Now you have Save-Edge Beasts that are 17 inches long and around an inch wider. But much like everything else in this business the cost of a rasp has increased quite a bit since when I started.

A lot about your rasp's life depends on how you use it. The more you have to rasp, the fewer horses you are going to get out of each rasp. So suffice to say the better you are at nipping a foot, the more humid your climate, and your personal views on hot fitting feet, you can lengthen the life of your rasp. Me personally, I'll get 15 to 20 horses out of a "good" rasp. At around $28.00 (tax included) I have about a buck and a half invested per horse So going with our formula that a person shoes six horses a day, five days a week, fifty weeks a year, your annual rasp cost is going to run between $2,800 and $3,000 a year. Keeping in mind that the more horses you do the more it costs you.

So if we back track to our $80.00 horse shod with 4 keg shoes, I think we were up to around $10.00 give or take, so with the rasp we are now around $11.00 or $12. bucks just in basic consumables needed to shoe a horse. We still haven't figured in everything else.

Off the curent topic

2010-09-01T13:09:00.000-07:00

When speaking of new farriers, I say the last three things a person right out of shoeing school needs is a fancy truck, an acrylic gun, and a book of horses to shoe. The only thing that drives me crazier than seeing somebody fresh out of shoeing school with a fancy new shoeing rig is the fact that I won't have the cash to buy it when that person quits, and they do.

It's funny, back in the day when I was still trying to figure out who I was, I worked for this employment agency and they sent me out on this job where they were stripping the inside of a warehouse. The guy who was the foreman on the job, asked me what I was doing there, because I was no "demo man." I told him I needed the job. He said I wasn't any good at it and told me I should go find work with someone who shoes horses until I could get my own work together. The way he said it was way cruder than that, but I wasn't offended when he got his point across in that I was in his way and demolition wasn't my calling. But try dropping that on a 30 year old who just got done paying tuition, etc., on a shoeing school. They don't take it as well.

I have a lot of stories like that. People knew for whatever reason I was going to make it in this business, by the same token I now can tell a person if they are going to be a farrier a year from today after working with them once. There is something about people who are going to make it as farriers. Whether it's attitude or stubbornness, I don't know. But to use a term Arabian people use concerning horses for various disciplines, we have 'it." The "it" being the right mentality, attitude, hunger, whatever the "it" is we have it, and we know those who don't.

Supply cost part II- Consumeables, Nails

2010-08-24T22:20:00.000-07:00

As I stated in my last post, your base investment in shoes is just short of nine bucks on a light general use horse. I hope I got the point across that as you get into performance horses, your shoe cost can escalate dramatically.

In this post I want to start talking about consumables, meaning items we use every day, and once they are gone, they're gone. These items are rasps, hoof knives, and what this post centers on, horse nails.

One thing that I get sick of is when farriers complain about the cost of horse nails. We as a trade need to consider that less than 1 tenth of a percent of Americans shoe horses and the fact that there is more than one company willing to take the risk to manufacture such a specific item for such a a small market should be respected and not disparaged.

With that out of the way, I have a question for you. When was the last time you were driving down the road and threw a roll of dimes out of the window? Chances are the answer is "never." The reason I used the roll of dimes analogy is because, for all intents and purposes, horse nails on average cost between 7.9 and 8.5 cents each, regardless of size or manufacturer. And by the time you add in tax and/or shipping, a dime each is an easier way to predict nail cost. At some point in the near future, count the number of driven and bent or driven and pulled nails in the bottom of your shoeing box. If you can count 50 of them, that's $5.00. While it doesn't seem like much over the span of a year, it can add up, especially if you have an apprentice who is just learning to drive nails. I hate to think what I cost the Old Man when he started me out driving the bigger nails (city 8's an up.)

So in the scenario that you shoe six horses a day, five days a week, and you eight nail every foot, you're looking at an annual nail cost $4,992. That's only if you're one of the select few who has been touched by the hand of God who never bends a nail and drives perfect nail lines. Sadly, I'm not one of those guys, so I'm probably looking at between $5,000 and $5,500 a year in nails, and I generally only use six nails a foot.

One guaranteed strategy to save on your nail costs is to get proficient in your shoe shaping. The better the shoe fits, the better the nails drive. I'm learning this as I prepare for my Journeyman test. A few months back I was a little saddened by a comment Jacob Manning made in the American Farriers Journal. As many of you know, Jacob uses handmade shoes and the first time he nailed on a machine made shoe was at his Certified test, and he wondered how people used them. I have to say that I have found through my practice runs, even my handmades nail up better than the machine made shoes, so I can see his point. But that's a another story for a different day.

