Who is The Barefoot Lady? continued...

After Redford died, I got out of horses for the next 4 years and decided to get a "real job”. I taught gymnastics and then tried my hand at an office job. I am sure you can only imagine how that turned out. It was like spending 40 hours a week in a “hen house”. Those crazy women and the stupid things they worried about almost drove me crazy. I never knew such a fuss could be made over a new pair of shoes or a shade of lipstick in all my life!! Meanwhile my parents bought a small farm and we decided to try our hand at a “project” horse which we had saved from the local auction. Steady Eddy, was a slightly aged QH gelding who turned out to have a fistula in his withers, which turns out to be a really bad non-healing infection. Several vets gave us no hope of saving him but I am happy to say with lots of dogged perseverance and lots of antibiotics, Eddy is still around today, (and still cantankerous as ever.)

With Eddy around, along with my parents other very, very old pony, Sam, my interest was renewed and eventually I ended up becoming a farrier. You see, our farrier had moved away and she had said before she left that this is something I should consider as a career and when she left she would set me up with some of her clients. Before her, I had never known a woman farrier and while I was all about keeping up with the boys, I had never thought that a woman could or would want to be a farrier in the first place. As the “hen house” began to wear on me day in and day out, I slowly decided to go to horseshoeing school. I graduated from Maryland Horseshoeing School in March of 2004 as a journeyman farrier certified through the B.W.F.A.

I have always wanted to write a book about the funny things that happen on the road and the things my clients and their horses teach me everyday. I have catalogued some of these episodes for you in the section of this Website called “Horsespeak.” I hope you enjoy reading them as I have truly enjoyed experiencing them.

.....