A Slip of the Anvil on Downton Abbey: Did you catch the reference?

Here's some trivia for a February Sunday afternoon: how closely are you paying attention when you watch television?

Notice the horse being shod
in the background as the
wedding proceeds. 

If you're like me, you'll be glued to the television tonight for the final episode of the second year of the PBS/BBC mini-series Downton Abbey. 

And if you're also anything like me, you knew that, sooner or later, something related to hoofcare would show up in the second series. 

A horse lost a shoe in the first series, with no farrier to be found. Lady Mary was very annoyed that she had to walk the horse home.  I thought that surely the farrier would materialize and later turn out to be the rightful heir to the estate. 

 This year, I've been waiting patiently for writer Julian Fellowes to let another hoof reference fly. And he did. 

It happened last week: Second series, episode six, the one where the war is over, but the Spanish Flu has hit instead.

But did you catch the reference? 

It was a fleeting one. Lady Sybil has eloped with her Irish anarchist chauffeur lover; they've driven off into the night when Lady Mary discovers they're missing. 

Which way did they go? You might wonder. 

But Lady Mary knew instantly where they had gone. "Oh, we must hurry! They'll be halfway to Gretna Green by now!" she gushes as she and Lady Edith rush out the door. 

That's it. The alarm is sounded: "Gretna Green" means only one thing: Lady Sybil has run away to stand in front of an anvil in Scotland. And since Downton Abbey is supposed to be in Yorkshire, they didn't have that far to go.

The dowager countess will definitely not approve.

Kilts are probably optional and you probably have to pay the piper but weddings are still big business in Gretna Green, which rivals Las Vegas as a town with a wedding-as-industry mindset.

Apparently it was the way that elopements happened for centuries in England. By crossing the border from England to Scotland, couples were eligible to be wed--no questions asked. And the first place you came to when you crossed over from Cumbria was a smithy in the hamlet of Gretna Green.

And the smith had the legal power to perform marriages.

You might wonder how I happen to know about an obscure Scottish village. Well, I've even been there. Twice. Not to get married, but to be a tourist. Gretna Green is in Dumfriesshire, just down the road from Closeburn, the ancestral home of Edward Martin, FWCF, MBE,  the great Scottish farrier and blacksmith. 

 You can bet that Gretna Green was on the tourist route for his incredible hospitality when Americans came his way. 

The history was interesting and it was sort of amusing to be tourists at the weddings of total strangers, but a gift shop full of anvil-theme items was simply a candy store for farrier visitors to take home as mementos of this unique village. It must be the anvil souvenir capital of the world.

Now that it's been mentioned on the world's favorite television drama, the wedding business must be booming in Gretna Green. But then again, it always has been.

Photos: Anvil emblem by Chris in Plymouth, smiddy interior by Andrys Stienstra, happy couple by Matt Thorpe. 

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing; Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. Please, no use without permission. You only need to ask. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page). To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found. Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.  

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What Century Is It? Scotland's Royal Highland Show Clydesdale Shoeing Competition Keeps Tradition in Sharp Focus

Royal Highland Show 2011 Clydesdale Shoeing by David McCrone

Sometimes a great photo just jumps up out of the Internet and begs to be featured on the Hoof Blog. Of all the millions of photos in the world, why do these very special ones find their ways here? I don't know, but I'm glad they do.

You're looking at a Clydesdale, the great national horse of Scotland. Each year the famed Royal Highland Show hosts an equally famous shoeing competition for farriers. Shoeing these horses is a time-honored tradition, and there exist minute variances in the way they are shod in these competitions that only a keen judge's eye can discern.

At the end of the competition, the horses' feet might all look more or less the same to the casual observer, but the judge knows better. And even within the strict Scottish tradition, there is room for a judge to have individual prejudices and preferences for details in the work that will often be the only dividing line between highly skilled executions of one of the most difficult shoeing assignments on earth.

