notownkid

Fjords seem to be the most adaptable horses around. My cousin had a few and one mare wouldn't do anything he wanted her to do while in a cart but when his 90% blind young daughter had the lines she was perfect never a drop of trouble anywhere on the road or in the ring.

Judson: Something like this for the contest? Was on the Blacksmith Shop or OX Shed they call it at Quechee Village Antique place in VT a few yrs. ago. Not sure the latch is still there now that it has become a working Blacksmith Shop again.

I wasn't going to get in on this conversation but had to add my 2 cents worth. Race Tracks in the states RACE Counter Clock Wise, England and many of her early Colonies Clock Wise from what I've seen. US Standard Bred Trotters & Pacers are "Warmed up" before racing a couple times and that is done Clock wise so when you swing the horse counter it knows its race time. We were trained to always approach a horse from it's left side "Near" always speak to the horse before touching always harness, saddle, doctor it from that side. Now when harnessing you are on both sides to get everything correct esp. when "Putting To" the vehicle. With a team/pair we if they came to us as a pair we kept them the way they came as we had them to sell and fooling around with a good going pair wasn't a smart idea. But if they weren't going well the first thing we did was swap sides worked sometimes and others not. Often one horse just didn't get along with the other one esp. if it was lazy. The old saying "two willing horses, one willing to pull the load and the other willing to let him." Matching up another horse worked sometimes others it didn't. Horses esp. ones with a little age are a accumulation of their past, how they have been used, (not all trainers can train) who trained them, their whole baggage. Many horses ruined by humans passed through our sales barn. We saved some, some we couldn't. Are they right or left hoofed? Never seen one throw a baseball or write a letter. Some have trouble with one lead or the other some seem smoother going one way of a ring not noticed outside the ring. Dressage Horses are certainly ambidextrous from training. Putting a pair together using L & R hoofed horses never a consideration or concern we had trouble putting Mares & Gelding together for fancy driving but work teams worked OK usually. This is my experience from 55+ yrs and a few hundred horses, I asked my wife about the L & R as her family had many horses Hackneys to Quarter Horses over 3 generations and she laughed at the question!

I have a large number of bits many similar in design as this one and used some with the last of our horses. Value? other than the new ones I bought for certain horses most came to me at $0 to $20. Mexican? In my area it wouldn't add anything to the value.

Good luck Thomas knee power headed your way, read a lot of books. Dale

You might NOT want to have your wife hear "Playing" in conversations about you hobby as it will become "Oh he is out playing around in his shop" never hear the end of it.

it would appear this is one of those subjects where there are plenty of ideas & opinions along with experiences to make each one correct in their users minds and for each ones' applications weather it is 10 nails or 7 or 4 or glue to be all correct as long as the shoes stays on and the horse goes straight down the road/trail. There is the old story about "for the want of a nail a shoe is lost, for the want of the shoe a horse was lost, for want of a horse a soldier was lost, etc. till the war was lost." So horse shoe nails are not and were not a trivial matter. Just My Opinion!

Hopefully someone is going to save these

There is always some specific age we are waiting to attain, 16, 18, 21, (in my day draft age) 25 for lower insurance?, Middle age, retirement age and POFF Old Age! In my mind the difference between 16 & 21 was 10 yrs., and between middle age and Old age was 10 days. As my mom said keep busy learning as you wait, Welcome to IFI lots of reading here. Sounds like you have got a good start keep with it as it is a lifetime of learning. NEB's spring fling looks like it should be great and 2 of the demonstrators started young working with their Dad. Enjoy

I had my right shoulder repaired a few yrs. ago and being right handed I discovered fast there were a number of daily functions that didn't work well using my left arm including eating. I had had the left shoulder done 3 months before and breezed through that with little problems.

I feel you make do with what you have if this is it this is it. If you want to restore antique furniture this is not it, I used one for a number of winter to make heavy duty horse draw 2 wheel carts with a lady it was a pain changing over the items but room, experience and $ said this was it. The carts I still see in use today and are looked for at auctions so they must have been half way decently built. That was 40+ yrs. ago.

