I spent the day at Mission Farriers School, watching horseshoes get pounded into being. And I mean pounded — bending metal takes heavy hammers and brute force.
I heard tell that “in the old days” a 14-year-old boy, in Ireland, say, could crank out 110 horseshoes daily. Plain stamp shoes.
While I looked on, one mule did a sidekick like Chuck Norris on her owner. Six times. Whoa Nellie! Luckily, the horsewoman was wearing a padded, loose-hanging jacket.