Supply Cost- Shoes

2010-08-22T08:56:00.000-07:00

Every once in awhile, I'll have a phone conversation with someone that is about one thing, and it then turns into a business discussion. Such was the conversation I had with Mark Gough the other day. I don't know what Mark did before he was a farrier, but he has a good business mind and we did broach the subject of how much money a farrier actually takes home.

When I am given the opportunity to do so, I like to lecture about how farriers generally have a bad concept about the amount of money they make. Most farriers get in to a mode of what I call pocket rich, which is when they look in their pocket and, "Ta-Da!", there is money there, and if there's money there, it needs to be spent. But seriously, have you figured out lately what it costs you to shoe a horse? It's worth repeating, We each need to develop a formula to distinguish exactly how much money we take home. In this post, I want to begin to address supply cost and how much we as farriers invest in supplies. This dovetails into how sometimes we forget the little things that could eventually add up to be a considerable loss.

I'll begin with shoes. Now, keep in mind I am speaking of buying shoes by the pair and not in bulk. While I know that it is sometimes more advantageous to buy supplies in bulk, the farriers who would benefit most (farriers who are just starting out and don't have a foothold in their particular market) aren't necessarily in the financial position to do so, and one needs to be aware of how buying by the piece or pair affects their bottom line.

We'll start with the low end flat steel shoes for light horses (Warmblood on down), basic shoes with no toe weights, sliders or any other specialties. These shoes can cost anywhere from $3.85 to $4.05 a pair, $8.75 to $9.25 on the high end . If you're in a state with sales tax or if you have your supplies shipped to you, that needs to be calculated in your overall cost of the shoes as well. So, in my personal experience, on the lowest end of the shoe cost spectrum, I am going to buy 4 00 rim shoes at $3.85 a pair, and with tax the total amount for the shoes alone is $8.34. The most expensive shoe I'm going to buy is a 5 front with clips at $9.25 per pair. Hind shoes for such a horse are going to be around $8.75, so the total in shoes for this horse is going to be $19.75 (sales tax here is 9.75%). So at this point, before I buy nails or count wear and tear on my rasp, hand tools etc, or even drive to the horse, I am making a nearly $20.00 investment.

Now let's look at a performance horse. I'll use a reining horse for this example. On the low end, you might only need to spend the $3.85 a pair for the 00 rim shoes. Then again, depending on need, you may require an aluminum wedge or a Natural Balance shoe. The wedge shoe can cost between $8.00 and $12.00, depending on brand and vendor, with the NBS shoe costing as much as $18.00 retail . One inch sliding plates for this horse are going to be somewhere between $7.95 and $13.00, again depending on brand and vendor. So again, shoes alone, your investment in this type of horse is going to be between (less tax of course) $16.00 and $31.00.

The point here is that shoe cost, no matter where you live, is universal. The prices I quoted were derived from an average cost of 3 online vendors and what I pay at my local supply house. Through this process, I found that the prices for shoes were more or less much the same. Now I realize the cost of living varies dramatically throughout the country, but if a farrier is charging $80.00 to shoe the reining horse or the horse that wears the clipped 5's I mentioned, there is the chance that he or she is losing money by the time all is said and done.

I will be the first to admit that I understand that there is only so much a market will bear. You're not going to be able to charge what farriers in some metropolitan and boutique markets get in the rest of America, but that's not what I am saying. My point is that we as farriers need to be fair to ourselves. After all, shoeing horses is a business.

Mike did the right thing

2010-08-03T14:40:00.000-07:00

So, guess what. Brett Favre is retiring again. Makes me look back three years and rethink my position on Mike McCarthy. I'm not going to say that Mike McCarthy is a great communicator, because from what I have seen, he isn't. He seems kind of thoughtless, just my take.

Three years ago, McCarthy put a figurative gun to Brett Favre's head and made him make up his mind. He needed a decision there and then. In hindsight, as I watch Brad Childress and the Vikings twist in the wind for the second year in a row, I think he did the right thing, and I think the Packers are currently better off for it. They made the playoffs last year and going by reports out of DePere to this point, they look like they could do it again.

It's amazing how good things go when there is no drama, no questions, no doubts. That goes for our everyday lives as well. When all the components that you need to get by are in place and all the cylinders are firing, life is pretty stinking good. It's when you have questions and doubts about the future, whether immediate or distant, it jacks with the plan, and when the plan is affected, life is no good. At the moment I'm going to give Mike McCarthy credit for spotting the fact that Favre could have turned into a terminal cancer that could have done more harm than good for the future of the team.

Hater, yes. But not for the reason you think

2010-06-18T07:48:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine on Facebook said: "You don't care about the game so why comment?"

