There might be a little competitiveness, but no jealously between two Idaho farriers who just happen to be siblings.
Jessica Cline and Kody DeShon work separately but often as a team, too. They agree more than they disagree.
“I wouldn’t want to work with anyone else, although we are a little competitive sometimes,” Cline says.
Cline and DeShon have been close all their lives, but became even closer after suddenly losing their dad Brent DeShon in a snow machine accident a few years ago.
“We have a different outlook than most because of that,” DeShon says.
Cline agrees.
“It’s just the two of us now,” she says.
Their dad worked as a Bonneville County sheriff’s deputy and as a farrier and trainer, too. He taught both kids skills with horses when they were growing up and treated them equally.
“He didn’t cut me any slack because I was a girl,” Cline says.
After their dad’s passing, DeShon went on the professional rodeo circuit for 2 years and as a farrier part-time. Last year, he qualified in bull riding for the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas.
“I went to 220 rodeos in order to qualify,” he says. “Rodeo will always be in my blood, but I got tired of being sore all the time.”
After the NFR, DeShon decided to return to his farrier business full-time.
Cline, a busy mother of three daughters between the ages of 8 and 12, is a school bus driver for the Shelley and Idaho Falls school districts. She has a miniature horse-breeding program, and keeps her full-size horses in shape for fall hunting that she, her husband and daughters enjoy doing together. If she has any spare time, she helps her husband his flooring business called DJC Flooring in Shelley.
She’s one of a handful of women farriers in this area and so far, at least one of her daughters wants to learn.
“One side of the coin is that some horse owners hire me because I’m a woman, and then there are some who question my ability because I’m a woman. I just try to be open minded and go with the flow,” she says. “There are about four or five women in this area that are farriers, and one of them happens to be a real good friend of mine, but we all just kinda keep to ourselves.”
In addition to their dad, they learned a lot from their grandparents, Frank and Barbara DeShon, of Idaho Falls. Barbara DeShon takes care of about 60 horses of her own and she boards another 40 head. For 8 weeks each summer, she hosts a therapeutic riding horse program called Miracles Inc., for those who are disabled mentally, physically or emotionally, Cline said. She’s had the program for over 30 years. Just keeping their grandmother’s herd trimmed and shod alone keeps Cline and DeShon busy.
“Dad wasn’t going to trim and shoe grandma’s herd all by himself,” DeShon says, “so we learned and helped too.”
