Sled dog pictures from the archives as promised - Page 6

We should have a PDB convention.....no knives or perfume bottles of liquids past the door, LOL.

"Where did you learn to shoe a horse ?"
When I was in eleventh grade, I had left my foster home ( a year earlier, a teacher sent home a note, strongly recommending I be forbidden from reading any more animal books, or drawing/painting/sculpting animals, that I needed to "broaden my interests"). I said to myself, oh hell no, and left to go back to my natural mother. Anyway, I met a guy at a paso fino ranch, who was a shoer. I spent every day I could, even walking the five miles to the ranch, to spend time amongst these horsemen and women. The people at this ranch were all Cuban refugees and I loved being with them, hearing their stories of life in Cuba before Castro confiscated their property and livestock. Anyway, I watched and learned from this guy, who told (in very broken English and needed interpreter at times) how in Cuba, they had to use regular carpenter nails, as they had no shoeing nails. So this guy was a master at tipping the end of a nail and angling it just right to come out precisely where he needed it to through the wall of the hoof.
A couple years later, when I got out of the Army while stationed in NJ, I got a job at Monmouth Race Track as a groom. One of the shoers at the track, seeing my exceptional interest in horse shoeing, gave me a copy of " the Anatomy of the Horse's Foot, a Veterinary Guide" . I'm not sure that's the exact title, I'll have to find the book, which I still have, to be sure, as it's been forty years ago. Anyway, I studied that book cover to cover, over and over again.
I returned to Florida a few months later, got a job painting on a yacht being refurbished which my brother was captain of. When that job was done, I went on the road with the rodeo performer. To make a long story shorter, finding a horse shoer while on the road was not always plausible. A good friend, Homer Harris, (RIP) who was himself a good and respectable shoer gave me his entire shoeing box of tools, including an antique fifty pound anvil, when he retired because of a bad back. So I put all my studying to use and, being artistic, I had the natural ability to cold shape a shoe to a horses foot for precise fit. (that is, hammering the shoe on the anvil to fit the foot, rather than rasping the foot to fit the shoe).

I'd like to add to above post; Working on foundered horses and making them sound again, was something at which I was very successful. I put a two year old colt on his feet again, who was down and refused to stand. When I finished shoeing him, (he was foundered in all four feet) he was kicking his heels up and able to run across the gravel driveway with out a tender step. Very rewarding, to say the least.

Joan, every time I read one of your posts to this thread I shake my head in amazement and awe. Do you know how special  you are and how unique your life has been? Most of us sit around wishing that we could do what we loved to do, you actually did it and still do.

I don't know how to answer that, Blitzen....What makes a person happy and eager to get out of bed in the morning and greet each new day with gratitude? The key is to not get bogged down by bad decisions and poor judgements of character of people met along the way. Stay focused and goal oriented....'til your next chapter is revealed.

I found some cool pictures of schH training here at the house from around six and and half years ago,just need to get them scanned and have my computer friend post them for me.:-)

WOW! Just amazing! I love the appaloosa in the photos! Beautiful!!!

Thank you, Pm. He's registered 1/2 Arabian, dam was the Appaloosa.

This is my showline dog, Quest at 3 yrs.  Doing SchH III routine.