After this photo was first published, the photogenic lads in the background were identified as former apprentices, now "qualified" (graduates who have earned their diplomas, and stayed on as employees) farriers, of two of today's leading British farriers, business partners Jim and Allan Ferrie in Ayrshire, Scotland.

Jim wrote when he saw the photo on the Hoofcare & Lameness Facebook Page: "(That's) Graham McBurney on left and Jackie Campbell on right. It was their first time competing as qualified Farriers at the Royal Highland. Jackie won the apprentice championship last year. 

"Although they did not win, both got the hind toe bars welded on and finished on time with very respectable jobs."

Royal Highland Show Archives Copyright-Protected Image

Sixty years ago, the Royal Highland Show farriers worked outside. Here you see the late Edward Martin in his first Royal Highland shoeing competition. And right behind him, at the next anvil, is the grandfather of Allan and Jim Ferrie.  As you can see, not that much has changed, although Edward is sadly missed since his death. I hope that the Ferries will have some connection to the Royal Highland Show for as long as it continues, which will likely be as long as there's a Scotland.

This photograph has a great story to tell. Click here to reveal what this day meant in the life of a very young Edward Martin.

You won't see adhesives and casting tape or aluminum and plastic. You will see hammers and fullers and pritchels at the anvil, rasp and nippers and a knife at the horse. And not much else. You have to do it with the same tools they've always used.

Another reason to love Scotland: tartan plaid ribbons. In Scotland, the red ribbon is first prize. (Photo courtesy of the Royal Highland Show)

Friends at Work: John Edwards Is a Young Farrier Who Sees the Big Picture

When I first found out that John Edwards was only 22 years old, I thought that was pretty young. But when I listened to what he had to say about his chosen career as a farrier, I changed my mind, and I think you will, too.

John Edwards has the necessary sense of humility to understand that working with horses is a process, not a top-down delivery. And in almost any career you choose, when you work with horses your feelings for your career will go through changes. John Edwards may be keen on shoemaking now, but a few years from now he might get sidelined by working on some foundered horses or get fascinated with natural horsemanship or equine behavior.

All work with horses has many facets and phases, and he's absolutely right when he says that your learning is never done...and that anyone who claims to know it all or have all the answers must be very new to the scene.

John Edwards is a farrier in Navan, Ontario whose bio at the end of the slideshow gives the intriguing information that he plays the fiddle and curls. (Curling is that amazing ice sport played in the Olympics by players armed with brooms chasing what looks like giant spinning hockey pucks.)

This story originally was published in the Ottawa Citizen newspaper in Ottawa, Ontario. It was written by Bruce Deachman, who called John "One in a Million".

I know from personal experience that there are a lot more than "one in a million"...but we could still use a whole lot more young farriers like John Edwards.

Thanks to Bruce Deachman for making this multimedia file available for The Hoof Blog.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing; Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. Please, no use without permission. You only need to ask. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page). To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found. Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

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Video: Watch Another World Record in Dressage Freestyle for the Dutch Black Stallion Totilas

by Fran Jurga | 16 December 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog at Hoofcare.com

Everyone in the horse world will be talking about this little video...and if they aren't, show it to them! At the FEI Dressage World Cup Qualifier tonight at London's Olympia Horse Show, European champion Moorlands Totilas broke his own world record for highest score ever given. He racked up 92.30%. Ridden by Edward Gal of The Netherlands, Totilas has a specific goal: to come to America next fall and win the gold medal at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Kentucky. That's still 282 days away but this horse is the one everyone will come to see, assuming he can stay sound and healthy. And until that day, he will be the one everyone analyzes. Watch the way he downshifts from a canter to a tight pirouette around the middle of the test and comes out of it. This horse knows where his feet are. And where to put them next. He's the one to watch.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. Please, no use without permission. You only need to ask. Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page). To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found. Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

Here Lies the Farrier...And There Goes Tam O'Shanter

by Fran Jurga | 31 October 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

Lichen covers this fascinating old gravestone in the Alloway kirkyard near Ayr, Scotland. Surely a farrier lies here. Was he the farrier who inspired the lines in the poem: "That every naig was ca'd a shoe on, The smith and thee gat roaring fou on"? (Tam and the smith had a drink for every shoe that was nailed on.) Or did he die earlier so it was part of this scene: "Coffins stood round like open presses / That shaw'd the dead in their last dresses /And by some devilish cantraip slight / Each in its cauld hand held a light."

