Today was probably the hardest day I’ve had in a long time. I have a team of Oldenborgs I had shod for some time – every time with handmades (25 x 10mm). For the large one it took 41cm of steel to do the fronts. Today I pulled the shoes for the last time. Erik has cancer and there is no return for him. Annette his wife was over to my house about 3 weeks ago. I pulled the shoes and reset as they were going on a cross country competition – Erik’s last one. All his family was with him on this day. Annette rang to me last week and asked if I could come this week and pull the shoes as they wanted to take a drive this past weekend –the last time he would be able to drive them. I arrived, normally Erik had the horses ready, but today I entered the stable it was dark. I heard Annette say they would be right out. I came out to get my tools and Erik came out in a wheel chair. Ralph was first. I pulled his shoes and gave him a good trim. Schike was next. He had a problem with the hinds, can’t lift very high nor can I bring the hoof back. He knows I set the cradle low and under so he works with me. As I got Schike’s hinds pulled, hand them to Annette I hear Erik said “ This is the last shoes he will have, so I would like to clean’em up, paint’em and hang ‘em on the wall. I was kind of hard to hear him talking like that. Erik has known for some time he was on a one way ticket as his health slowly went down hill. When I got done Annette asked if I wanted to come in and have a cup of coffee. Normally we’d stand around in the stable or sit outside and have one, but today it was inside as Erik can’t take the cool fall air so good now. I really didn’t care if I was late to my last appointment, so we sat and had a nice talk. This is when Erik told me that since I took over doing his horses they have never gone so good. He talked about the first time I did his horses. I didn’t have shoes large enough in my van, so I pulled out the steel, stood there and handmade shoes. He said both him and Annette were impressed. He talked about how nice they were to drive after my shoeing and the hooves always looked good and presentable to the clients he would drive for. The last reset I did and the pulling shoes and trim today I couldn’t take any money – the friendship was payment enough. I’m going to miss doing those two big black boys. I’m going to miss Erik as a great friend and a true horseman. He is one of the “old boys” who grew up with horses. I just had to write it down and share with you all.
Nearly all of my clients are friends as well. We share the highs and lows of there lives as well as our own. The personnel side of our trade makes up for the hard nature of the job. With it goes some sadness and lots of joy to.
