In other news

The sun has been out for the last week or so- after a month or more of solid rain, this is a very welcome sight.

So, at least the hay crop will be brought in.  There was great concern that there would be no hay, nor any other harvest for that matter, this year.

This also means that going out walking is pleasant, and the views are fantastic.

Not that views up close are always that nice.  A field of wheat edged with muddy tire tracks and hedge of nettles and thistles is a field of wheat edged with muddy tire tracks and hedge of nettles and thistles.

This is farming country.  I do have to remember that cereal grains around here are called "corn."  I was hopelessly confused the first few times I was told the "corn looks just about ready for harvesting, if it would stop raining."  Actual corn is called "maize."

There are also many farm animals, although fewer than I saw in Scotland, I would hazard.  The house is the manor house for the owner of Kirklington.  Most of the village houses still belong to them and are rented out, although many fewer than in decades past.

The town owns the phone box, it cost £1.  They keep it around as a point of pride and town history.

Huw lives right next to the pub.  I must say that the pub is the town gathering place, and many people can be found there on an evening, mainly just to chat.

On the other hand, it can also be nice to have a much more formal get together for the town on the Old Rectory lawn.  Here we have almost finished cleaning up from Jazz Night, which was quite the black tie affair.

And, if that wasn't enough, you can go next door the following day for a christening, and then cure your hangover at the after party.

Straw

Warrior in his run-in paddock

I was trimming an old retiree, named Warrior, this afternoon in a sort of indoor paddock.  He was a wonderful old man and stood like a statue without even a halter.  However, the oddness of the situation and the somewhat less than desirable state of the bedding made me realize that the thing I find most strange about working here is the smell- it isn't bad, just different.  This makes sense, of course, because everything from the feed to the environment is different, but the straw bedding, I think, is the biggest difference.  I don't see that it is cleaned daily the same way that shavings are at home.  Instead, there will be a very deep bed, up to a foot or more, and the soiled bit is mucked somewhat and then covered with clean straw, the whole thing being changed after a time.  I can't say how long because I don't know, but I would think about a week, based on the state of the stalls.  I don't want anyone to take this as a criticism, because it is not.  After all, the horses are always standing on clean bedding when managed properly.

Hot fitting in a box full of straw still makes me nervous, though.

Londonderry, North Yorkshire

Looking west from Sutton Bank across the Yorkshire Dales

I am in James Herriot country!  I realized this when driving along the A1(M) with Huw and he said "those are the Yorkshire Dales, over there," and pointed west. 

Once he learned that I was a fan of the vet-turned-author he took me to the museum the next weekend.  It is the actual house and business (Sinclair & Wight) and is located only ten miles from Huw's place.  Apparently, Huw even used to get abscess referrals from them.  Anyways, lots of fun to see the place all done up as it would have been in the 40's and 50's and to go through the museum above it.  That was all about the development of Veterinary science and practice- and consequently about farriery as well- in England.  Looking at all of the tools and restraints that were used I am very glad to be working in the age of anesthetics and tranquilizer!

Sinclair & Wight, now The World of James Herriot.

The Dispensary, as it would have been in the 40's (before antibiotics).

On some other historical notes: Huw's Londonderry Forge is located on the old A1, which is the old Roman Road.  Apparently the Roman cobbles are still there, two feet below the current pavement.  In more recent years the town was a Stagecoach stop, it being located fourteen miles between the other two stops (the horses galloped a maximum of fifteen miles).  The barn across from the Forge, now a pig farm, was the stable, housing up to 22 horses at a time.

Londonderry Forge and Farrier Supply.  The attached house is now apartments for apprentices.

The Roman Road (old A1) looking south from the Forge

Crosby Farm, originally the Stagecoach Barn, across the street from the Forge, looking north up the Roman Road.

Huw has a number of apprentices, four to be exact.  Every day some of the lads get sent out to do routine work, and others will ride with the boss to more involved cases.  Since I have spent all of my time working with Huw, I have gotten to see a number of revolting/interesting/involved things that I don't see at home.  Sometimes these are just unfortunate things, like the horse with the quittor that was a really neglect case because the owner didn't realize the severity of the situation, but often they are patches or involved glue jobs.  Huw gets called in to do a lot of gluing, and the last few days have been very Equilox intensive. 

Quittor, it spurted pus out with every step.

