Warickshire College and War Horses

Jonathan's son, Josh, started his first block at college this past Tuesday and I was invited to go along to the Induction at Warwickshire College.  The apprentices do mostly on-the-job training but go to college for certain periods, called "blocks," throughout the year.  There are eight blocks in total.  For this first one both the apprentice and their Approved Training Farrier (ATF) should be there on the first day as there is a good deal of paperwork to sign, rules and regulations to go over, and so on.  After an explanation of the apprentice system and recent changes to the system- made in attempt to bring it more into line with the job training system for the rest of the UK- the AFTs were packed off to the forge and the apprentices had to endure a lecture on health & safety and workplace rights.  

I went along with the ATFs because I wanted to see the college and I also didn't want to sit through another hour long lecture.  What surprised me most during the Tutors' presentation was their opening statement that college was no longer about learning anatomy but about shoe making.  The expectation is now that the ATFs will do most of the anatomy and pathology teaching and were even encouraged to give their apprentices homework.  Simultaneously,  the ATFs were given a lecture because their apprentices had appeared with improperly sharpened punches, pritchels, etc. which doesn't make much sense to me if the college is supposed to be teaching shoe making.  This aside, I was very impressed by the forges, which were in very good shape and immaculate.  The presentation and follow-up exercise for the ATFs was also very clear, outlining the standards that would be expected of students' shoe making ability at each block.

The Warickshire College Forge.  This is one of three colleges that provide farrier training in the UK.

Work stations in the forge.  It was a nice, airy, light building and there were doors on either side of the stalls, then two more work stations and so on around.  I forgot to count, but there were at least eight stations.  Apparently the place is always this clean.

The coke fires were located in another building nearby.

The ATFs grading student work in an exercise designed to help them understand exactly what was going to be expected of students' shoe making and what standards would be expected at each particular point throughout their apprenticeships.

The minimum standard.  After block 6 there are two more, with block 8 being the Diploma exam.

Just because we went to Warwick for half a day doesn't mean that we got out of working.  Luckily we didn't do much, just two trims and a set.  The horse we shod was really well behaved though, and I am not at all surprised, not after I found out what he does for a living.

He didn't look like all that much...

... but just in case I needed a reminder that I'm in England, I got to shoe a jousting horse!

The Isle of Wight Farriery Competition

This past weekend I was about as far south in Great Britain as it is possible to go.  Thursday, Jonathan, Josh and I brought a trailer full of forges and anvils that belong to the Staffordshire Farriers down to the Isle of Wight for the September 1st competition. All of this equipment is used for Staffordshire's own contest, but it gets rented out to other competitions throughout the year as well.  Jonathan says that this had enabled a number of organizations to hold contests that wouldn't have been able to otherwise, not to mention that it helps pay for the equipment over the long term.

The western side of the Isle as seen from the Ferry out of Portsmouth.

For me the best part of the weekend was the clinic on Friday with Grant Moon.  Grant was there to judge the Open division (Nigel Fennell judged the apprentice shoe making classes), and both his shoeing and shoe making left us all with a lot to think about.

Making and fitting bar shoes.  Grant made two for the same foot, one egg bar (on top) and one inverted bar (nailed to the foot) so we could see how it took the same amount of steel to do both.  He also wanted to impress upon us that a working bar shoe should be a three heat shoe.  I think it took him not more than fifteen minutes to make both of those, and he wasn't going fast because he was talking us through the process.

The contest itself was only on the Saturday, but what an excellent day it was!  Simon Legge, who organized the thing, really did it well, right down to having a DJ who set up the music so that everyone knew how much time they had left in the class.  The venue, Brickfield's Horse Country, was great because it had everything we needed for a contest all in one place.  I think the party that night is going to become legendary.

Brickfield's Horse Country

The main gate.  Straight ahead is the stable yard, to the left is the foyer with tack shop, etc. and to the right is the big parking lot.

Big parking lots are a great place to have apprentice shoe making contests.  The apprentices had to supply their own gear.  I cannot believe the quality of the shoes that some of them made.

The indoor was a great place for the Open guys.  Very conveniently, the cobs only had to walk over from the stable yard.  I didn't get it in the picture, but the wall on the left had a huge projected time clock on it.  The Staffordshire trailer is parked at the far end of the ring, opposite that were two fires set up for the speed forging so that they guys could go and do that class any time.

