Of Cowboys and Farriers

One of the wranglers, Craig, was notable in that he did not sport world-class facial hair. This may be because during the autumn and winter he is a teacher. The rest of the boys, well, a picture is worth a thousand words. Col. Sanders is on the right, Craig across from him, and Paul, the head wrangler, between me and Craig. Out of the shot is Jack, a cook and wagon master, who also had a mustache that a cossack would envy. Some of the hats seemed to date from the 19th century. Though mine was the most stylish (stressed leather Stetson), it would take me the rest of my life to sweat on it in order to match the cowboy hats on display at Wagons West.

The farrier's equipment had to be seen to be believed. His pickup towed a small trailer and what looked like a long table. The "table" was mounted on hydraulic lifts. A horse was lined up parallel to the table, a gate swung shut to make sure the horse stayed put, and big leather straps were slung under the horse and under the head. Then the platform gently tilted until the horse was off the ground and the hooves were secured by leather straps. The farrier went into action then: off with the old shoes, the hooves were trimmed by hand, then an electric sander would smooth down the bottom of the hoof, the shoes were fitted by shaping cold shoes on an anvil (a nightmarish procedure for the uninitiated who try it for the first time), and the shoes were then nailed into place. Only the outside wall of the hoof is dead tissue, a kind of protein; it is lined with living tissue and the bottom internal portion of the hoof is also living tissue, called the frog, which is essential for adequate circulation of blood through the leg. The nails are angled in such a way that they do not penetrate living tissue, although such accidents do occur from time to time and require medication. After the shoe is on, the hoof is sanded again to make sure the hoof is smoothly in contact with the shoe. The platform then slowly comes back to verticle and the horse is deposited on its feet.

These horses have undergone this procedure for years. Some lie quietly and patiently, but others are never going to get used to it, and the head wrangler or Kay, the Wagons West main honcho, has to comfort the horse by stroking its face and head. Fat lot of good it does, too.