A 2-3 month old foal that is in desperate need of lateral extensions.  Prognosis is guarded as there is not much side-to-side flexibility in the pastern joint.  The inside of both hooves is no longer in contact with the ground.

The business does many race yards.  This is interesting for me as I have never been around race stables.  However, Thoroughbred feet are no better in the UK than in the US.

One of Huw's corrective shoe jobs on a race horse.  This mare has very flat feet and has a lot of success adding artificial heel and then covering the heels with glue to prevent shoe pulling.  Sometimes he just covers the heels to prevent pulling.  So far I have seen him use glue to create all sorts of wedges and to cover and help correct wonky feet.  This job seems to be rather a speciality of his and is very popular with trainers as they believe it to be lighter than pads and it stays on very well.

I got to shoe a draft yesterday!

I got to shoe a draft yesterday!

Brigadier and his friend pull wedding carriages for a living.  I made up the set and Huw (in the back of the picture with the horses' owner) let me fit up and fit the backs.  I couldn't have asked for a horse to stand better.

Londonderry Forge- this is just one side, there are three more shoeing stalls on the other.

Averaged 17" of 1-1/4" x 1/2". When those are worn out the owner takes them and has them chromed as a momento for the newly weds.

The near hind all done.  The pins are for traction on the road.

The Great Yorkshire Show

I moved down to Yorkshire Monday evening, July 9th to stay with Huw Dyer for a few weeks.  He is the head steward at the Great Yorkshire Show's Farrier competition.  I find it crazy, but the show, one of the largest agricultural shows in the country, runs from Tuesday to Thursday.  Despite this it draws hundreds of thousands of people and provides a huge financial boost for Harrogate and the surrounding area.  The catch there was that the show was cancelled on Wednesday and Thursday due to many little problems- such as the water failing on half of the grounds- but mainly to mud.  Non stop rain for the last month or more, culminating with torrential downpours on Tuesday rendered the grass car parking so bad that cars were getting damaged being towed IN.  I heard a rumor about a horse van that got ripped in half, but haven't had it confirmed or not.

Public or not, the shoeing carried on.  There is a gorgeous new Forge, just opened on Monday after twenty years in the works, and the show officials were happy to have us keep going.  It was up on high ground, so no worries about flooding or bad parking.

The Forge as seen from the viewing room before it has ever been used.  You can just see the corner of the ninth and tenth fires at the bottom left.  There are also standing stalls for ten horses.

The Forge as seen from the opposite end.  Some of the drafts are in place for the shoeing on Thursday.

I did a few classes, which was great fun and quite a learning experience.  Dave Wilson Jr. helped me out in the open shoeing class.  I made some horrible "double dobbers" from 18" of 1-1/4" x 1/2", which is very big stock for me.  I did manage my goal of getting them done in the time limit, with much thanks to Dave, who is fantastically experienced, patient and organized.  On Wednesday I did the hunter shoeing with the assistance of John Atkinson, the English National Champion.  There again, many thanks to him for getting me through something I was not familiar with.  Because the hunters are shod with no extra length- the heels are supposed to blend together- and in concave I had no idea how to measure for this.  All things considered, it came out okay, if not as well as I would like.  The caulk and feather specimen (which I had been practicing) was adequate.  It wasn't the best by any means, but at least it looked like a horse shoe, and now I know how to make one, which I couldn't do two weeks ago!

The rest of my time was helping the stewards out and keeping the orange juice and hot water full.  For this Huw got me a stewards badge and meal vouchers so I could get food anywhere and have access to the Judges and Stewards Pavillion.  Wow, do those people get treated to nice food!

Gotta keep the feathers out of the way!

Draft shoeing madness.  I still can't get over how well behaved all of the horses were!

All of the shoes on the table were from the Open Shoe Making class.  There were about 40 competitors, and I am very glad that I wasn't the judge. 

Dalkeith, Scotland

It has been raining here almost non-stop.  The sun has been out for a half a day on Wednesday or Thursday, I can't remember which.  Apparently there has been quite a bit of flooding in surrounding areas, although I have not seen any personally.  Many of the horse shows and fairs have been cancelled, so there have been a number of disgruntled riders.  The added benefit is that the grass is doing too well.  Between that and the lack of work laminitis is a common problem this summer.  On that same subject, I have never seen so many obese horses in my life!  I thought that the ones at home were fat- I admit to knowing a few obese ponies- but they are everywhere you look here.  Rory and I saw a Fjord so fat at a barn the other day that we both just started laughing, there was nothing else to do.  Quite literally its belly must have been down to its knees, I'm not joking!  (I haven't taken any pictures, though, because I don't want to offend any owners.)