He was speaking of the Lakers winning the "world" championship last night of course. The only reason I watched the NBA finals this year was because my wife was interested in the games so it was on the TV in the living room. Eventually I would get aggravated with the non calls and head out to the office. It's not that I'm going to hate on any man for what he does for a living and I don't begrudge any professional athlete any money they make, but the NBA isn't what I consider basketball, fully realizing I'm in the minority, I comment.

If you look at American Sports, the core rules of the games are pretty much the same; baseball- same core rules from Little League to the MLB, football- same core rules from Pop Warner to the NFL, so on and so forth. But for some reason, professional men's basketball is exempt from some of the games core rules, most surround "traveling," and contact, which have to be in the NBA rule book somewhere. Several years ago it seemed that the NBA referees stopped making calls, or in one instance last night where Pau Gasol was clearly fouled before he put his shot up, yet was give two free throws, they made bad calls that helped a team. This to me at least, affected the out come of games so I quit watching. This was well before the Tim Donaghy situation came to light, but only cemented my position of favoritism towards certain players and the best team not winning because of the officiating. So sport becomes entertainment and in that instance the NBA is only one slight step above professional wresting in my opinion because the plays aren't in on it. Well the marquee players are, but the guy busting his ass for league minimum isn't. However, the NBA has a large fan base who gladly shell out money to watch, so why should they care, Right?

Ask horse racing. While the expansion of casino gaming hasn't helped, racing's PR nightmare began long before that. Over the last two decades or so it came to light that fixes were in, trainers were doping horses, the rules became cloudy and cheaters were allowed to continue to participate. While the majority of racing's fan base wagered on the races, because of the perception of malfeasance, horse racing lost people who would pay at the gate and make casual wagers on major racing days, or who would take a day off just to go to the races. I will concede that isn't the only problem racing has, the sport still suffers it's black eye because of the perception of an unlevel pitch.

Back to the NBA; the leagues worst nightmare is that small market teams would make the finals and their television ratings and revenue would suffer. Imagine if you would, that Oklahoma City bounced the Lakers in the first round. Not that I'm saying that officiating caused the Lakers to win that series, talent will overcome if it has the proper motivation. But you have to admit the domino effect of them being out of the playoffs would have cost the NBA a considerable amount of money, and after watching the officiating in the finals and the departure from the core rules of the game it makes one wonder.

Part of what is supposed to make sporting events fun in the integrity of the rules, you rarely get that anywhere else in the world. That's why I care and why I comment.

Once they see the big city you can't keep then on the farm

2010-05-22T08:05:00.000-07:00

While I am sure that New Mexico is still a fine place to race horses, it's doesn't carry the national prowess that Kentucky, New York, or California does. Shoot, even California is having a tough time staying on the national racing stage.

The only things I know about Chip Woolley is what the racing media has told me about him. I'm sure he's a good trainer and he did do a good job getting Mine That Bird t the winners circle in the Kentucky Derby, the rest I have to presume, which isn't right sometimes, but sometimes it's all you got. Needless to say I wasn't surprised this week when it was announced that Mine That Bird was moving to Kentucky.

Something had to give. Either Chip Woolley was going to have to pull up stakes in New Mexico, or the owners of Mine That Bird were going to have to change trainers. It has nothing to do with the training job Chip was doing, more to do with location. While New Mexico has slots to help sustain it's purse structures, it's doesn't have races like the Haskell or the Travers to keep a horse like Mine That Bird on the national stage. So last year when Chip shipped the horse back to New Mexico, I kind of saw this coming, and you have to commend the horses owners for keeping the horse with Chip for as long as they did. It would have been real easy for them to say that while Chip was going back to New Mexico, the horse was not.

It still has to sting, I'm not going to deny that, but it was Chip's decision to return to New Mexico instead of rolling the dice and making due with a one horse barn and making the sacrafices to stay somewhere like Kentucky or another eastern track and rebuilding his business, I doubt I could do it as well.

Words

2010-04-12T22:47:00.000-07:00

Having various friends of various ilks with various interests, it's tough to keep the vernacular in line.

Friends know that I love horse racing, others know that I love baseball, my family knows about my of love politics, and most everyone knows the fact that I am absolutely enamored with the art and science of shoeing a horse. But few know about my passion for words. Though I can't spell worth a damn, I love words and vernacular. But it causes problems from time to time.

Tonight I was asked by my Facebook and actual friend, and soon to be De-facto sister-in-law Jeniffer, what "hand ridden" meant. This isn't the first time that's happened. My Uncle and name sake told me a while ago that he enjoyed my facebook posts even though he didn't know what some of them meant. To help remedy this, I split my facebook, one page for farrier friends and another for personal friends, family and other relations that actually knew me. It worked but only to a point.

