I nailed on my first set of horseshoes 60 years ago when I was 15 in 1964. It was on a kind gelding named Maverick at the summer horse camp that I attended. I started helping with the shoeing work there during the previous summer by learning how to pull shoes and clinch. I pushed my mentor Chris about allowing me to trim, shape and nail, so finally I got my chance. Halfway through, I thought I might die, but I persevered. Little did I know the path that this would send me.

These horses were camp horses used for riding instruction and trail riding on the hard, unpaved roads in the rocky hills of rural northeast Pennsylvania. What was available for this job in 1964? Nothing like today. To start, for trimming, we had an old, steel handle Heller hoof knife, a used, rusty Heller nipper and an old double-ended 18-inch Nicholson rasp. We found out later how sharp they could be after we bought a new one.

Shoeing in the 1960s

The shoes were the older version of Diamond Bronco shoes. “Hot Dropped Forged” was stamped on them. That sounded good, but we had no idea what it meant. They were a generic pattern and all we had was a railroad track anvil.

How did we shape them you might ask? First, with one of us holding the toe of the shoe with heels upright, we took the outer edge of the jaws of the old, heavy Heller…