Travis Smith (Harrisburg, Mo.)
I'm not sure if anyone really knows what a farrier goes through, as well as the farrier's wife, so I'm submitting a tribute to my husband and every other hard-working farrier out there. The video below done by Stephanie Sidoti really allows Travis to tell his story in his own words, but I'd also like to add mine.
Most mornings Travis wakes up with an aching back, and most nights he lays down to bed with one as well. He knows more about how to care for back injuries than most medical professionals, and he can tell you more about how to read a horse than most professional trainers. But he'll never give you advice that's not requested, and he'll never walk with a swagger or pretend he knows what he doesn't. He's a student of hard work, a professor of bodily injuries and he's earned a PhD in client relations and scheduling. He has days that are incredibly frustrating, when every single horse is rotten and doesn't want to cooperate, and his scheduling sometimes gets so tight he can't even grab lunch. Still, he won't take it out on the horses or his clients or his family. He still tries his hardest on every single hoof on every single horse, to give them what they need to compete at the highest level, pack kids safely around, or just enjoy their well-deserved retirement. He ignores the toll this job is taking on his body and the fact that he'll never have a cushy retirement or the certainty that comes with a steady paycheck. He knows the winters will always be slow, and the spring and summers backbreaking and cripplingly busy. He's very much aware that he'll receive texts and calls at all hours of the day and night, sometimes for real emergencies, other times to replace a lost shoe, and once in a while just for an odd question that needs answered or a mind that needs soothed. He forms emotional attachments to horses that he cares for over many years, and then loses those horses, time and time again, from everything from old age to being sold or even to another fellow farrier because their owner felt someone else could do his job better. All of that he deals with on a daily basis, and he knows it won't ever change and it's simply the nature of the beast. So he continues every day, throwing his heart and every ounce of skill he's got into that hammer and that rasp and that anvil and that horse. He does it because he loves the animals, he's found his calling, and he finds his joy in those long-term relationships, both with clients and their horses. He loves those moments when he actually gets some credit, and his clients tell him he's worked wonders, even though most of the time they attribute it to their new magnetic fly sheet or their herbal supplement. For him, that’s perfectly fine, because all he wants in life are happy horses, not acclaim and no special accolades. Just happy, healthy horses.
That's what makes him so deserving of some recognition, from a farrier’s wife’s perspective.
— Laura Smith (Harrisburg, Mo.)
