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RE: Daily Dose of Sultnpapper 10/03/18> " Tired Of The Same Old Shit? "
You were a ferrier? That is backbreaking work, especially with the big horses. Cool t-shirt idea. I sure hope the upcoming election shakes things up in a good way.
In Texas we spell it with an "a", farrier. I always preferred horse shoer, farrier just has a bad ring to it. Yes, I was. I started helping when I was 14 , the neighbor was a shoer. He taught me how to turn shoes from flat bar stock and by the time I got out of high school I was already shoeing horses but I went to Oklahoma to a shoeing school there and learned all the book work and the finer points of shoeing and making shoes.
After a year in school I started out just shoeing part time and then after I had a pretty good client base I went full time shoeing.
I did it full time for four years and ended up tearing the nerve center in my lower back. I was just a little to tall for that line of work. So I had to give it up, had I just stayed doing it part time I probably would have been able to do it a lot longer, but 10 to 12 hours a day being bent over was just to much strain on the back.
The funniest thing about shoeing was when I went to school. I am ambidextrous and could nail shoes with either hand, so the first horse I was shoeing at the school the instructor was watching me and I was working on the hind legs, he about flipped out when he saw me switch hands and keep nailing. He said, "Whoa, whoa, you can't do that!!!"
I said, "Do what?" and he said "Nail with both hands."
I asked him if there was a law against it and he said no. So I said then I'll just keep doing it. He told me that in his twenty plus years of teaching shoeing he never had anyone who could nail with either hand, so I felt kind of special in that regard.
Glad you liked the shirt idea, now I have to see how quickly I can come up with some art work and get one made before time runs out. Thanks for all your support of the Daily Dose.