The Rural Voice, 1979-10, Page 14The shoe is on
the other foot
BY DEBBIE RANNEY
The shoeing of horses in the blacksmith
trade is a time honored tradition, one that
in these days of fast cars and other means
of transportation should show signs of
becoming extinct, but which instead has
recently been showing signs of an upsurge.
So much has the business increased for
the blacksmith trade, that now mobile
blacksmiths like Hugh Huff of R.R.2,
Staffa travel between 30,000 and 50,000
miles a year to shoe horses.
Hugh has been in the blacksmith trade
full-time since 1974 and is a graduate of a
shoeing school in Oklahoma but says that
"It's a business where if you were at it for
100 years, you'd only know half of what
there was to know. You're learning every
day."
Blacksmiths themselves are specializing
in the type of horse they shoe. John
McClinchey of Blyth, for example, is into
standard breds while Hugh Huff is
basically doing sadde and show horses.
"Blacksmithing hasn't changed alot in
about the last 200 years. The one change,
is that we're in most cases using keg shoes
(manufactured). Handmade shoes today
are basically only used on gaited horses
(hackneys, saddlebred, walking horses)
and horses with problems," Hugh said.
The job of the blacksmith is a busy and
expensive one, but one of the reasons that
Hugh persists is that, "the biggest thrill
you get out of it is every once in a while you
see the improvement, see the horse
walking comfortably. You get one of those
every once in a while and it does make
your month," he said.
The horses that the blacksmiths are
doing now are mostly racing and saddle
horses and there's a resurgence in heavy
horses," Hugh said.
One interesting fact of the trade he noted
was that there are somewhere between
5000-6000 blacksmiths being turned out
every year in North America and the
retention rate is supposedly less than one
per cent for three years.
WORK THAT HARD
"Nobody wants to work that hard
anymore," he said.
Every horse is different but on an
average it takes about an hour to shoe a
PG. 12 THE RURAL VOICE/OCTOBER 19
MAKING A SHOE — Hugh Huff, a blacksmith from R.R.2, Staffa,
stows part of the preparation of making a shoe for a horse with the use
at a hammer and anvil.
standard bred or saddle horse and a gaited
horse might take up to three hours.
The amount charged for shoeing the
horse is strictly on the basis of the job.
There's a base rate for pretty well
everything the blacksmith does and then
the materials are extra.
On the average a horse being properly
maintained would be done every three to
eight weeks depending on usage and
growth. The average mobile blacksmith
carries shoes for saddle horses and
standard breds. Hugh also carries shoes
for thoroughbreds, heavy horses and
gaited horses.
Because of the many kinds of horses,
most smiths are also carrying between
eight and ten different nail sizes, and in
shoe sizes for saddle horses are carrying
about 12 different sizes. If a human being
79
had their shoes made as carefully as the
blacksmiths fit the horse they would never
have any corns or bunions, Hugh said.
Custom horeshoes protect the horse, and
improve its performance.
The reasons behind shoeing a horse in
the first place have to do with the way the
horse's foot wears down. With the im-
proved roads the horse's foot is now
wearing down faster. The idea is that the
horse's foot is supposed to grow at the
same rate as it is wearing off and because
the horse is being used more on the roads,
the shoe is put on to take the wear. Horses
are also often <'.ipshod to provide traction
on ice.
Time honored traditions are a rarity
these days and Hugh Huff is just one of
many busy blacksmiths keeping that
tradition alive today.