Friends (Alone) at Work: An Anvil for a Foot Rest

Double-click on the photo for a larger view.

I've had this photo on my mind for a while, and I wanted to write a story to go with it. It seems to warrant one.  It's at the San Antonio Rose Palace in San Antonio, Texas. The way I see it, two things could be going on: the farrier is waiting for a customer who is late (you know the farrier isn't early), or that's not the farrier stretched out in that chair, that's the customer, and she's waiting for the farrier, who unhitched his truck from the trailer to go get some lunch and hasn't been heard from since (and that was a long time ago).

We always see photos of farriers working, bending, pounding, and clinching but rarely do we see them in one of those rare down-time moments. Even more rare is a completely still shot of a typical moment of a typical summer day at a showground that includes a farrier, since the farrier is usually in great demand and resembles a perpetual motion machine. 

People don't usually take pictures of the moments when nothing's going on. But that's the essence of a summer day: things just seem to stand still, if you let them. And summer lasts longer, if you do.

This is what you might see when you come around the corner of any barn aisle across the USA today, tomorrow, this weekend and for the next month or so until the start of school and the coming cold weather chases everyone back home, so they can rest up and do it again next year.

That's my story, what's yours? 

This quietest of all farrier scenes was captured by Houston-area photographer Louis Vest, who is more at home aboard a ship than on or under a horse, but anything that he points his camera at is better for it. Louis is a ship's pilot in the Houston Ship Channel and travels the world. He has an amazing array of photographs (especially if you like the sea, which I do) on display at his Flickr.com site. Thanks, Louis. 

© 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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Friends at Work: Ricky Price Shoes Horses, and Lives His Own Life

This week we have a fine example of the independent-spirit brand of American horseshoer. You don't have to call him a farrier, because he is perfectly happy being a horseshoer. In fact, he seems perfectly happy, period.

Ricky Price lives in Ramona, California and has used shoeing horses as a way to live the good life in the hills east of San Diego. In this nice audio slideshow from San Diego Online, you'll see Ricky (and his fantastic mustache) and you'll hear the sounds that he hears--horses, hammer on anvil, his pickup truck, the buzz of his grinder, a steel shoe being released from the pulloff jaws with a clatter.

Somewhere, there's the Other San Diego, with all the hustle and bustle, but Ricky's beyond all that, or at least he's east of it, out past San Diego Wild Animal Park. He won't cross Interstate 15, which is sort of a dividing line between San Diego, the sprawl, and San Diego County, the place where people like Ricky Price can and do live. He starts the day when he's ready. He finishes it when he's done. He still has time and energy to ride every night when it's over. He can still hear himself think, and one thing he thinks is that he can help a horse relax and enjoy being shod.

In the "Voice of San Diego" article that goes with this multimedia gem, Ricky Price gives the reporter a Lesson in Lifestyle...as only an independent American horseshoer who has found his place on the map--or is it off the map, Ricky?--can.

Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog at Hoofcare.com 
© 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.