Remembering Clint Carlson: How a mild-mannered man in a Hawaiian shirt became the "patron saint of American horseshoes"

I lost a friend on Friday. Chances are, so did you. This article is a roundabout way of introducing my readers to Clint Carlson, in case they are young enough or new enough to the horse world not to remember a shy smiling horseshoe salesman in a Hawaiian shirt. It’s also a roundabout way for me to say good-bye.

For 20 years, Clint gave his heart and soul to making and selling some of the very best horseshoes ever manufactured at that time. He did it very quietly. He was an unlikely legend -- and one of the very best friends the horse world ever had.

Jayne and Clint Carlson. Clint sold horseshoes in a Hawaiian shirt, didn't want to be around horses, and was usually on his way to or from a Jimmy Buffett concert, but somehow he fit right in in the horse world, and changed the way American horses are shod. (Photo by Tim Helck)

I’m going to tell you Clint’s story from my point of view. You will learn how a mild-mannered Jimmy Buffet fan became “the patron saint of horseshoes”, as he was dubbed by Fran Edens. I was lucky to have a front row seat as Clint's legend was forged.

It all started in 1985. I arrived at the American Farrier’s Association (AFA) Convention in Raleigh, North Carolina, ready to launch my new publication. I was there for the trade show, and I was holding my breath; whoever had the booth next to me mattered. Certain neighbors might scare the farriers away. Others might be talkaholics; the farriers would avoid them. You just never knew.

I arrived at my booth and to my surprise, I didn’t recognize my neighbors, though I could tell they were brothers. I didn’t recognize the name, either: “St Croix”--were they from the Virgin Islands? Who were these guys?

I tried to make eye contact. “I’m the girl next door,” I began. One shy, soft-spoken brother shook my hand loosely, and said matter-of-factly, almost in a whisper, “I’m Clint.” He explained simply that he and his brothers and father were going into the horseshoe business. Not because they wanted to, but because they had to. I wanted to hear more.

Curt Carlson, Clint's dad, became
the owner of a horseshoe company
by accident; he and his sons built
it into an empire.

Curt Carlson, Clint’s father, owned a tool and die business in Minnesota. As I remember it, he had come to own a startup horseshoe company called St Croix Forge when it went bankrupt. Curt was their main creditor; his firm had expertly crafted the machining parts needed to make the new shoes, but he was owed a lot of money. Suddenly, he found out he needed to disburse the assets or else start his own horseshoe company.

So he made the daring choice to start making horseshoes.

Curt called his four sons home from all corners of the globe. He was gambling that, between them, Kenny, Bob, Mike, and Clint would have – or learn – the business, tool-and-die, and manufacturing skills needed to run a successful horseshoe company.

One thing they had going for them was that the former owners had already introduced a respectable intro shoe. They had worked for one of the large horseshoe companies and believed they had a better idea of what a keg shoe should look like. They had the idea, but lacked sustainable capital.

The Carlsons would be nice neighbors for the trade show. Aren’t people from Minnesota always nice? Clint had been a hockey star in his youth and went to school in New Hampshire on a hockey scholarship. And as the week went by, they met a lot of people; most of them politely listened to their plans and wished them luck.

But I wasn’t prepared for what I saw out in the parking lot. The Carlsons had traveled from Minnesota to North Carolina in an old Greyhound bus. Clint explained that their business plan was to travel around the USA in the bus, visiting horseshoers and finding out what was right and what was wrong with horseshoes on the market, including their own.

And so, at that trade show, my company and St Croix launched into the market.

For anyone who wasn’t around horseshoes in the early 1980s, “keg” shoes were a problem. Two similar basic shoes, made by two Midwest companies, were used on the majority of the saddle horses in North America. Others had tried to crack the market and failed. It was an era when handmaking shoes was done only by a few farriers, but handmades were about the only alternative to keg shoes. There wasn't much choice.

St Croix’s timing was perfect, as it turned out, since shortly afterwards, “turned” shoes from Europe – in front and hind, left and right, clipped and unclipped versions – started shipping to the Americas. It would take them a while to catch on; availability was sometimes a problem, and they cost more than American keg shoes. There was a brief window of opportunity for St Croix, and the Carlsons leaned into it.