Happy Halloween!

There are many farrier headstones in cemeteries around the world. Grand anvils and headstones sporting horseshoes decorate churchyards and forgotten family plots. But I think this one is suitable for Halloween!

You'll find this stone in the churchyard at Alloway, near Ayr in Scotland. Was this farrier also a pirate (note the skull and crossbones) and someone with royal ties (note the crown)?

This graveyard is not far from Closeburn, the home of the late famed farrier Edward Martin, and I must assume that Edward knew of this stone, though I don't recall him telling any stories about it--and this stone surely has a great story!

Alloway is the town of Robert Burns's birth as well as where he set his famous poem, Tam O'Shanter. This is the universal tale of a man who simply stayed too late at the pub one night, drinking with the smith (perhaps the one buried here?) and his other pals, and had to count on his good mare Meg to get him home in foul weather.

Tam was shocked to see half-dressed women from the village cavorting with the devil. But in his drunken state he called out in admiration to one attractive woman in a "cutty sark", which set them all in pursuit after him.

The poem is interpreted many ways when it comes to people's views on alcohol, witchcraft and lewd behavior. But there is never any doubt about the character of the horse involved.

Tam gives his mare Meg her head to find her way home and probably snoozed in the saddle. Passing through Alloway, he's startled awake to see the church ablaze, with witches dancing in every window as the devil plays the bagpipes and the graveyard's coffins open wide.

The Brig o'Doon, or bridge over the River Doon in Alloway. Apparently, a witch can't cross a running stream so Tam spurred his mare on. Once across, Tam O'Shanter would be safe from the witches, though he would still have to answer to his wife. But his horse would never be the same again.

I won't spoil the story for you. You can read the interpretation here. (It's a great tale!)

But let it be known that Meg the Mare takes care of her rider that night...though she spends the rest of her life as testimony that something did happen on the way home, even if it was the most elaborate and world-famous tale a husband ever made up for why he was late coming home from the pub. 

Spooky enough for Halloween, don't you think?

Video: Watch Elastic, Athletic Dutch Dressage Stallion Set a New World Record

by Fran Jurga | 30 August 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog



Just the other day this blog was quoting the superlatives coming out of the European dressage championships at Windsor Castle in England. Things went from the greatest to the unbelievable last night when, for the first time ever, a score above 90% was awarded in the musical freestyle to Dutch rider Edward Gal and the nine-year-old black stallion Moorlands Totilas.

I don't know what sort of biomechanics study could be done on this horse to figure out how he does what he does. He doesn't seem large. Doesn't look massive in the hind end. He actually looks quite closely coupled, yet his strides in the extended trot and canter look to be ground-gobbling. I can only assume that all his parts are equally massive, equally developed in a harmonious unit and yet...how does he manage to be so light on his feet, so loose at the shoulder?

I know one problem with watching this horse is that the rider is a very tall man, so his frame gives the illusion that the horse is smaller than he probably is.

Maybe a scanning session would show that his tendons and ligaments are bionic, that he has the support system of a warmblood on the feather-light skeleton of a racehorse. Something's up with this horse--something wonderful.

Holland also finished in second and third place. I'm certainly not an expert or a dressage critic and nothing should be taken away from Parzival and Salinero, yet it is interesting to see how differently constructed they are, and how their frames appear larger and especially longer. These horses seem to be exquisitely (and successfully) focused in order to nail the exact movements, like a tennis player at Wimbledon taking exact aim, while the black seems to perform them in a more relaxed mode, a la Tiger Woods.