Today is my first day off since last Monday.  Ruaraidh has been quite busy.  Yesterday was the slow day, we did eight horses, all done before one o'clock, and finished up by three with a few thrown shoes.  The other days have been 10-12 hours and 10-15 sets plus trims, etc. He has had another helper on Weds and Thurs by the name of Geoff who is a very nice guy and good fun to work with.  Geoff is a lefty, so watching them share an anvil was funny.

Geoff and Ruaraidh at the anvil

There has not been anything spectacularly interesting or out of the ordinary so far.  Ruaraidh did make the Horse and Hound magazine, which is a well regarded, weekly publication read by a great number of people.  It was an article on saving a lamanitic horse using rock 'n' roll shoes, per request of the vet.  It was a last ditch effort and now he's affraid that people will be coming to him and/or the vet with unrealistic expectations about saving their horses.  Time will tell.  Other than that, the favorite shoe at the moment seems to be heart bars.  They come in all sizes.

I still don't think that it is small enough for my Mini.

Other than working I've been preparing, with only limited success, for the Great Yorkshire next week.  I think it took me about two hours to make one roadster today, only to discover that it was too small, and needed to be forged more.  I am not used to working with such heavy stock!  Besides a pair of roadsters I have to make a hunter front and hind out of concave.  That's a much more reasonable size of stock.  I'm finding it relatively easy to make the shoes, but hard to make them well.

This was one of the most picturesque places we went to.  It is situated right at the base of the highest of the Pentland Hills.  Getting there you had to be very careful not to run any sheep over. 

Many of the places are not as nice, however.  The stable area, on the other side and not visible from here, did at least have a roof.

They tend to just have open areas with lots of stuff and campers or trailers moved in as storage areas/feed rooms/tack rooms/etc.

Many of the hills around here are really large dirt piles that were hauled out of coal mines.  They are incredibly red in color (as is some of the local sandstone).

I guess they must work keeping the flies because I see them a lot...

Back from Dundee

Team Balfour: Kevin, Wayne, Lewis and Jim

I have just come back to Dalkeith after a very busy week in Dundee, Scotland.  I was staying with Jim Balfour, who is very well known as an excellent competitor and draft shoer.  He and his brother, Kevin, have a business together.  All three of Jim's sons are farriers, too.  The eldest, Wayne, has his own business.  Lewis has just qualified and works for the business and Adam is just starting his apprenticeship.

It was a bit of a crazy week because Jim, Kevin, Wayne and Lewis were all preparing to leave for Calgary.  Between the practicing and trying to get all the work done there wasn't a lot of free time.  Jim says they are the first family team to compete there, however, and I had a great time watching them work together during shoeing practices.

Practice is portable

Practicing the Four Man Draft

Most US trucks wouldn't fit through there, and it was tight for Jim's van

Shoeing in a picturesque yard

The Clydesdale I got to trim.  Nice old guy.

I got to work on many Highland Ponies.  For what I thought was a rare breed, there sure are a lot of them!

Despite all that, they still found time to get me going in a coke fire.  I'm on a pretty steep learning curve at the moment.  It's either not hot enough of gets sizzled.  Many thanks to Lewis who spent a lot of time coaching me on how to make feathers and calks!

The Royal Highland Show

The Royal Highland Show started on Thursday, but we didn't go as there was too much work.  The show overall is an agricultural fair at its roots, although it now was everything from new car sales to Grand Prix Jumping.  It is quite the event, although I didn't get to see much of it as I was kept busy cleaning up after horses. 

I can't believe how well the horses stood!  Despite all the commotion, noise, smoke, etc. they hardly twitched.  Apparently they go to a lot of contests.

The mirrors above the anvils are so that the public can see what is going on when the feet are being worked on.  I thought this was a clever idea.

In case you didn't notice in the first picture, it is very wet.  Actually, this is one of the wettest Junes on record in the UK.  The parking was horrible and many people, including Ruaraidh and myself were stranded in the muck.