Restaurant and bar on premisses.  They did a lot of business over the weekend.  It was pretty funny to watch ourselves walking round and round on Sunday morning, before everything got going, trying to figure out how to get in the one door that was unlocked.

Lodging space also provided.  My only complaint was that the showers didn't get warm.  Actually, camping at contests is very common over here.  This is only about a third of the tents set up.

My only complaint- this is the only part of the Isle of Wight, except the Ferry Port of course, that I have gotten to see!

Gnosall, Staffordshire

The Forge

The last Sunday in August I moved to Staffordshire to stay with Jonathan Nunn and his family.  It was a rather hectic week as his apprentice is off with a bad knee and his son, who is just about to start at college, is only pulling and clinching, plus the fact that the week was reduced down to three working days because on Thursday we were going down to the Isle of Wight for a contest.  Despite early starts and working until as late as 10:30 some days, I very much admire how calm Jonathan manages to stay.  He didn't even lose his temper with the difficult horses, something that I was really struggling with after about 7pm!

Still going strong at 10 PM.

Westley House Livery

I do want to mention Westley House briefly.  They have been a client of Jonathan's for over 20 years now, the owner having met Jonathan when he was an apprentice.  At the time the owner was a mounted police officer, so he explained a bit about the history of that branch of the force to me and showed me around their farm- a tour he says he inflicts on all the foreign visitors.  The family has lived on the land for 500 years, so he says "hopefully we'll be considered locals soon."  He and his wife have diversified into horses as their farm is too small to support a family (now they only grow hay for themselves).  They do a lot of work with handicapped riders and recovery work with mental disorders as well.  Additionally they teach about gardening and run nature programs on their land, which has been turned into conservation land.  He was a fascinating man and I wish that I had had more time and presence of mind to ask more questions.

Cotswold Hunt Show

You cannot have a hunt show without the huntsman and the hounds!

There was a new shoeing contest this past Sunday at the Cotswold Hunt Kennels in conjunction with their annual horse show.  The contest for apprentices only, with everyone bringing their own rigs (or their bosses') to work out of.  The quality of the work was very impressive, especially in the bar shoe class, where we were each given 15" of 5/16" or 3/8" by 3/4" and told to make whatever we wanted.  I never got the picture of all of them lined up like I wanted to, because several were stolen almost right after they were judged!

The Shoe Making Contest had an international flare- the guy in the hat is Australian

The show itself was interesting, too, and I actually had time to watch a good bit of it.  There were a few Cotswold sheep to show off, and a fun classes such as Lurcher and Terrier racing for families, but it is primarily a horse show.  It has qualifier classes for Horse of the Year Show (HOYS), so it attracts all the best professionals in the area.  This was fun for me to watch, as I grew up with US show hunters but had not yet had the opportunity to watch English show hunters, or "show horses" as they are called, compete over here.  When I first saw the class list, I couldn't believe how short it was.  However, once you realize what a long and involved process every class is, the short list makes sense!

This is the Ladies Hunter class, and all the horses are shown Side Saddle.  I never realized, but riders don't post when riding aside, so one of the requirements is that the horse be very comfortable.  These horses showed and were asked for the traditional Walk-Trot-Canter and also an individual extended canter followed by a transition down to the trot.

You must bring a groom, because after you show the horse the judge gets on and rides it, in this case more than the competitors did!  She really put them through their paces, asking for lead changes, extensions, etc.

This is then followed by untacking so that another judge can have a look at the conformation.  I did feel sorry for the ladies who had to jog those horses on the hilly ground while wearing a skirt, but they all managed very well and had smiles on their faces the whole time.

THEN you get back on, show the horses a little more, and line back up for the ribbons, which are followed up by a victory lap.  This class, which had only five people in it took over an hour to judge!  Somewhere in there as well, Carl, the man in the brown jacket at the far left of the picture, had managed to have a look at all of their feet and had awarded a prize for "Best Shod Hunter" on behalf of the Worshipful Company of Farriers.

Over Norton, Oxfordshire

Talk about going from one extreme to another!

 

I have spent the week with Dave Smith and his apprentice Rowan in the Chipping Norton area.  This is the first week that I have been into what I think of as a "show barn" in the sense that I know them.  One of Dave's clients was a reserve for the GB Olympic Eventing Team.  Working in a barn like that, or the really nice hunter stable above, makes the transition to the muddy cow yard very noticeable!  That said, the horses and people in the below picture were just as well behaved and nice as anyone could be.

