I’ve been shoeing horses since before I could drive. When I was a kid a school teacher would come shoe my horse. He roped when he was younger and raised some good horses. He knew how a performance horse needed to be shod. Whenever he came to shoe my horse he would make me help and he’d always say, “I’m gettin to old for this you’re gonna have to learn how to do it.”
It wasn’t until I went off to college that I became a full-time horse shoer. I did it because it paid more than the minimum wage jobs around Stillwater. I shod horses for a green eyed barrel racer in college one time. She could look right through me with those green eyes, I’m still shoeing her horse today.
Jakob is fifteen, recently I’ve started him trimming and preparing the foot for shoes. It’s kind of cool in a way. He struggles using the knives, nippers and rasps. I try to coach him, but really shoeing horses just takes experience. You don’t get good until you’ve been under a thousand or so.
There’s tricks I’ve picked up over the years. Most horses tend to grow the inside of their hind feet more than the outside. Thoroughbred horses have a tendency to be flat footed. I like to watch a horse walk before I pick up their feet. I can learn a-lot from just watching how they travel.
I showed Jakob how to shape shoes on the anvil the other day. He’s luckier than me, I had a piece of railroad track I’d made into a shoeing anvil when I was in college. The anvil and shoeing tools I have are the best money could buy twenty years ago when I bought them. I made do with junky equipment for a long time.
I’ve shod for over thirty years. I’ve only been kicked one time where it actually hurt and left a bruise. I’ve never been off work due to a shoeing injury. Now days though my feet and knees hurt after I shoe.
I kind of joke when people ask why I still shoe my own horses. I tell them, “I’m the best there is for the money!” Thirty years shoeing, and I still like doing it even though it hurts a little after.
Will Rogers once said, “Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.” That’s especially true when it comes to shoeing horses, it just takes a whole lot of experiences, some good and some bad.
James Lockhart lives near the Kiamichi mountains in southeast Oklahoma. He writes cowboy stories and fools with cows and horses.
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