Asking questions

Clint told me many times over the years that followed, “All I ever set out to do was talk to horseshoers. To ask them what they wanted, what could make a shoe better.”

No one had ever asked them before. Plus, Clint would listen as long as they kept talking. He’d remember their names. He’d even pick up the bar tab or the diner check. But most of all, he carried their ideas, their drawings of nail holes and heel shapes sketched on cocktail napkins, back to Minnesota. There, his father and brothers went to work, making not just a better keg shoe – a shoe that had the changes farriers wanted to shoe a horse more efficiently or safely – but changing the way that horseshoes and horseshoers interacted.

Retailers on his side

Another challenge for them was that it is always very difficult to get farriers to change the shoes they ordered, once they were used to using them. For that part, Clint realized he needed to make friends with the few farrier supply houses in business back then. There were not that many of them in the 1980s, and they were mostly ex-horseshoers and their wives. Most seemed content with the status quo, had low expectations of manufacturers, and might not have room to take on more product lines. Existing keg shoes were even sold in hardware stores, until suppliers started hanging out their shingles. Many were just selling horseshoes out of their basements or the back of a truck at racetracks.

But, eventually, they did take on St Croix.

Most of them are gone now, including legends like Murray Madow, Charlie Guimarra, Jerry and Tim Helck, John Breckenridge, Jon Davis, Mike Williams, Bill Pieh, Bill Clark, and so many more. Clint couldn’t have done it if those pioneer suppliers (and several more who are still with us) hadn’t agreed to stock his shoes, and their businesses no doubt prospered from St Croix sales.

In the 1980s, there were no influencers, no big-name farriers giving clinics. No one was wearing polo shirts, jackets, and aprons emblazoned with logos of companies they endorse. Almost no one was flying in from the UK or Australia or Asia. The few farriers who were well known at that time were either the first wave of farrier contents winners, senior farriers no longer with us like Jay Sharp, Bruce Daniels, Bob Skradzio, and Jack Miller, or farrier school owners, like Bob Reaume, Buster Conklin, Danny Ward, Bud Beaston, Bill Miller, Gene Armstrong, Lester Hollenback, Reggie Kester, and Reuel Darling. All of those competitors and educators are gone now.

When St Croix first joined the industry, farriers didn't need to wear logos on their chests. The industry was so small that everyone was known by first name, by face, and (especially) by reputation. There were very few clinics or contests, compared to today, although 1985 was also the year that the late Burney Chapman hit his stride and started giving clinics on laminitis shoeing. PowerPoint didn’t even exist. The AFA Convention was the supreme meeting ground, the place where deals, and sometimes big profits, were negotiated inside that trade show.

The sponsorship question

All that was about to change, of course, and Clint played a big role. St Croix started advertising heavily. Mustad and Capewell were two separate and competing horse nail companies back then. Mustad was new to the Americas in the early 1980s; they invested in sponsoring events and classes and trophies. Contests suddenly offered prize money that would pay for more than it cost to fill your gas tank for the drive home. St Croix pitched in.

Soon, Clint was on a mission to make St Croix’s name known not just in America but all over the world. Along the way, he became known as a high bidder at farrier charity auctions; he amassed an amazing collection of artist-blacksmith treasures. He became a patron of several artists, including the late Charley Orlando, a New York artist-blacksmith-farrier who designed and built amazing architectural railings and sculptures inside and outside Clint’s house, and Virginia’s still-with-us Jessie Ward, who created extraordinary paintings and multi-media artwork for him.

In 1999, Clint surprised everyone by sponsoring the first Women Horseshoers of America (WHOA). Clint and Jayne traveled to Europe with (left to right)  Laurie Fiesler, Jayne and Clint Carlson, Kathleen Poor, Kelly Vermeer, and Alice Johnson, including a ski trip in the French Alps. They let me tag along.

Fourteen years after that day in Raleigh, St Croix came of age. The little company that traveled to its first trade show in a used Greyhound bus was acquired by the Mustad group in 1999. The worth of their work was obvious. Clint would become director of marketing for Mustad.

