Posted by JD Seller on December 15, 2012 at 23:29:40 from (208.126.196.144):
Well you guys remember my grand daughters are horse nuts. Then a few weeks ago I helped some of their horse friends out a little bit. Well today I scheduled the farrier (Mandy) to come over and I would show her some of the old black smith stuff my Grand Father's showed me.
So she was to be here at 9-10 am this morning. At about 8 am I see a big horse trailer rig coming up the drive way. It did not even get stopped and my grand daughters where already there to greet whom ever it was. Well it was Mandy driving one of those fancy little International semi/pickups hooked to a six horse horse trailer/RV. I bet that setup costs over 400K. Real fancy.
It turns out she had brought the gelding with the abscess to have me shoe him. His foot has healed up nicely.
Plus my sneaky grand daughter had planned a horse ride for their well off friends. They got permission from a bunch of my neighbors to ride on their land. They made a map of how they are going to be able to ride almost four miles one way and come back on the other side of the big creek in the back of my place. They really put a lot of planning into this. They know where all the gates are on all of the properties and have a route all mapped out. They will have just under a ten mile ride thought a lot of different types of ground. They also got the permission from the neighbors all in writing with a release from liability for the land owners. Great planning job. Makes me proud they worked to make it all happen.
So the four well of girls, Mandy and the owner of the gelding all came to the farm. All the females in my family had worked together and have it all planned out. Including keeping Grand Dad in the dark. LMAO
So the younger girls all got their horses unloaded and into the horse stable. They had cleaned all the stalls out and put some of their horses double in the stalls. So there are ten horses on the farm tonight.
Mandy and the gelding owner(Sue) brought him into my shop. That was real funny as I just have my forge setup in my old repair shop. So we had plenty of room for one horse. So I checked the gelding's feet out. They where 100% better than they where. Sue had his feet X-rayed to check them out. (wonder what that cost??) They found a broken horse shoe nail in too far toward the center of the gelding's foot and that had started the abscess. Her vet was able to remove the broken nail by just enlarging the hole I had burnt into the bottom of the hoof. That all has healed up really well.
I then had Mandy just draw a pattern of the geldings feet on some pieces of card board. I like to start this way as you can get the horse shoe close without all the bending over and stuff. You just have to do the final fitting while bending over under the horse. She was fascinated by that simple thing. It seems like none of the schools taught that. I told her none of those schools shoe horses five days a week 10 hours a day for years either. Also you can make real close shoes from these patterns in your spare time. So when you are actually on the farm/stable you can knock the job out real fast. You also learn to save your back for just the needed things. So I then started her making the shoes we needed out of the cold roll bar stock I keep for that. It took her almost a half an hour on the first one. The last one she did in under ten minutes. That is great for someone just learning how to make them from scratch. Sue and Mandy wanted me to do the final fitting and finish. I don't know why as Mandy does good work too.
So I fitted them and then dressed them up just a little too. While they went into the house to eat lunch with the girls I found my old brass scrap bucket and flux. So I brass edged the shoes. I then put a spot of nickle in the middle of the front edge. I then polished them up on a buffer wheel. I did this after I had the shoes all fitted. It makes them look real neat. ( I took picture but they do not show the edging very well. You can't see the colors in the pictures) The brass edges make the shoes look gold colored and the nickle really flashes as the horse runs. All you have to do to make them shine after they are worn awhile is take a scotch bright pad and polish them up. Does not take five minutes.
So I black shellacked the out sides of the geldings hooves and put the shoes on him while the girls had Mandy and Sue busy. He really looks real neat all decked out and shined up. They had him groomed real well when they brought him.
A trick for any of you horse people out there. If you have a horse that has had the inside of their foot damaged and you want to protect it some. They make high price covers and such but all I do any more is this. Take a quart plastic oil bottle. Cut the top and bottom off. Then split the side an you end up with a flat sheet of tough but thin plastic. Then just lay that against the hoof under the steel shoe. Nail the shoe on just like always with the plastic under it like a gasket. Then just trim around the out side. So you end up with the center of the hoof protected with the layer of tough plastic. When the hoof is fully healed just take a utility knife and trim around the inside of to shoe and just leave the bit under the shoe. It can be removed the next time the horse has its shoe replaced.
I kind of messed up by surprising Sue with the edging. She got so excited that she gave me a big hug and kiss right in front of all the other women. I need to describe her a little. She is about 5 foot 8 inch tall and all the female parts are really stacked up very well. She is in her mid thirties and is a lovely lady. So that got this old man blushing bright as old Rudolph's nose. LOL. My wife is still laughing about it.
Anyway, it was a rainy day here. We did not get much more than a 1/4 of an inch of rain but it just drizzled all day. I spent the afternoon showing Mandy how to forge weld and other tricks of the trade. I showed her how to fold carbon into steel to make it harder. I helped her make a real good knife blade. She is going to make a bone handle for it. It really polished up nice and seems to have a good edge on it.
The rest of the women and girls spent time fooling with their horses and such. About mid afternoon I was wondering where everyone was going to stay because the trail ride is to be tomorrow. It has already stopped raining here.
Well it seems the wife was in on the plans. There are five bedrooms upstairs in our old farm house. So the women and younger girls are going to spend the night here in the house. The four older girls are going to sleep in the living quarters of the fancy horse trailer. Big sleep over type of thing all around.
So tonight I was the only guy in the house with eleven females. I am badly out numbered. They keep teasing me about Sue kissing me too. I am getting abused by them. LOL
I am wondering if I should wake them up when I get up to do chores in the morning. That is usually around 5 am. I bet that would go over real well. The wife would shoot me too. She sleeps in in Sundays too.
So all in all a pretty good day here. Having a fun time with the grand kids. I will even put up with the horses for the smiles on the girls faces.
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