Howie Blair sighs when he stands up. His years on the job shoeing horses throughout Lake County catch up with him now and then.
”I have more problems than a sore-footed centipede,” he said with a grin.
If you didn`t know better, you`d think he was an athlete on injured reserve. He talks about problems such as herniated discs and pinched nerves he has as a result of more than 40 years of crouching under horses while nailing shoes into place. Both of his arms and wrists have been broken. A few years ago, a horse kicked out some of his top teeth.
Blair is 57, lives in Wauconda and makes his living by shoeing while buying and selling a few horses on the side.
According to estimates compiled for the Lake County Regional Planning Commission, there are at least 60 commercial horse farms, stables and training facilities with more than 5,600 horses in the county.
”That`s just the commercial horses,” commission member and stable owner Beth Geuzendam said.
Add to that the unknown number of backyard horses scattered throughout the county, each horse needing each hoof trimmed and shod every six to eight weeks.
”It`s a very important part of horse ownership. If a horse`s feet aren`t taken care of they will throw the whole horse off,” said Donna McGraw, a spokeswoman for the Hooved Animal Humane Society.
”We`re right on top of the horse,” Blair said of his job. ”If he kicks me, I`ll go tumbling down the aisle. If I`m lucky, I`ll just get a little sore.”
Shoers agree that they are hurt most often by the kinder, gentler horses. ”They`re the ones you trust,” said Dick Basil, 64, a fellow horseshoer and Blair`s friend for more than 40 years.
Skittish horses can be tied or held still while a shoer is working on their feet. Sometimes a veterinarian is called in to tranquilize the horse, he said.
As a kid, Blair would cut classes and hang out with Basil, who worked at the horse stables that used to line Touhy Avenue in Chicago. Not one to let a friend stand idle while he did all the work, Basil put Blair to work cranking the forge as he hammered horseshoes into shape. Like a professional manicurist, Blair learned to yank shoes off the horse, file the hoof into shape and nail the shoe back into place.
The two learned their trade by trial and error, they said. They did not attend a horseshoeing college like a number of people starting in the business today.
”They don`t know nothing,” Blair said.
”The schools cram a lot of book-learning into an 8- to 12-week class, but the graduates still have to go out with somebody who knows what they`re doing,” Basil added.
Like a good manicurist who knows how to deal with a fidgety client, shoers know how to treat a horse that refuses to stand still. Weak, crumbling or split hooves are just as much a part of their day-to-day work as is filing down strong, fast-growing hooves.
Shoers say they are experts on horse hooves and feet, knowing more than the vets do because they work with horses` feet for a living.
Basil, who lives in Glenview, estimates he has taught his trade to 15 shoers. Blair has taught six.
Basil, 64, and his current apprentice, Mike Wells, 34, were working at their usual Monday stop at the Horse Forum Ltd. in Lake Forest, and Blair had stopped by to chat.
Horses typically need to be reshod every six to eight weeks, but a show horse may be reshod every month to prevent it from tripping, Basil said.
Leading a white pony from its stall, Basil clipped the halter to lines running to the sides of the barn. He picked up the hind hoof and braced it between his chap-covered legs. Wielding a huge pair of pliers with his gnarled, work-worn hands, Basil pulled the nails from the hoof.
After digging out the dirt and straw that was embedded under the hoof, Basil picked up a foot-long file and dragged it back and forth across the hoof. A trimmer cut away the soft part of the hoof called the frog. Basil tossed it to the barn dog, Lucky, who had been waiting for his treat.
A shoer has to pay attention to how much hoof he is filing away, Basil said, breathing hard.
If the horse`s hoof grows slowly, the hoof may be trimmed too short. Exposed blood vessels on the inner hoof may bleed a bit. The horse will not feel any pain, but the horse owner may be upset, he said.
Moving to the nearby anvil, Basil hammered the shoe into shape and returned to the horse.
Nailing the shoe into place is tricky as well. A nail could easily be turned inward, causing the horse to be lame, unable to move without pain. Taking the shoe off and soaking the foot with epsom salts will cure an infection, but the owner may get a new shoer, Basil said.
”If you`ve made as many mistakes as I have, you have to learn how to fix them,” he said.
The nail is hammered through holes in the shoe and through the outer hoof until about half an inch is sticking out. If the shoer is not quick enough to bend the nails down, the horse may seize this chance to yank his hoof down and drive the exposed nail into the shoer`s hands or legs, Basil said.
Wire cutters are used to trim the nail close to the hoof. Then Basil used a clincher to force the trimmed metal flush with the outside of the hoof.
Standing up, he stretched and grabbed at his lower back. One of four shoes had been done on this horse, one of four or five that he would work on in one day.
Wells worked on another horse tethered in the aisle while Blair looked on.
Shoeing a horse can run from $35 to $200, according to Basil.
The price depends on the type of materials the shoer works with, whether he has to shape a shoe from scratch, using a straight bar of metal, or whether he can pound a preformed shoe into the correct shape. Time spent on a single horse is another pricing factor.
”Every horse is different,” Basil said. ”You don`t shoe two horses alike.”
Thoroughbred racing horses wear light aluminum shoes to help them move down the track faster. High-stepping horses wear heavier steel shoes to help them lift their feet for competition judges. Shoes can be weighted in the front or back to change a horse`s movement.
A young horse`s bent legs, unsightly in the show ring, can be straightened with similarly weighted shoes, Basil said, though he does not like to interfere with nature.
”I`m old-fashioned. If you want a straight-legged horse, buy one,” he said with a shrug.
Horseshoers are not miracle workers who will guarantee a winning show horse, though some owners would like to think so.
”They can`t make a bad mover good, but they can make a good mover move like he`s supposed to,” said Horse Forum owner Steve Haight.
Heavy winter shoes with cleat-like spurs can keep a horse from slipping on ice. Egg-shaped shoes with a bar connecting the two tips are used on horses that do not have a firm heel.
A horse with a sore foot will get a special shoe cut and padded to take weight off the sore spot.
Getting set up as a shoer costs $1,500 to $3,000, depending on the newness of the anvil and the portable forge, plus the truck that doubles as a hauler and an office.
Basil buys his horseshoeing tools and the shoes-in all their infinite shapes, sizes and metal types-from Centaur Forge Ltd. in Burlington, Wis.
Owner Bill Pieh took over the company from a Milwaukee supplier that was getting out of the business in 1960. A shoer himself, the supply business gradually overwhelmed his horseshoeing work.
Today he has 10,000 square feet devoted to tools and supplies and 10 employees who are busy shipping equipment throughout the United States and the world.
Pieh declined to say what kind of sales the company has each year, preferring instead to say that the business enabled him to raise his five children comfortably.
”But if someone waved enough money under my nose, I`d go back to horseshoeing in a minute,” Pieh said.
Robert Houp, 43, of Fox Lake, a shoer for 12 years, knows what Pieh is talking about.
”I get to work outside, have metal tools freeze to my hands, have 1,200- pound horses kick me, push me, bite me . . . what more can a guy ask for?”
Houp asked with a laugh.
Unlike Basil, who concentrates on horse stables, Houp`s regular circuit takes him to a number of one-horse, backyard operations in addition to some of the large stables in the area.
But like Basil, Houp is a general practitioner when it comes to shoeing. He works on racehorses, hunters and jumpers as well as miniature horses with tiny shoes that must be glued into place.
He enjoys the freedom of moving from horse to horse, barn to barn.
”It`s a hard job; you have to love it,” Houp said. ”I still have mornings when I ache a lot and nights when I just want to crawl into bed and never see another horse again.
”I`ll quit when my body wears out.”