Part of the problem I have encountered with life is this desire to be correct in the vernacular of whatever I have been interested in. I ask people what the correct term for this or that is, or if I hear a word or term in conversation that I don't understand, I ask what it means. "Spun" for example is a term used in three day eventing and combined driving that means a horse was rejected at the soundness check. Dammit did it again. To understand that you needed to understand that at certain points ( I think there are two) of a three day or combined driving events there are veterinarian inspections of horses for soundness. Shit, that's twice. Soundness means that a horse isn't lame. Rat's it happened again, this is tougher than I thought. Well, I need to stop at some point, so let's talk about something else.

Like I said if it interests me I want to know the words, but if it doesn't than I don't care so much. Tech talk is a good example. To this day I haven't the faintest idea what a router in the tech world is, but I do know what it is in a wood shop setting. I got my head wrapped around what spam was other than compressed lunch meat but that was because I once had a hotmail account. Password is more than a game show, plug and play is what I have to buy when I go to Best Buy. Beyond all that I could care less.

I look at my son, if you have met him you know that words are strictly to be used to accomplish whatever he feels he needs. He doesn't seem to have the curiosity about words that I have. Further, neither does Alexis the wonder apprentice. Conversations with her became difficult from time to time, so now I carry a dictionary and a thesaurus in the truck . It seems that the young people of today don't have the need to learn words like I did as a child and I blame the networks for no longer playing Warner Brother's cartoons on Saturday mornings. Think about it, those were made in the 40's and 50's as added entertainment for movie goers. Who were the movie goers in those days? Adults.

When we were young Price or I would hear a word in a cartoon and we would ask mom, grandma, or grandpa what they meant. We were quickly directed to a well worn Webster's dictionary. Soon enough we quit asking and just went over and got out the dictionary and I think that was what set the hook. Oh geez, set the hook means...............

Therefore it's a Sunday

2010-03-20T22:49:00.000-07:00

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.

We interupt this train of thought with breaking news

2010-03-14T13:07:00.000-07:00

(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"

Was it worth it Part I

2010-03-10T14:25:00.000-08:00

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.

5 weeks to review

2010-03-06T11:06:00.000-08:00

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

Your going to do what your going to do

2010-01-31T01:17:00.000-08:00

I am a Kansas Basketball fan. Don't know why, just always have been. With that little insight, personally, if I were a NCAA basketball referee I would had T'ed up Bill Self for taking advantage of a stoppage of play in the KU - K- State game yesterday. But the game was close and I can understand why they didn't do it. They didn't want to interfere with what was a great game. You learn that if you ever take an officiating class and I respect those men for their decision.

Super Bowl Sunday, a day that is a defacto national holiday and for many people an excuse to call in sick the following Monday, the group Focus on the Family will run a 30 second commercial featuring Tim Tivo and his mother Pam. It is being called an anti-abortion ad. I think it's an opportunity for a young man to thank his mother for risking her life so that he could have his. Not exactly what I would be pimping if I were Dr. James Dobson (founder and leader of FotF) if I had the 2.5 mil to drop on a commercial during the big game, but you have to go with what you got.

Personally I would find a child of a woman who became pregnant out of wed lock and upon informing the father was abandon. A mother who had the option of abortion, but carried the child to term and let the cards fall where they may, but come hell or high water she was going to give that child the best life she possibly could. A child of a woman who made the decision not because of health concerns, family support or lack of it, or faith, but because she viewed the child she carried as a responsibility. I'm sure such a person exists in this day and age. They go along and make your life better every day by making sure your breakfast order is correct or that your dry cleaning is done to your satisfaction. I have met one that makes sure that the commercial air liner he is piloting lands safely and you reach your destination (no his names not Sullenburger.) But such is complacency of modern religion so Tim Tivo is what you get because he is famous and a born again Christian.

If I do begrudge FotF for one thing it's definitely not for this commercial, but it's for the help that 2.5 Million plus (production costs) would have provided for families in the position of the woman and child I described. Pam Tivo's ticket is punched after this years NFL Draft and if it isn't, then I will take exception to Tim Tivo and this commercial.

Marka Ocho

2010-01-22T10:50:00.000-08:00

Call me a liberal, that's fine, but your wrong.

Every other day or so I get another what I'll call anti Spanish email or post on Facebook concerning announcements on business lines that ask (in Spanish of course) for Espanol press 2 or 8 or 4 or whatever.