Of course the brothers, including Clint, stayed on for some transition years as consultants. But Clint yearned to spend time with his wife, Jayne, and children, Melissa and Josh, after so many years on the road. They all learned to scuba dive. They were often off on dive boat adventures in the tropics, and Clint’s future started sounding more and more like he was living his favorite Jimmy Buffet songs, not just listening to them.

Changing shirts

One day early in the new millennium, Clint took off his St Croix polo shirt and put on his bula (“Hawaiian”) shirt, for good.

Next step? Clint and Jayne decided that they would move to Fiji. The last time I actually saw him, Clint flew back to the USA for an AFA Convention to do some PR work for Mustad, and hand out some prizes sponsored by St Croix. I smiled as Clint walked on stage to give out a trophy wearing a Fijian “sulu” (men’s sarong or kilt), with a big shark’s tooth around his neck.

That was the last time I saw him. We talked on the phone sometimes; he’d check in with me on New Year’s Day, which is a nice tradition, but slowly the gaps became wider. 

Clint comes home

Clint finally came home from Fiji last week. His health had deteriorated significantly, his liver was failing, and he was back in Minnesota with his family, where it all began.

Clint died on Friday, June 20, surrounded by his family and dressed in his favorite bula shirt. Jimmy Buffet was playing in the background, of course, his daughter Melissa assured me.

Forty years ago, Clint Carlson asked a lot of questions and, especially in the beginning, he asked farriers all the right questions. They were questions no one had ever asked before.

Outside the scope of this tribute, Clint and Jayne became great personal friends to me, and we enjoyed adventures all over the world. But that's another story.

In the end, I hope Clint got all the answers he was looking for. He and his family certainly improved the profession of horseshoeing in many ways, but more than that, he enriched and even changed peoples' lives, including mine, and maybe even yours, with his friendship and kindness and determination to make a difference--and always -- always -- make a better horseshoe. 

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Summary timeline: What's behind US Equestrian, American Horse Council calls for delay of USDA's new Walking horse soring regulations?

UPDATE: On January 24, the US Equestrian Federation announced that the US Department of Agriculture had indeed pushed back new rules to prevent soring in Tennessee walking horses and similar breeds until April 1, 2025. The article below describes the background to this decision. 

Since then, however, sweeping changes in Washington, DC have affected many cabinet agencies, and are expected to impact the USDA. Whether these changes will impact the APHIS horse inspection program remains to be determined.

Readers in the USA may be aware that long-anticipated changes to the federal Horse Protection Act are scheduled to go into effect on February 1. These new rules change the way that Tennessee Walking horses will be inspected at horse shows, and by whom, in an effort to prevent deliberate "soring" practices to enhance gait.

If only it was that easy.

Donor's gift makes equine laminitis research center a reality at US vet school

A strategic collaboration between donor Nancy Link and Mississippi State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) will facilitate the establishment of the Nancy Fair Link Laminitis Research Center at the university. The partnership will also include recruitment of top faculty charged with advancing pioneering research in the prevention and treatment of laminitis.

SURVEY: Professional Farriers' and Equine Veterinarians' Attitudes, Knowledge, and Opinions Sought by University of Edinburgh Researchers

Researchers from the University of Edinburgh’s Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies in Scotland are seeking online input from equine veterinarians and professional farriers from the United Kingdom, USA, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. 

Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital opens doors for International Equine Podiatry Conference April 18-20, 2024

Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky will host the third International Equine Podiatry Conference.

The doors to the forge are always open at the Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky. Someone is always going in or out, and the equine podiatry clinic is a favorite stop on every hospital tour. But from April 18-20 this year, the doors will open even wider to welcome attendees to the hospital's third International Podiatry Conference. 

Attendees should expect to roll up their sleeves, buckle their aprons, and spend two days in a stimulating state-of-the-art treatment and diagnosis center where the highly-trained staff looks expertly -- and exclusively -- at the equine hoof. A registration at this conference guarantees that the motivated participants can and will get their hands dirty and their questions answered.

Horseshoer Joe Alfano celebrates 50 years of service with Pennsylvania National Horse Show Hall of Fame honor.

