[TheForge] Entrepeneur with an Anvil

[Connsmith722 at aol.com]

By Karen Klein of BusinessWeek

Sammy Cohen hunches over, the hoof of a 3-year-old colt squeezed  between his 
knees, and pounds heavy metal nails through a horseshoe onto the  clean, dry 
surface of the hoof. The young horse's ears flinch at the sound of  the hammer 
and his eyes go wide with alarm as the pounding vibrations  reverberate up 
his back leg. 

"Whoa, whoa now...shhh...good boy, that's a  good boy," Cohen murmurs, 
reassuring the animal, which settles down to the  soothing note in Cohen's voice.

The horse, also named Sammy, is  undergoing his first shoeing and Cohen knows 
he has to set the right tone from  the start. "What I want is for him to 
understand what I'm doing and make it a  pleasant experience, since we have to do 
it time and again," Cohen explains to  the horse's owner, Sandy Traub. "I 
never sneak up or push him. I don't want to  turn this into a fight. The work is 
too hard already without making it into a  battle."

Watching Cohen deftly yank old shoes off, rasp and trim thick  hooves, hammer 
new shoes to the proper hickness on his anvil after superheating  them in his 
forge, and gracefully lift and maneuver the weighty feet of  1,200-lb. 
steeds, no one would doubt that the job of a horseshoer -- more  formally known as a 
"farrier" -- is hard work. So what is Cohen, a nice Jewish  boy from 
Pittsburgh, doing shoeing horses at an equestrian center in Burbank,  Calif., just a 
quick gallop from the studios of Warner Bros., Disney, and NBC  studios?

Barn vs. Bar

"I graduated from college  with a political science major and was preparing 
for a career in law, when I  started riding with friends and then bought my own 
horse. A light bulb just went  off: I knew I wanted to work with horses," 
Cohen recalls. His father, a butcher  who had high hopes that his son would move 
beyond the family's blue-collar  roots, was extremely disappointed when Cohen 
informed him he was bypassing law  school in favor of 16-week farrier college 
at California State University, San  Luis Obispo.

Twenty-three years later, Cohen says, he stills enjoys his  work, makes a 
good living and, as a small-business owner, he has the freedom to  schedule his 
jobs around almost-daily visits with his elderly parents, something  a law 
career probably would not have allowed. His family realized years ago that  he 
made the right career choice, Cohen says.

And his clients are  obviously pleased as well. "He's been shoeing my horses 
for nine years, and he  saved one of them from being crippled," says Terry 
Rooff, of North Hollywood.  "She has a club foot, but when he gets done with her 
you can't tell. She won  first place in the last show she was entered in." 
Traub, who contracts with  Cohen to shoe all five of her horses, agrees. "He's 
the kindest, sweetest,  nicest man you could imagine," she confides. "And 
because he has a college  education, he's a more refined person than a lot of 
farriers. He's more  knowledgeable and he treats the horses better -- he doesn't rip 
them around like  some of the macho guys try to do."

Part horse-whisperer, part  large-animal vet, part technician, and part 
laborer, the farrier's job is never  dull, Cohen says. He's the first line in 
diagnosing a foot or leg problem that  could ruin a horse's career, so Cohen has 
become an expert on equine anatomy and  physiology and enjoys working closely 
with veterinarians to solve the medical  problems of his charges. "In this job, 
you're working with a live animal and  you're cutting hoof tissue that is a 
living organism, so there's reallyno room  for error," he says. "If I do a 
sloppy job, the horse could go  lame."

Watch Your Step

In the olden days, horse  owners would take their animals to the blacksmith's 
shop to be shod, but  nowadays Cohen travels around Los Angeles to shoe his 
clients, working out of a  specially equipped truck in which he keeps a 
propane-fueled forge, his tools,  and hundreds of horseshoes of various sizes, 
weights, and shapes. The horses  must be shod every six to seven weeks to keep their 
feet healthy and riders  safe. "I work on more than 100 horses, and if you 
mention one of their names I  can picture the horse, remember what size foot it 
has, what kind of shoes it  wears and whether it has any special hoof problems 
I need to watch out for," he  says. 

A farrier's job is also such a dangerous one that Cohen says he  can't get 
disability insurance. Horses are large, strong, and tend to be  high-strung and 
unpredictable. Put Cohen underneath one with his sharp, heavy  tools, and he's 
at risk of being kicked, stepped on, dragged, bitten, or  crushed. A timid, 
fearful farrier transmits his anxiety to the horse e's  working on and can make 
the job a miserable experience for everyone involved. So  far, though he's 
suffered a few serious cuts and some broken toes (knock wood),  Cohen says he's 
never been hurt badly enough to wind up in the hospital or miss  more than a 
couple of days.

He works smart, knowing that his physical  limit is five shoeings a days and 
maybe a couple of light trims. Trying to do  more than that might bring in 
extra income, but it would put both him and the  horse in jeopardy, Cohen says, 
due to fatigue. "With my training and experience,  I typically can feel when a 
horse is going to explode and I can get myself out  of the way in time. I 
always finesse the job: I have to approach the horse in a  fearless manner, but I 
also have to respect it and see how it reacts to me," he  says.

Secure in the Saddle

In addition to keeping  his four-legged clients healthy, Cohen must also keep 
his human clients happy --  after all, they're the ones who pay the bills. He 
takes his responsibilities  seriously, noting that his customers have huge 
investments in their animals, and  he rarely takes a day off work. He enjoys 
shooting the breeze with the  mostly-female horse owners at the equestrian 
center, dishing on Survivor  episodes, or recounting vacation stories, and it's 
clear they look forward to  his visits both as a chance to ask questions about 
their horses and to catch up  with an old friend. "I've had some of my clients 
for 12 years," he says. "I'm  not like a roofer who does the job and gets out of 
town. I have ongoing customer  relations that I have to be concerned about."

The nice part of the  business end of the job, Cohen says, is that it's not 
seasonal and it's  recession-proof. "There's a saying in the trade, 'No hoof, 
no horse.' As long as  there are horses out there and people who love them and 
enjoy ownig them, those  people will need me. Bull market, bear market -- it 
doesn't matter. People who  are devoted to this hobby and loyal to these 
animals find a way to keep them  even in tough times."