Farrier Appreciation

A funny thing happened when I moved Knight from California to Illinois. He settled in nicely to the eventing barn outside of Chicago, and I was notified the farrier would be out, and asked if I would I like to get Knight on the list. I said yes, and showed up the day of his first shoeing.

This post contains affiliate links.

I was introduced to the farrier and said hello. I don’t remember engaging that much with the man who clearly knew what he was doing, but it seemed like the right thing to do–be there for a first shoeing.

My new farrier looked at me and said something to the effect, “I think I know you.”

He recognized my last name. I asked his. It clicked! He had been my farrier when I had DC! I had not seen him in over 20 years. It was a fun reunion. We caught up a bit as he worked, and I was very relieved to know that this equine professional was someone I had a great long run with back in the day.

And one of the fun parts about having my old/new farrier working on Knight is he has the best barn dogs I get to pet and talk to and tell the female she’s so pretty. He has a female black lab and a male yellow lab.

A couple of weeks ago, when I saw my farrier, it occurred to me that he might have known one of the people I was hoping to uncover more information about for my upcoming bibliomemoir, Marguerite, Misty and Me. The gentleman I have been trying to get more information about was the guy who trained Misty of Chincoteague to be a riding pony back in the late 1940s.

I brought up the name, and my farrier smiled and said he knew him real well. That he had shod horses over at the farm where he worked for years. Then he recalled one day his truck got stuck in the mud and the Misty trainer got some chains and a tractor and pulled him out. I later repeated that story to a friend and her response was, “Farriers know everything.”

So today when I wrote out my check for Knight’s shoes, I slipped it inside this farrier appreciation card by Hunt Seat Paper Co. I hope it makes him grin when he reads it.