Joe Alfano has been the horseshoer at the Pennsylvania National Horse Show in Harrisburg for 50 years. The horse show honored him this year by inducting him in the event's Hall of Fame. Joe is shown here with his niece (left), well-known equestrian Jennifer Alfano, and PNHS Executive Director Susie Shirk. (Photo by Andrew Ryback Photography)

How do you top reaching the landmark of 50 years of farrier service at one of America's most prestigious horse shows? Joe Alfano knows the answer to that question.

And he might be the only one who knows. It's hard to imagine that anyone else holds such a record for longevity of service to a show.

Hoof bruises 101: Forte's Kentucky Derby scratch had a common but loosely-defined cause

On Saturday, the 2023 Kentucky Derby favorite was scratched from the big race, just hours before the horses headed to the starting gate. Two-year-old champion Forte stayed in the barn that afternoon, after a Kentucky Horse Racing Commission veterinarian scratched the colt following a post-gallop inspection in the stable area.

Forte’s scratch by regulators came at a time when a dark cloud already hung over Churchill Downs. He would be the fifth horse to be scratched that week from the roster of three-year-old colts who had qualified for the 2023 Kentucky Derby. By Derby time, seven horses had lost their lives at Churchill Downs, including two as a result of injuries suffered in undercard races on Derby Day itself.

As tragic as those losses were, it was Forte's scratch that attracted the most attention and discussion on Derby Day. Should he have run or not? Was the colt a victim of discrimination by regulators who feared that such a high-profile and valuable horse might be further injured if he raced? We'll never know that answer, but Forte is safe tonight, and will almost certainly run again.

Meet University of California at Davis new veterinary hospital farrier Ian Davies

Ian Davies, DipWCF is hard at work in his new job.

The British-born and British-educated farrier has joined the University of California School of Veterinary Medicine Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital in Davis, California. The vet school welcomed Ian to his new position yesterday.

PETA vs the Budweiser Clydesdales: A match worthy of Super Bowl weekend

You might have heard that the Budweiser Clydesdales will be missing from your television screens at Super Bowl LVII this Sunday in Arizona. The St Louis brewer will not run its traditional, expensive, and hugely popular ad featuring America's favorite team. (Yes, a hitch of giant Clydesdales are more beloved than either the Chiefs or the Eagles will ever be.) 

But there will be a Budweiser Clydesdale commercial, you can be sure of that. It just might not be one that Budweiser wants America to see.

Prevent laminitis: Wellness Ready stallside insulin tests accelerate Equine Metabolic Syndrome diagnostics

We all know horse owners who can recite entire pedigrees, race records, or a lifetime of judges' scores. But veterinarians and farriers would prefer that owners have the history of their horses’ insulin test results on the tips of their tongues. 

A new stallside diagnostics tool called Wellness Ready provides real-time equine insulin levels from a simple blood test kit; it is now available to veterinarians around the world. With its growing use for horses of all breeds and ages, laminitis prevention is taking a big stride forward.

Farriers at the Herning 2022 FEI World Championships: Who was minding the forge?

Last week's ECCO FEI World Championships in Herning, Denmark, made farrier history when the event entered into an agreement with Mustad Hoofcare Group, who became the FEI's first  "Official Farrier Service Partner" by providing a crew of its own farriers for Herning2022. With more than 1,000 horses on the grounds, farriers were a priority service.

Badminton Farriers Prize 2022: In Search of the Best Shod Horse

Badminton Farriers Prize 2022: Jim Blurton breaks records

The Badminton Horse Trials, presented by Mars Equestrian, is one of only seven five-star three-day events in the world, and the only one that awards a coveted "Farriers Prize". After two consecutive years of cancellation for coronavirus, the world was coming close to banging on the gates by early May, demanding to enjoy one of the most iconic and unrivaled horse competitions of any kind, anywhere in the world. 
And in 2022, just like all the years before, we wanted to know who won the Farriers Prize. As usual that assignment was just a jumping off point to a bigger story. There may be just one winner, but the story is bigger and better, although most people at the event never even knew it was going on.

