Showing posts with label Parting Glass. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Parting Glass. Show all posts

Monday, August 23, 2010

Hoofcare @ Saratoga Presents Ada Gates: "The Blacksmith Was a Debutante"

Ada Gates Patton clowned around at Del Mar with some of her shoer pals before heading east. I guess there was no way this would be a serious photo; Ada climbed onto Ron McAnaly's stable pony and wielded a rasp. Why does this shot have a hint of Broadway to it? Can these guys shoe and sing and dance?

Hoofcare @ Saratoga is ready to do it again! We'll follow up last week's successful and hugely educational "Rood and Riddle" night with star farrier/veterinarian Raul Bras with something entirely different.

Ada Gates Patton is traveling east from California as I write this. She's aiming at Saratoga, where she will touch down at the Parting Glass Pub at 7 pm on Tuesday, August 24. She has an entertaining program plan, based on her retrospective journey through almost 40 years as a farrier, and particularly as the first woman to be licensed to shoe Thoroughbred racehorses in North America, and perhaps even in the entire world.

Some special guests are scheduled to stop in; among them Dr. Tom Carroll of the Burden Iron Works horseshoeing factory museum in nearby Troy and a host of local horseshoers, many of whom have heard of Ada, but never met her.

Please join us! The setting is informal, you can order food and a drink (or not), there should be plenty of free parking, and we're going to have some laughs and also do some serious talking about hoofcare.

Here's a re-post of one of our most popular articles ever: a "greatest hits" post about Ada Gates:


Where were you the night when farriers stayed up late to watch one of their own on the big stage in New York City? The night one of their own left the great David Letterman speechless? The night David Letterman lost control of his own show?


Ada Gates Patton is in a league of her own. The fact that she was the first woman licensed to shoe horses at a racetrack in the United States is only the beginning of the story. A few years ago, we were in Kentucky for a convention and she made a special trip to Three Chimneys Farm to visit Wild Again, one of the horses she shod back in the 1980s, when he won the Breeders Cup Classic. Ada was international horsemen's liaison for the Breeders Cup in California, and coordinated farrier services for the 1984 Olympics in California.

Ada is originally from New York; she is a descendant of Henry Burden, a Scottish immigrant who invented the first machine to manufacture horseshoes. His machines are credited with helping the North win the Civil War; his factories stretched forever along the banks of the Hudson River in Troy, New York and Burden horseshoes supplied the US cavalry for decades. 

Today, Ada owns and runs Harry Patton Horseshoeing Supplies near Santa Anita, and serves farriers all over California. The business was started by her late husband, the famous racetrack mentor and long time Santa Anita paddock shoer Harry Patton.

Ada stares up at the derelict but grand church built by her great-great-grandfather in Troy so that horseshoe factory workers had a place to worship. She saved the church from demolition through a loophole in the deed that made a provision for a descendant of the founder to lay claim. What would Henry Burden think of one of his descendants owning a store that sold horseshoes?

Ada is originally from New York, and she is the great great grand-daughter of Henry Burden, the inventor of the horseshoe-making machine. We reconnected her with her roots a few years ago by explaining that her family's church would be torn down if she didn't claim the deed and save it--which she did, and subsequently opened the beautiful old church and invited our Hoofcare@Saratoga tour group of farriers in for lunch as part of one of our tours of the Burden Iron Works.


Last year Ada was honored in her family's church by the Burden Iron Works Museum and its preservation efforts. The image at right is the outline of the Burden horseshoe company's office building, which now houses the museum. The museum and Ada found each other through Hoofcare & Lameness Journal and our Hoofcare@Saratoga program and tour of the museum. The museum is dedicated to preserving the history of horseshoe manufacturing in Troy, New York.

Today, Ada is busy selling shoes. But she recently "joined up" with one of her old shoeing clients, California horseman Monty Roberts, and the two made a DVD together on hoofcare and horsemanship for hard-to-shoe horses. Ada also teaches simple hoof balance principles at horse owner events and markets a hoof ruler to help them keep track of changes in their horses' hooves' dimensions. 

Horse Illustrated profiled Ada's pioneering career spirit in this tribute article. They named her one of the 20 most influential women in the horse world in the previous 20 years.

Ada is one person who never forgot where she came from, and is not done getting to where she's going. She's still giving us all a lot of laughs along the way, and digging the Letterman video up out of the 1990s will insure that more people around the world join in.

Join us Tuesday, August 23rd, 7 p.m. in the back room at the Parting Glass Pub, 40 Lake Avenue, Saratoga Springs, New York. The pub is one block off Broadway. Lake Avenue is also Route 50.

There is never a charge for the presentations. It is just something that Hoofcare Publishing likes to do. The horse industry needs the kind of information that our top-shelf speakers can provide and it is our mission to keep the best information in front of the people who want to hear it.