My righty friends will claim that this is work of the Obama Government or the ACLU, or the liberals, but it's not. It's businesses that want every one's money. Funny thing about corporate America is that they like money and they don't really give two shits where it come from as long as it adds to their bottom line. People who speak spanish want to buy things much in the same manner as english speaking folks and I would think that they would have the same expectation of service as I would when dropping cash on a computer, a big screen TV, or when leaving my money in someones custody. So I am of the opinion of, who cares, it took 3 seconds away from my phone call that will likely end in frustration anyway. I have better concerns when I call Chase Bank, Sears Service, Gateway, or any of the hundred other institutions that ask if you speak spanish to punch another number.

If you doubt me, take Paul Jones Jr. a running quarter horse trainer, well not just a running quarter horse trainer, at the moment he's THE running quarter horse trainer. I think if I asked him if the ability to speak fluent spanish has helped his business or not, I'm sure that the answer would be yes. When I first met Paul all those years ago, he had six or seven horses stabled at Los Alamitos, now he has won the training title there for something like 8 or 9 consecutive years. Over those years you might have noticed the rise in spanish surnames in the owners section of the form as well, many of them he's trained for and showed kindness to. There are now quite a few trainers of Mexican decent at Los Al, but when Paul started you could count them on one hand, and being a business savy person, Paul had the advantage over trainers who didn't speak spanish I'm sure.

I guess if I have a point, it's don't hate. It's business, nothing personal. If you don't like those recordings then make your vote with your feet and take your business elsewhere. Chances are you will be looking for awhile to find some bank or other business that doesn't say "Para español aprieta ocho."

Bulletin

2010-01-21T09:45:00.000-08:00

We Interrupt my current train of thought to bring you the following:

The San Fanciscio Chronicle reports that if 958 people voted in California Tom Campbell would loose to Barbara Boxer in Novembers Senate race. Further of the 958 more are likely to vote for Campbell in the June primary over Carly Fiorina and Chuck DeVore. Politico.com did report that despite the numbers Fiorina is polling better among male Republicans than Campbell, but Campbell is polling better among women. With no report, I am only left to presume that DeVore is still maintains his lead with Fox watchers who wear their tinfoil hats with a jaunty tilt.

Update to yesterdays blog post. Spanish candidate Al Ramirez stated on his Facebook page that he is still wants 10,000 signatures on his petition to run for Senate, which is 7,000 more than required by the Secretary of State, which should provide a safe cushion when it comes time to validate signature; good idea, better safe than sorry.

If there is a candidate who's back is against the wall at the moment, it's Ramirez. His name wasn't even mentioned in any of the California Papers on-line reports about the latest field poll or on Politico.com. I guess that whole theory that you need to be recognized by the SoS before your a candidate still holds water. Besides the signatures, Ramirez needs money, but he needs to get his ducks lined up first. Good luck Al you and your views deserve equal time.

More on Money: Apparently everyone in the race is gripping for cash right now except Fiorina. Papers report this morning that Campbell wasn't able to transfer any of his gubernatorial funds to his senate campaign, DeVore's campaign stated that they raised $665,000 as of the 11th of January almost exactly half of what Fiorina was able to raise in the same period. Further Fiorina has lent her campaign an additional $2,500,000.

Further update: Carley Fiorina was in California before I was but then left to got to college in Maryland. I stand corrected.

Delemas Delemas

2010-01-20T14:34:00.000-08:00

First a correction.

Brother Price wrote: " Yellow Dog is a perjorative term, dear brother".

I think he meant pejorative, which bummed me out, first because my brother is a multiple spelling champion and that the word when spelled correctly, means "derogatory". Denigrating the Swedish side of my family was not my intent but I couldn't come up another phrase that would clearly state that they would vote for a yellow dog before they voted for a Republican.

Brother Price continues: "Please regard the fact that the part of your family that is nearer to Asgard has and had nothing to do with the south, "

True Fact as the lovely and Honorable Peggy Frackrell would say. Both sides of my family are from the mid-west originally.
With all apologies. Noted.

A continuation of Wednesday's rainy day post.

I think its clear that I am not a Barbara Boxer (D-CA) fan. Not for the reasons you might think, but needing to refer to her in a distinguished title, something I thought was reserved for Judges only added to it. I don't like her, I even voted for Bill Jones and I'm a moderate. She's dismissive, she thinks she knows about where I live even though she rarely comes down here, and I haven't liked any of her hair styles. The straw that broke the camels back was in 2004 when she had a comfortable lead on the aforementioned Mr. Jones. She demanded and got more campaign money from the Democratic National Committee. Why would you do that? She damn sure didn't need it and it only served to hurt democratic candidates in other parts of the country. No telling what she did with that money either. Perhaps she will come forward and let us know one day in a tell all book. Hopefully soon, she'll have plenty of time on her hands. All that said before you go out to beat the Senator you gotta win a primary.