Congratulations to Welsh farrier Jim Blurton.

History-loving and history-making American horseshoer Bill Miller dead at 96

History-loving and history-making horseshoer Bill Miller died today in Seattle, Washington. According to his close friend Dave Duckett, the 96-year-old had been moved to hospice care after being released from a Veterans Administration hospital for treatment of coronavirus. 

Preview: Rood & Riddle Equine Podiatry Conference

Rood & Riddle Equine Podiatry Conference

April 14-16, 2022

Spy Coast Farm Equine Education Center 

Lexington, Kentucky

Late breaking news! Attention, veterinarians: 19.5 hours of RACE continuing education credit has been approved for this event.

New HISA racing rules for Thoroughbred horseshoe traction to begin July 1 in USA

New federally-mandated racing safety rules from the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority will be introduced "feet first" this summer. The first new rules are primed to take effect on July 1 at U.S. racetracks. 

A change to how American Thoroughbreds may be shod, including what shoes they can wear, is key to the new rules, limiting the use of shoe traction devices with one national rule for the entire United States.

The Olympic (Gold Medal) Hoof: Farrier Jim Blurton's Concave-Maybe Shoeing for British Team Eventer Ballaghmor Class

Farriers love to argue about the ideal shoe -- concave or flat?-- for a three-day event horse, but when it comes time to shoe a horse for the Olympics, what do they actually do? UK farrier Jim Blurton, AWCF, just watched a horse he shoes win the Olympic Team Gold Medal in Eventing. He kindly offered some thoughts about how he shoes Ballaghmor Class for client Oliver Townend and why he does it that way.

The Olympic Hoof: US Eventing Horses Try British Concave Shoes for Tokyo

Two distinct styles of horseshoes dominate the sport of eventing, one based in Britain and one in Europe. There is no middle ground, or wasn't, until the US eventing team prepared to embark for Tokyo.

Part 1 of an article series on international eventing shoes the Tokyo 2020 Olympics

Hoofcare wisdom has always held that if you want to tell what country an eventing horse is from, you don't need go looking around the stable for a saddlecloth with a flag. Just pick up its feet. You can at least narrow down the possibilities. But after this Olympics, the world map of horseshoes may need to be redrawn.

The Olympic Hoof: Therapeutic plastic horseshoes helped two US dressage silver medal horses in Tokyo

Horseshoes, like Olympic medals, can be made from different metals. But this week in Tokyo, the world saw that they can also be made of plastic...and help bring home a medal.

For Team USA in the Tokyo Olympics this year, dreams are made of gold, silver, and bronze. But for two horses, those dreams had a plastic lining, although you might not know it unless you happened to see the bottom of their hooves.

The Olympic (Laminitic) Hoof: Dressage horse diagnosed with laminitis before competition begins

A dressage horse representing South Africa has been withdrawn from the Olympics after developing laminitis at the Olympic Equestrian Center outside Tokyo. (Hoofcare.com file photo; this is not the horse described in the article.)

It's been a long road to Tokyo for the world's Olympic equestrian competitors. They've faced Covid lockdowns worldwide, an Equine Herpes Virus outbreak in Europe, Brexit horse transport regulation changes in the United Kingdom, and floods just miles from the quarantine center in Aachen, Germany. 

But for one rider, the challenges are just beginning: Her horse, expected to compete in dressage on Saturday for South Africa, has been diagnosed with laminitis at the equestrian center outside Tokyo.

Remembering Britain's Prince Philip and the Quick-Thinking Farrier

Prince Philip's brush with danger at the 2013 Royal Windsor Horse Show has almost been forgotten but it could have ended quite differently. A quick-thinking farrier was the hero that day.

The sound of the bagpipes and boatswain's whistles is fading, but the funeral of Great Britain's Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, will remained etched in our minds as a tasteful, dignified farewell to an international icon of both monarchy and the horse world.

Prince Philip was, of course, an avid and exuberant competitive carriage driver, as well as polo player and long-time president of Fédération Équestre Internationale (FEI), the global governing body of equestrian sport.

What I'll remember, however, is a horse show mishap that could have ended quite differently.