With rope make sure you do at least two levels---adults and kids.
As for horse shoeing, I tell folks that while many blacksmiths in *America* were general smiths and did a bit of everything---we having more of a fronteir culture, (and 19th century and earlier blacksmith day books show them making and shoeing horses and oxen as well as all the other stuff they did. When you only had one smith in town they did everything!); in europe smithing and farrier work was quite seperate---different guilds and asking a smith in Europe to shoe your horse you were lucky if he only threw his hammer at you.
As for myself I just tell them that "Horses are *bigger* than I am and *dumber* than I am and that is just too scary a combination for me..."
I usually have some scrap pine around and if they ask "is that hot" I touch the wood and let them see the flames shoot up---and then say "no" it's down to about 1200 degF and time to reheat it.
Do you get burned "Yes I was cooking dinner the other night and..." "No, at the forge!" "Yes but I get burned worse and more often in the kitchen" and then talk about gloves and tongs and other PSG.
"My grandfather was a real smith"---"Want to sell any of his equipment to someone who will use it?"
Remember if you are demonstrating *DON'T EXPECT TO GET ANYTHING DONE!" you are there to educate/entertain not produce product. If you are expected to "serve two masters" at the same time we usually have a smith and a "talker" and the talker is the one who interacts with the crowd...
Thomas
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Thomas
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