By law in California, you can only vote for partisan candidates if you are a member of their party. If you go vote on primary day, and you are listed as an independent or decline to state, you will be handed a ballot with only propositions and other non partisan positions such as city counsel, Judges, etc. This was the result of a fear that people would "ballot load," which was a politicians explanation that people would jump from their own party to elect a weaker candidate. This came to fruition in the 2008 Presidential election when people jumped party lines in South Carolina to vote for Hillary Clinton in order to stop Barack Obama's winning streak. So I guess there is a point to it.

None the less it's not fair, I shouldn't have to register with either party to decide who represents me in congress and that decision begins at the primary level. Decline to state is the third largest voting segment in the state and nearly eclipses those who are not registered to vote at all. I decline to declare allegiance to either party because I don't believe in their entire platform. I am just as down on "tax and spend", "cap and trade", as I am on "refund and war" and "a corporation has the same rights as a person".

When voting reform came to California, it would have been so simple to make a law that said only decline to state and independent voters would have the option to vote in either primary and that if you were registered party member you were stuck where you were. That's not happening because political parties are greedy and in this day and age where the next campaign begins immediately after the last, who can blame them. It is defiantly better if the parties have us all wedged in to convenient little boxes so they don't have to do much outreach. It is easier to poach from another party or move money from a weak campaign than it is to try to figure out independent voters.

At any rate, when I re-register to vote next week it's going to be as a Republican, so I can have my say on who runs against the Senator. Her supporters will say my reasons are silly, maybe they are. But California needs selfless representation in Washington and I can't see the Senator getting off of her high horse (HA! horse reference) to think about the people of California.

Sunday- a horseshoeing post of some sort

Referendurm Schemefarendum

2010-01-20T08:01:00.000-08:00

Keeping in mind that I realize that I bill this as a "horse" blog, there is other stuff that interests me. Politics for one has been a family fascination on both the sire and dam side (there, that will keep it horsey.)

My Mother's side is chalk full of yellow dog democrats, heck we're Swedish so there has to be a bit of social consciousness. My Father's side is immutably republican, not conservative in the current definition; they have hearts. Thus by nurture, I have become decidable moderate, which pisses my father off because I'm the most conservative of his 4 boys and he perceives me as liberal, and pisses my brother Price off because he thinks I'm too conservative. Mom on the other hand is all good because she enjoys our political conversations.

So while the rest of America (especially Fox) was incorrectly commenting on how the election back east was a "Federal Referendum" on Obama last night, I was holding out hope that it is possible to defeat a dismissive, aloof, female, democrat.

Long has the California Republican Party tried to dislodge our (California's) Junior senator, Barbara Boxer to no avail. The CRP has ponied up tomato cans Bruce Herschensohn, a T.V. commentator who banked his campaign on the "flat tax", former state Treasurer Matt Fong who was defeated by the cheer "Fong is Wrong", and Bill Jones who is best known for authoring California's three strikes law, but is mostly forgettable. So it's no wonder that she is still around.

So last night as my heart leap with joy, this morning my hopes were violently dashed on the rocks of reality. Oh joyous was it for me to learn on the other side of the slate was; Tom Campbell, who has the charisma of a rock and absolutely no haberdashery sense. Chuck DeVore who's web page was running a shout out from a woman from Texas this morning. Al Ramirez who pains to point out on his website that he is Spanish and not Mexican. Finally, Carly Fiorina, who is recovering from cancer, so I won't make light of her for the time being.

The fact that only Ramirez has posted an opinion on the environment (DeVore does address water), should concern everyone because historically a Republican with no environmental position generally lean, though sometimes unintentionally, to the side of industry. Further none of them are Cal Bred (another dash of horsey.) Now I realize that this sounds hypocritical because I didn't get here until 1983, but I still beat 3 of the 4 out here, Campbell being the lone exception.

None of them are coming anywhere near where I live in the low high desert with the exception of Campbell who has one appearance listed in North Hollywood, 35 miles to the south. So much for getting in your pick up truck. But to be fair, as a person who has seen what little of the state that he has, all by pick up truck, which I'll wager is more than Scott Brown clocked in all of Massachusetts, it's no picnic.

Friday- California Senate Race and California's Honked Up Election Laws.

Whiskey is for drinking

2010-01-04T09:09:00.000-08:00

and water is for fighting, is an old very old adage. It goes back to one of the water wars in Americas past history, I’m not quite sure which one.

