Soupyjones Posted June 10, 2016 Share Posted June 10, 2016 Anyone who has put more than one shoe on an animal must have at least one story of things going somewhat poorly. I always enjoy hearing about other guys wrecks so let's see what kind of disasters we have had. My favorite gong show is multi part. When I was working for a big trail outfit they sent a few of us out to the winter pasture to get the stock ready for the summer season with shoes and haircuts. Day one I got bucked off when we rode out to jingle the herd in. No injury but I lost a can of Copenhagen. Day two our biggest mule got tired of holding up his hind left and placed it on my boot. Being the kind soul he was he promptly jumped away breaking four bones in my left foot. Day three a quiet old gelding named Dally took less kindly to the feel of my rasp and pulled back, throwing himself over and slicing through my apron, jeans and right leg. Suffice it to say the rest of the week was not much fun with a broken foot on one side and a still bleeding leg on the other. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted June 10, 2016 Share Posted June 10, 2016 Hard to top school for me, I ended up on the senior showing team because I was interested in showing draft horses, well about two weeks in the instructor picks up a front and this Belgian mare kicks out his front teeth. Note to self do not wear a broad brim wile shoeing. Needles to say Stan and I get to shoe her. Took me 2 hours to get my half done (1 hour to convene her that infact those were my feet). So Stan is giving me a ration for driving this horse backward yelling no at her. He told me she was t a dog, and he would make her stand still. Well and the other students are refusing to work on the other draft horses, I my self finished up with a halfshoe and 4 trims ( all heavies). And leave at 6, Stan left at 8 having finally gotten the other two shoes on old Gertrude. As I started with heavies I don't try to make horses do what I want, like Sandy I try to make them want to do what I want them to do... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Turley Posted June 11, 2016 Share Posted June 11, 2016 I met an ol' shoer who worked in New Mexico in the 1940's, 50's, 60's, name of Charlie Force. His saying was, "I been drug, bit, pawed, and laid on!" I love that. I guess we've all had our jackpots and adventures. I never got anything broken. Shod an old horse once and when the front foot was done, I went out in front to inspect. Boom! Got an instant hare lip with that foot striking me. I didn't see it coming.. One time a horse's head hit my head; I got four stitches in the eyebrow. A big Appaloosa kicked me in the front thigh and I limped over to the side of the pen and laid down. The owner said, "Did it hurt?" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soupyjones Posted June 11, 2016 Author Share Posted June 11, 2016 That sounds like about the time you whack him in the shin with your shaping hammer and ask the same question. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted June 11, 2016 Share Posted June 11, 2016 I think the dumbest thing I did was break a rasp across the chest of a $20,000 high school level Andalusian stud... he struck out at the old man who owned him. The old man walked over to the tack room and came out with a new rasp and gave it to me and said "I would have beaten him"... I still felt like a heal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notownkid Posted June 11, 2016 Share Posted June 11, 2016 in '59 we had just had the 35 horses arrive from Iowa and were suppose to have had their feet done before shipping, most had not which was usual. We had one on cross ties and the Farrier who was the son of the owner and step son of my boss was working on them. I was always assigned to help hold them. this one big grey was fussing, trying to bite, pulling his foot away over and over, Oliver got sick of it and wrapped him hard in the ribs with the rasp which caused a minor explosion, some yelling and assorted threats. Things settled down a little until he put the hot shoe on the foot and the smoke rolled up, the explosion was spectacular or at least the part I saw first hand, that horse went up and over backwards on the cross ties, hit me on the leg and chest knocking me luckily backwards into a wall, somehow knocked Oliver into another corner. When he came down he landed on his back on the hot shoe and more smoke rose to the occasion. This was like the 2nd stage on a rocket going off, he came out of his halter onto his feet and was looking for the 2 of us, kicked Oliver in the side, I had just got onto my feet and he ran over me, feet going every which way and somewhere in this bit me hard on the shoulder. When sold The horse was branded with a horse shoe brand in the middle of his back which we denied any knowledge of and the wooden floor had the other side of the brand burned into it until the stables burned in 1963. Oliver and I healed after a fashion, he never did stop hitting them in the ribs or hot shoeing and when I went to visit him just before he passed we talked about this like it was the day before. The family buried him with a rasp in his hand. This was 10 yrs before America landed on the moon, I'm surprised they didn't find Oliver, me and the blasted grey horse waiting for a ride home when they landed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted June 11, 2016 Share Posted June 11, 2016 All I can say is who ever the fool was that desided that nailing a strip of iron on the bottom of a horses foot was the thing to do must have had an ex-wife and a truck payment... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted June 11, 2016 Share Posted June 11, 2016 1 hour ago, Charles R. Stevens said: All I can say is who ever the fool was that desided that nailing a strip of iron on the bottom of a horses foot was the thing to do must have had an ex-wife and a truck payment... Probably something like it for sure. I've always wondered what was going through the mind of the first person to climb on a horse's back. "Hey Og, hold my oogle juice, watch this!" Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted June 11, 2016 Share Posted June 11, 2016 Yep, men and beer... entertainment is sure to fallow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Turley Posted June 12, 2016 Share Posted June 12, 2016 A situation where nobody was hurt, praise be. I was hoof trimming an Arab stud which I tied to a recently installed hitching rail. The owner copied the rail from the Western movies, I suppose...a horizontal with a vertical support either end. Little did I know that the verticals were in the ground only about 6". It didn't take much movement from the horse to pull the thing out of the ground, The horse was totally spooked and took off galloping dragging the rail alongside. He soon ran into a small grove of trees, went between two trees. The hitching rail couldn't make it through, so the horse was thrown. I was running after the horse and getting my pocket knife out so that I could cut any leads or halter if necessary. I was able to untie the lead rope and the horse stood up and seemed to be OK. I noticed a little bloody scratch on his neck. Other than that, all was copasetic. The owner was excited and at the same time, apologetic. He asked about building a better method for tying up the horse. I suggested cross ties. The next time I worked on the stud, the owner had put two large diameter posts in the ground and had two cross ties on each post, one about ear high and the other about chest high. Lesson learned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notownkid Posted June 12, 2016 Share Posted June 12, 2016 23 hours ago, Charles R. Stevens said: All I can say is who ever the fool was that desided that nailing a strip of iron on the bottom of a horses foot was the thing to do must have had an ex-wife and a truck payment... Isn't that the truth! Ever see a farrier working in the wilds on a mustang? They get by. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arkie Posted June 12, 2016 Share Posted June 12, 2016 On 6/11/2016 at 9:38 AM, Charles R. Stevens said: All I can say is who ever the fool was that desided that nailing a strip of iron on the bottom of a horses foot was the thing to do must have had an ex-wife and a truck payment... Charles, you crack me up!!!! You have definitely made a loop around the corral a couple of times..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted June 12, 2016 Share Posted June 12, 2016 Drug, more like... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackdawg Posted June 12, 2016 Share Posted June 12, 2016 Remember "helping" the farrier with the neighbors 2 yo getting its first set of shoes when I was about 10 years old. Don't stand there says the farrier, about 5 times, as I kept want to get closer to see what he was doing. Didnt even see the kick, just remember the farrier swearing as the horse pulled away, then realised the star picket beside me was now bent flat to the ground, farrier made me go sit on the fence..... Healthy respect for the rear end of a horse ever since! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted June 12, 2016 Share Posted June 12, 2016 Yep, seem to always have kids around when I'm working. For the most part I don't mind as the little ones take direction well. The farriers mistake was in not telling you where to be that was relitivly safe. adults on the other hand... "Stay on my side of the horse" "give him some slack" " get him once good and stop worrying at him" and my faverite " what the &$!! Do you think your doing!!" After the horse explodes and threw me into the ally wall and the fool owner is standing there with a half empty tube of wormer... Horses and kids I can handle (even teens tend to give me respect, as I can in a few mineuts gain most horses respect. Something they can't do.) it's the adults, can chasers, show peaple and ropers being the worse... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted June 13, 2016 Share Posted June 13, 2016 Not shoeing but I had a 10 year old boy at our Diocese's family camp Friday and Saturday who just always wanted to do blacksmithing; wanted to make a career of it...! So his mother asked if I would let him do a project or two. Had the expected problems; he kept wanting to tell the other adults how to do smithing when he didn't know squat---this was his *first* time! I told him that he was NOT to distract other people when they were working on hot steel, that it was a safety issue. Had to point out he wasn't wearing his safety glasses each heat. Finally told him he couldn't be within 20 feet of the work area without them on. His second piece was doing a nail---which I did most of the work on; in the middle of it the other kids were going to go do something he wanted to do so he told me the nail was ready to be headed. I asked him how he could possibly know that as he had never made one and never seen it done before and so his opinion meant NOTHING. He was shocked that his opinion wasn't the controlling one; but he got his nail done sort of....I sort of wonder at his upbringing if he thought his opinion was better than someone who had 35+ years experience in the field vs 0... Had a class once where one of the students kept repeating everything I said to the students; with a giggle at the end; as well as wanting to coach them in their smithing without any knowledge of skills in it. I finally pointed out that I was teaching the class and while she had a PhD in her field she didn't know anything about smithing and a lot of the stuff she was telling other students was wrong... I've read that the internet makes everyone feel like their opinion is just as valid as that of an expert in the field; I'll have to start applying a filter to prospective students! Remember the story about trying to pour more tea in a cup already full? Why yes I am a curmudgeon; how did you guess? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Turley Posted June 13, 2016 Share Posted June 13, 2016 When I was rasping white feet, the particles would be falling to the ground. I told any kids that were watching that that's where coconut came from. It helped if a dog was around eating the stuff.* *Dogs are natural scavengers and like to eat hoof trimmings, even though they're not digestible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bud in PA Posted June 14, 2016 Share Posted June 14, 2016 Thomas I detect a smidgen of Jersey attitude in your handling of PITAs. Dont ask me how I know about this stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SLAG Posted June 14, 2016 Share Posted June 14, 2016 Mr. Turley Dogs & hoof trimmings. It's roughage merely nutritious roughage. Few micro organisms can digest the keratin in it. Regards & many thanks for a whole lot of very valuable information you have posted. SLAG.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arkie Posted June 15, 2016 Share Posted June 15, 2016 I don't know about the rest of you guys, but I'm getting a "kick" out of these shoeing stories....(cue, Frosty on the puns...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted June 15, 2016 Share Posted June 15, 2016 I appreciate the thought arkie but I'll wait till a good one comes along to join the game. Hoof is like eating at McDonalds nutritionally zippo but tasty and fun to chew. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arkie Posted June 15, 2016 Share Posted June 15, 2016 Awwwwww, spoil sport. This would (could) be a good "hoof in mouth" thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted June 15, 2016 Share Posted June 15, 2016 Uh HUH, that clinches it. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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