Not from my experiences with these presses. they were made for a slow movement steady pressure use not a pound pound use. Look at the pins holding the table not hard to bend them in my book. You can sink a lot of money in this and still have nothing. Just me.

I got the one my Dad bought in the late '50s setting in my barn waiting for a spot in my shop. Heavy and well built. Have used one a lot in the past for wood working takes a while to change over items. Really slows down a project. I question if the sander would take a lot of metal working but don't know.

beat them to death then sell them as antiques, down country folks never know the difference. We can make anything into an antique take an old piece of furniture shoot it a few times with a black power gun hit it a few times with a hatchet and tell them it's from the French & Indian war, Revolutionary War or from the St. Albans raid during the civil war. With the modern science a bit harder to get away with now. " Family history says My great, great, great grandmother pushed it against the door to hold the Indians out during a raid in 1755."

I've made many coat racks as you say with both used and new RR spikes over a number of years, from 2 to 12 spikes and until today never thought about pictures? I use 5/4 x 4 #1 pine sanded and stained a med. dark poly stain 6-8 coats steel wool between coats anyways I tried distressing once and pounded the thing with an old chain looked ok but never did it another. I never build on speck and usually for friends and relatives for very special occasions.

clincher for farriers to clinch over the nails and crowbar what they are made of ?

I'm planning to, Mother's day Sun. might throw me a curve ball. Thought I would get this out there for others to see. Would love to visit your shop.

There will be the "Annual Hammer In" at the Lake Champlain Maritime Mus. Vergennes, VT on May 13 2017. Registration required, 802-475-2022 $40 including Lunch. Robert Bordeaux Demonstrator. Knife Maker, Heat treating on the Menu. You can get more info at LCMM.com or Lake Champlain Maritime Mus. on the Web. Always a great day well worth the money esp, with lunch.

Blacksmithing injuries have been mostly hot hand, hot sparks inside top of boot. Day job, trigger thumb resulting in operation, Herniated Disc from unloading 5 gal pails of motor oil and slipping on snow behind the truck operation resulting, meniscus tear in knee from sliding under tractor from ice in step, operation resulting. That was the worse as 8 guys were watching when I did it in front of our little country store and they all ran over laughing to help me up. Day Job ones were from things I did everyday but not as careful as being in the shop knowing everything in there wants to burn you, cut you, or fall on you.

I can see it being used by a certain crowd of horse owners (notice owners not horseman) that firmly believe that nailing a shoe on Hurts the Horse. Been in on those conversations for 55+ years now. Can see some farriers cashing in on this. Also will cut out the need for Hot Shoeing, which many will tell you, causes Excruciating Pain to the Horse.

Still love the porch, nice shop

I would have a hard time using glue myself. I will be doing some more research on this. Someone said they heard it was being used on Aluminum race shoes??

Soooooo True.

Seldom Like about everything else today the horse world has changed unbelievable in the last 20 yrs. Far too many people with horses that know nothing about a horse only the recent books and new theories and in a lot of cases more money than knowledge. This family of farriers are all in their late 30s and up to mid 50s now and good enough so they pick their customers to keep and have sent the "Polish the hoof" bunch down the road to someone else. Can't wait to see a glued shoe.

I Had breakfast today with my former Farrier, we no longer have horses, I asked him Glenn's question and learned a few new things. He comes from a long line of Farriers, 3 generations I know of with uncles and now cousins all in the mix. He said he has started using 6 nails in resent yrs. along with smaller size nails and two of his cousins have found that with side and toe clips they only need 4! Now these guys do a lot of endurance horses some wear through shoes in 3 weeks! they also do a lot of 3 day event horses doing cross country courses that are unbelievable. They Have had no problems with these. Now just to add things to the mix in their Farrier Course I was told Cornell University is teaching their students Gluing on shoes! First I've heard of this. He also says that just because keg shoes come with 8-10 holes doesn't mean that many nails are needed or desired just it gives ability to have a good spot to get nails into a bad foot. From this I would say there may not be a complete answer to Glenn's question.