As I watched the Rose Parade with dread and the imagination of potential Yankee immigrants that might want to escape the clutches of winter (it’s true), I thought about putting on my Facebook page something to the effect of “Yankee’s stay home! We have beautiful weather, but no money, no jobs and no water."

Whatever the reason, California is running out of water. I know, but it’s true. NASA scientists recently gave a lecture using satellite imagery that showed beyond what we knew about the low level in our reservoirs that we are running out of ground water as well. The debacle over the Delta Smelt is merely inconvenient.

Danvers Child who is a farrier and current editor of the American Farriers Association’s “Professional Farrier” once said that proper horse care involves salt by the handful and water by the bucket, if you are one of the lucky few to had privledge to work for mama Carol you learned this. If we allow ourselves to put the question to thought, it takes a lot of water to take care of a horse properly. They need water to drink, water to bathe them, water to help keep their environment clean and as fly hostile as possible. Horses (especially race horses) need ice to help reduce swelling, water to keep the dust down in work and competition areas. Water to swim in during recovery, and perhaps soon at a vet clinic near you, water to wake up from surgery.

The horse business has problems enough. First and foremost there is already a negative perception of the business not only from the far left, but from people who had bad experiences as owners, we have no advocates in Sacramento, the horses that are bred here are perceived as being lower quality by the rest of the world add to that, all facets of the horse business have charlatans that continue to muck it up for those of us who have taken the time to learn and become true professionals. California’s water crisis is only going to complicate matters further.So what can we as a business do to stem this?

First thing is quit hose bathing horses. I realize sponge bathing horses takes more time, but in the grand scheme of things it takes only 10 gallons of water to bathe a standard horse (a little more for warm bloods of course) with a short coat versus a water horse that on average pressure can let out 5 gallons a minute. If you insist on hose bathing your horse, then turn off the water when you are doing things like scrubbing legs or manes and tails.

Talk to your vet about how much water your horse should be drinking in a day’s time and monitor that with buckets or water tubs and get away from the automatic watering devices.

Last thing is stuff that you do around your house. Check for leaking hose bibs, plant climate friendly plants around your barn, if you run an ice machine make sure that it is as efficient as possible.We as an industry need to be proactive about this, because when the environmentalists and the state come knocking, and they will, we want to show that we are a responsible people not only to our horses, but to our community as well.

Just so you know......

2009-12-05T14:51:00.000-08:00

It's not that I haven't been writing, it's just that I don't think I have written anything "good" lately.

I have been told my my writer friends to "never throw anything away", so I have about 7 or 8 blog posts that will, I'm sure, get jammed in to something else in the future. But subject of who can do what with their horse came up at the end of the Churchill meet.

I'll let you read the article (thanks again to Ray Paulick) and you can decide for yourselves. For my part though, a subsequent Paulick blog post brought forth all the hoo haa that comes with the adoption or purchase of an off the track race horse of any breed and the question "why do you want the horses papers?"

In past years, when I have been more bleeding heart than rational I have taken a couple of these horses and the reasons I want the papers are:

1. Proof of ownership

While possession is 9/10ths of the law, paperwork will keep some other yo ho from claiming what is rightfully mine. I took the horse, healed it, made a financial investment in the horse and I don't need some clown getting free rehab care.

2. To cross reference that what I have is what you told me I had.

Thoroughbreds are easy, the number under the lip should equal the registration number on the papers. Even if you don't have the papers it is easy enough to jump through the Jockey Club's hoops and fees to get replacement papers. Quarter Horses on the other hand are more difficult the number under the lip is determined by random tattoo books that are given to the track identifier by the AQHA. I will never, never, never, ever take another running quarter horse with out papers, because of the AQHA's bullshit (that's right Jim Heltzer I said it's bullshit) tattooing and registration system.

3. To get the horse's past performance record

This is the most important thing for those of you who wish to take in a retired racehorse, especially those of you who what to use the horse as a sport horse (hunters, jumpers, dressage, field hunters etc.)
If you take a retired race horse, go to Daily Racing form dot com and spend the $5.00 to get the horse's lifetime past performance record. DRF is so thorough that they have records all the way back to 1976, so I am almost certain that the horse you acquire will be there if he ever raced.

While it will be interesting to see where your new horse ran, that's not what you want to look at. You will want to cast your primary attention to the comments at the end of each race to see if your horse was ever "vanned off the track", "pulled up" or any other comment that might infer that the horse had a lameness issue that effected his racing career, this could effect your decisions about the horses future. The downside to this is that DRF has no way to tell you if the horse was ever vanned off after training, so that is left to your own diligence.