Hoofcare Publishing thanks the Parting Glass Pub, Frieda and Cliff Garrison, Jim Santore, Skidmore College, and every horse in town for welcoming Hoofcare back to Saratoga. 
 


© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. 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).  

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Friday, July 18, 2008

Hoofcare at Saratoga: Calendar of Tuesday Events Beginning July 29th

Saratoga Springs, New York -- Beginning July 29 Please attend any or all of these casual, summer-style educational events. All events are on Tuesdays. Admission is free. Tuesday, July 29 (evening) RIDE ON Exhibit Preview at National Museum of Racing with speakers Donald Walsh DVM (laminitis) and Allie Hayes (anatomical aftermath of hoof and leg injury), who are featured in this new museum exhibit on horse health, lameness, and laminitis. Comments by trainer Michael Dickinson and farrier Michael Wildenstein; meet exhibit curator Beth Shaffer. The Parting Glass Pub will still be open for dinner after this event. Tuesday August 5 (evening) RACETRACK Shoeing at the Parting Glass with Grayson Jockey Club Welfare and Safety Summit Shoeing Committee to share new research, view new high-tech videos of different shoes on different surfaces, and discuss toe grab and shoeing rules. "Mad Genius" trainer Michael Dickinson, developer of Tapeta surfaces, will also speak. Tuesday August 12 at the National Museum of Racing (afteroon) sponsored by LIFE DATA LABS and at the Parting Glass (evening). Racing surfaces and hoof cracks, wall separations, with racetrack surface researcher Dr Mick Peterson, Thoroughbred hoof repair specialist Ian McKinlay, and Swedish Standardbred shoeing specialist Conny Svensson. Tuesday August 19 (evening) at the Parting Glass; program led by Michael Wildenstein FWCF (Hons), Cornell University, plus special guests to end the series. The Parting Glass is located at 40 Lake Avenue (one block off Broadway) in Saratoga Springs. Dinner is available at the Parting Glass at a reasonable cost. The National Museum of Racing is on Union Avenue, opposite the main entrance to the track. Out of town? Call the Comfort Inn and ask for the "Hoofcare" special rate: (518) 587-6244. The nearest airport is Albany, New York. For more information: please don't call the Museum or the Parting Glass!  Visit http://www.hoofcare.blogspot.com for updates and announcements. Speakers and programs subject to cancellation or change without notice. Presented with the help of CCE Equine and Equilite, Maker of Sore No More Liniment. Special thanks to Freida Garrison and Jim Santore and the Parting Glass Pub. Sponsorship opportunities available for some events, please inquire.

Sunday, July 30, 2006

It's Saratoga Time!

My fingers are itching to flip the calendar over to August, because that will mean it is time to head to Saratoga, where Hoofcare & Lameness will have a satellite office this summer.

Be sure to let me know if you will be in Saratoga, and let's get together.

Plans are for a series of Tuesday night gatherings in the out-back function room at The Parting, a favorite traditional Irish restaurant and pub on Lake Avenue, just a block off Broadway.

Here's the schedule:
8 August--"New Product Night"--lots of samples and information on new products from our advertisers, or just come and say hello! We'll have plenty to talk about!

15 August--Come by after the dedication of the farriers memorial at the Oklahoma track; later in the evening, a wonderful presentation on new laminitis research for prevention, causes and treatment by Dr Don Walsh of Pacific Equine Hospital and the Animal Health Foundation. He raises the funds for Dr Chris Pollitt, Katy Watts, Phil Johnson and other leading researchers.

22 August--"Make history, not horseshoes". This is a marathon event; daytime events a few miles away at the Burden Iron Works in Troy, site of the world's largest horseshoe factory back at the turn of the century. I will post more about that event. In the evening, come by the office at the Parting Glass and meet Ada Gates, the first woman to be licensed as a farrier on a USA racetrack. She now owns Harry Patton Horseshoeing Supplies in Los Angeles and guess what! Her great grandfather was Henry Burden, of Burden Iron Works fame. This evening fun is sponsored by Life Data Labs, who helped us launch the Tuesday evening sessions last year.

What to expect: This is one Saratoga night out where you won't need a black tie, a designer dress, or big wads of cash. You can help me post to this blog, maybe, or show me photos of your boat or your horse or your latest work project. Meet some other people, see some new things, maybe have a laugh. I travel a lot in the winter and see people at trade shows and events, but these Tuesday nights are a chance to slow down and just enjoy your company!

The phone number for the satellite office in Saratoga is . Look for me in the morning on the backside or check our ad in The Saratoga Special. I'll be the one taking photos of feet. I will also post updates on this blog.