One of the down sides to using a grinder around here is finding somewhere to plug it in.  The cords run all over the barn require some kind of protection.

Long Itchington, Warwickshire

On Sunday I moved, via Tockwith show, from Edmundbyers down to Long Itchington to stay with Gavin Golby for a week.  It was a bit intimidating to leave the contest with the judge (especially when my shoes were particularly dreadful), but Gavin has been a very good teacher this week, helping me work out how to make heels on concave and to properly use a bob punch.  There have been no spectacularly aweful feet this week, nothing shocking, worrying or problematic.  Instead I've had a week of good, straightforward shoeing.  There was one horse he put into hunter heels, and it was nice too see that there has been no detriment to the foot for it.  Actually, they are probably improved because he stopped a vicious cycle of shoe pulling.

Dartmoor Pony

Tight fit in...

...but plenty of room once you're there!

Wednesday the van had to get new brakes, so I had a day to go off and see Warwick Castle.  It is an excellently maintained medieval castle on the river Avon (yes, Stratford-upon-Avon is only ten or so miles away) that has only very recently ceased to be a residence and been turned into a tourist trap.  Despite having to wade through crowds of children, there were some good finds.

Warwick Castle as seen across the Avon

A 1740 wooden copy of Rubens' Battle of the Amazons by Simon Cognoulles

I would like to point out how well all the horses were shod

I assume this is a medieval anvil, but there was no one to verify this with.  You can see the family crest three times across the base and it was certainly very well used in appearance.

Now that I am down in the Midlands the landscape has changed again.  It is even more gently rolling than Yorkshire and the buildings have changed back from stone to brick.  Some roofs are tiled, some thatched. And about half of them are what we would think of as "tudor," although I was surprised to see this in brick.

Edmundbyers, County Durham

Northumberland

I spent the week with Rodney Britton and his family.  They were excellent hosts and I had a wonderful time working with Rodney, riding with Diane and playing with James, who is seven.

One of the fun things about working with Rodney was that he found very legitimate applications for the practice contest shoes that he has made.  For example, this small driving horse got a pair of roadsters, precisely because he works on the road and wears his shoes out within a week or two if he has anything lighter on. The shoes that we pulled off were flat.  Everyone thought it was funny I was so excited to nail a pair of these on, but then again, it is nice to know there is an actual use for all of these things.  It makes me feel like all that practice isn't just wasted time.  Similarly, my first day there I pulled a pair of double dobbers off of a draft horse.  It was amazing to see how much those had been worn out, even after only a few weeks of (heavy) use, and this was just a riding horse!

Please pardon the rough clinching job- it was late and my rasp was desperately dull.

The foot would take about 12" of normal steel.

Rodney makes all of his own tools, something he learned from his father.  This is a particular favorite of mine.

I also spent a lot of time with Rodney's father, John who is a registered farrier (meaning that he was shoeing before the Farriers Registration Act took effect and therefore did not have to sit the Diploma exam) and actually is a blacksmith by trade.  I got to spend an afternoon in the blacksmith shop with him and a day where he took me around to see the Lake District, which is unbelievably gorgeous.  He's a fascinating old man who is full of history about his trade and about the area he lives in.

John Britton in his blacksmiths shop

Lake Windamere

The local breed of sheep in Cumbria (Lake District) are born black and go white with age.

The stone walls are incredible.  I admit that there is no lack of material, but the lengths and heights that they were built to is really something.  This one is not as impressive as many, but it is the one I managed to get a picture of as we drove along.  They go straight up steep mountain sides and plunge down the ravines, following the very tortured contours of the land.

If you rode out from the Brittons house you went straight up onto the Moor (or Fell).  It is quite the impressive landscape.  It felt like I was at the end of the earth up there, with nothing but sheep, grouse and heather to see for miles. 

We took an afternoon to go and see Hadrian's Wall, something that I have always wanted to see.  If I felt at the end of the world I can only imagine how the Romans felt up there when they conquered Britain in the first century AD.  All these centuries later it is still very impressive.  Despite having many missing parts- much of the "Roman Wall" has made its way into local buildings over the years- it is still a good 6 or 7 feet high and 2 or 3 feet wide in places.

Hadrian's Wall, looking east