Edward Gal and Moorlands Totilas performed to Celtic-type music, complete with echoing drums and ringing church bells, in the shadow of England's Windsor Castle. And it worked.(FEI photo by Kit Houghton)

With luck, Totilas will stay sound and remain in training for a trip to the USA next September for the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Kentucky. A lot can happen between now and then, including the return of the top Germans who were sidelined for this week's competition.

Share this video, savor this moment, and celebrate this horse. This is what a sound, healthy horse looks like at the peak of condition without a thought of resistance or tension on his mind.

Watching Totilas brings to mind the fleet-footed racing star of this year, filly Rachel Alexandra, who seems to win her races for the joy of running fast because she can. It seems 2009 is a year of at least two great horses at the pinnacle of their respective sports. Enjoy them while they are here with us; we all know that soundness can be fleeting and they are two of the legends we'll remember in the future.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page). 

Funeral for Edward Martin Re-Scheduled for February 23

A young Edward Martin set out from his village one morning in the 1950s to see the annual Royal Highland Show in Edinburgh. He carried with him the forehammer you see here in his hands. It was bought in 1893 in anticipation of his grandfather's first shoeing competition, which he won...and was used by Edward up to the time that illness forced him to stop work.

It took me a lot of work to find the source and acquire the rights to this photo, which I finally did in 2004, and Edward always seemed a little amazed that I could have found a photo he had never seen of himself, on such a special day.

After I sent him the photo, Edward added this note, in addition to the hammer explanation: "I was striking to James Lawson, of Edinburgh....James had lost his father, his normal striker, some time before. He had no one to strike for him. I stepped in to do the job. It was a big occasion for me. It was the great Scottish poet Robert Burns who said, 'Nae man con tether time nor tide' and that is true."

Edward Martin's funeral has been moved to Monday, February 23, 2009 at noon in the Closeburn Church, Closeburn by Thornhill, Dumfriesshire, Scotland. I hope to have information soon on how (or if) to send flowers or messages. Stay tuned.

We've Lost Edward

Edward Martin died early on the morning of February 14th at his home in Closeburn, near Thornhill, Dumfriesshire, Scotland.

The worldly farrier and blacksmith used to have a saying about how much you'd be missed after your death. He'd say, "Swirl you hand around in a bucket of water, and watch the hole it makes in the center, and watch it for a a few minutes. That's how much you'll be missed when you're gone."

That might be the one thing that he was wrong about.

PS I am struggling to write Edward Martin's obituary but it is being written and will be published when details of his funeral are available.

Happy Birthday to Mr. Edward Martin

Edward Martin Portrait
© David and Charles Publishing (UK) and Hoofcare Publishing 2008

Today's post is a personal one.

I thought I heard music outside the office, but it was two Scottish people having a chat. Their voices were so musical, I went outside to say hello.

The Quinns, as they introduced themselves, had set sail from Kirkcudbright in Galloway, one of the border counties of Scotland. I knew the place, I told them, because I had visited that lovely seaside village with my friend Edward Martin from Closeburn, near Thornhill in the neighboring county of Dumfries.

The Quinns, as I came to know them, were aghast, as they went to Scottish dances in the village hall in Closeburn.

And so it goes. It's a small, small world. We spent some time telling Scotland stories and Edward Martin stories, and Mr. Quinn of course recited some Robert Burns poetry for me. I was charmed.

Then they got into their dinghy, rowed out to their sailboat, and sailed away to make the tide through the Cape Cod Canal. I felt like I had been visited by Scottish pixies or something.

And today, it turns out, is Edward Martin's birthday. The godfather of the modern international farrier scene turns 83 today.

Edward is a victim of Parkinson's disease, but very alive in our thoughts, and still bringing people together, even if he has hung up his tattered passport.

Wherever you are, give a thought for the grand farrier from Closeburn. And maybe a wee dram for a toast.

We miss you, Edward.


© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. This post originally appeared on Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog on October 2, 2008: http://www.hoofcare.blogspot.com.