[TheForge] Blacksmith YAK about "do you shoe horses?"

Mon Oct 13 19:56:00 2003

I get many questions about horse shoes and shoeing. I tell people that "I
shoe horses just like I shoo flies."

More interesting is, when I'm working at the forge making anything from
pokers to puzzles, an adult with a child or two in tow will tell the
children that I'm making a horse shoe. I usually answer with the comparison
of a farrier and a blacksmith. But, the adult can tell with just a glance
what I'm doing.

Mark
Snow Hill, MD
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Reynolds" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, October 13, 2003 1:10 PM
Subject: Re: [TheForge] Blacksmith YAK about "do you shoe horses?"

>
> You  are right on Scott, people just don't know. I demo a bunch (25 days +
so far this year)and by far the most frequent question I get is just that,
"Do you shoe horses?" Generally I respond like this:
>
> "Nope. Those are farriers. They know what they are doing and I wouldn't
pretend to act like I could do what they do. They've been to school for that
and they are in a way a veterinarian. Just by putting on a corrective shoe
they can save a horse. So I'll leave that work to them.
>
> Likewise, what blacksmiths do is somewhat alien to most farriers. Most
don't ever do projects that a smith does, like make handrails, knives, tools
or hardware. Those guys do a great job at what they do, they just don't do
what we smiths do. We get to be creative. They just get to make horseshoes."
>
> Go easy on the public -- each of us was that dumb at one time, it just may
have been a few years and we forget!
>
> Reynolds
>
>
> <br>>It's a pretty common question from folk who don't know me, the local
smiths<br>>or farriers. When asked if I shoe horses my standard reply is.
"Only if they<br>>get too close when I'm working."<br><br>         And two
many blacksmiths have a crook in their craw about the <br>whole deal.  It's
not an insult people.  Just explain the difference and <br>people will
know.<br><br
>
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