Though there are exceptions and the horse business is a buyer beware market, most people are straight forward and honest. All they want for their horse is a good home or a new career, despite what some people try to feed you, the majority of race horse owners are small outfits one, two, or three horses and their horses are special to them, but the cruel reality of horse racing in north America is that time is the horses enemy, and if they don't pan out they need to move on, hopefully, to a caring home.

Back to the lab again

2009-10-09T11:27:00.000-07:00

I have been reading Stephen King's book "On Writing" and I have figure out the key to my struggle with the craft, I haven't lived.

Well I have existed but in the sense as Rosalind Russell so aptly put it in Auntie Mame "Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death." Don't get me wrong, I am far from perfect, I done drugs and drank, a pack of Marlboro Lights have been a constant companion, but other than eating and smoking I have done nothing to excess except bore people with the tame stories of my life.

So it's time to get busy failing and make something of myself. To my avid follower, I promise one post a week at least that is timely and one a week that is history or my perception of it. What the hell I'll start now, wait maybe tomorrow will be better.......

Please, call me Edward

2009-02-15T05:23:00.000-08:00

Fifteen years ago if you would have told me Myron McClain would talk to me as a friend, I would have accused you of ingesting some sort of illegal substance, but he does now and I appreciate it.

For those of you who used to read my thoughtless posts on the bulletin board site, you occasionally saw me try (though poorly) to crush Gary Miller when he would say he never needed to meet anybody and therefore my main reason for attending the AFA convention, meeting other farriers, was a frivolous reason.

Years ago at the AFA convention in Portland, my friend Dan Subaitus literally ran to catch Edward Martin in a corridor of the Red Lion Inn to visit with him. I should have gone with, because unknown to me at the time it would be the last opportunity I would have to meet the man. Anyway, Dan came back with a big smile, told us all how Edward had remembered him from the shoeing shop at Disney World where Dan had done his apprenticeship and how Edward had said "please, call me Edward" when Dan had Addressed him as Mr. Martin. It was something Dan and I would talk about even 2 years ago when I last visited him.
Everyone I know who knew Edward, never referred to him as "Mr. Martin." Don Gustafson has always said "Edward" as have Jean Meneley and Pat Gallahan, Fran Jurga's headline on the hoof care blog was "We've lost Edward" so I am certain that they got the same "please, call me Edward." To me at least that shows graciousness that usually seen only in senior members of my trade.

Like I said, I never met Edward, I never heard him lecture or saw one of his demonstrations, I did once get to hear him lead a group of tone deaf farriers in the singing of "Auld Lang Syne" once which I sure will rattle the rafters in Chattanooga at this years AFA convention and as well it should. I am sure that his friends will come together and celebrate his life and the life of Allen Smith who passed away at the end of last year.

People touch us even though we don't realize it, the little pieces that they leave with people we know or have yet to meet carry memories of stories or advice that they share with their friends. What Edward left with me through his friends, was be nice to everyone, you never know when you might shoe a horse for them.

Ya gotta start somewhere

2009-02-08T21:21:00.000-08:00

I started this blog because I needed an outlet. What happened was I was posting on a popular farrier bulletin board and I just got tired of arguing endlessly about different things so I decided that I would serve a self imposed ban on posting on that site and I am actually happier. Horseshoeing is a funny business, it's a small community no matter where you go, your own route, the type of horses you shoe, even bumping around on the Internet you eventually become part of a community where people get to know you and develop a perception of who you are. So this is who I am

I have been shoeing horses all of my adult life, longer than half of it now. I started shoeing because I thought it would make dad happy, something I learned later that I could have done anything and he would have been just as glad. Who knew? There have been several huge influences in my life outside of the gimmes, mom, dad, my maternal grandparents, my step mom, and people your going to need to know if your going to be interested in this blog I s'pose. You gotta know the Big guys, big Roy, not so little Roy, Big Les, Big John, Fat John, You gotta know the big iron guys, Monte, Kelly, Gordon, and David. The old guys who will probably resent the fact that I call them old, Andy, Bruce, George, Sam. The platers, Dad, David, Keith, Bernie, Robert, Todd, Perry, Bob, Donnie and Boltcutter . The Hunter guys, Chuck, Chuck, Bob, Bob, Jeff, Merle, Kevin and the World Famous Jack. The country guys Michale, Bert, and Dave. The city guys, Sammy, Kevin, Duke, and Jerry. There are quite a few more that I am sure that I will get to in future posts. I'll tell you about everyone I know because I think they deserve the "props".

Keep in mind that I am a full time farrier, part time dad, I'm a husband with a honey do list that ends somewhere around the turn of the century, so this blog is my hobby, so there might be a post a week sometimes, but I will try to post at least once a month. So till then thanks for looking.

Well welcome. Check back, every once in a while who knows.