Sometime while I was in the air between Milwaukee and St. Louis, my planned Shoeing For A Living day changed dramatically.

That’s when Pete Rosciglione, the Defiance, Mo., farrier who’d agreed to share his shoeing day with me found out most of the horses he’d planned to work on that day would be spending it in another state.

That kind of thing happens to farriers. Despite what a lot of horse owners might think, it’s not always the farrier that doesn’t show up when he’s expected. During the years that I’ve been doing these stories, I’ve more than once been in the company of a shoer who pulled up to a scheduled barn and found the horse had been taken to a show, a veterinary clinic or out for a long trail ride — without it crossing the mind of the owner or trainer to maybe give the farrier a quick jingle to let them know their services wouldn’t be needed. (No doubt, some horse owners who have been “stood up” by their shoers might read this and think “turnabout is fair play.”)

And at least Rosciglione had gotten a phone call about this cancellation — just not in time to contact me so that the two of us might have shifted our plans.

He did reach me on my cell phone on the morning in question and suggested I take my time before meeting him at the National Equestrian Center in Lake St. Louis, Mo. He had planned on spending the majority of his day shoeing horses at a hunter and jumper show for a client who was bringing her horses in from Lexington, Ky. But her plans changed. Rosciglione’s plans changed. Mine followed suit.

We met in the parking lot at the center right around 9 a.m. and decided to get right down to it — by having breakfast. Over scrambled eggs — appropriately — we started putting the Shoeing For A Living day back together.

The change in plans wasn’t as disastrous as it might seem. One of the reasons I’d wanted to get together with Rosciglione was that his story had struck me as an unusual one that might be of particular interest to young and novice farriers who are just getting started on their careers. Rosciglione, you see, is just 20 years old. But he’s a lot further along in his career than most farriers of that age — and the way he got there and how he runs his business proves instructive.

Pete Rosciglione leads a horse in from his paddock for shoeing on a cold Missouri morning in December.

9 a.m. “I was raised around horses and rodeoing,” he tells me. “My dad, Pete, always rodeo’d, He was a calf roper and I became a calf roper, too.”

He had an aptitude for the sport, so much so that when he graduated from high school, he had a scholarship offer from North East Oklahoma State. His parents, he admits, wanted him to take the scholarship and get a college education. But by that stage in life, he’d not only been bitten by the rodeo bug, but by another bug that hangs around rodeos.

“While I was still in high school, I was at a rodeo and got to talking to a friend of mine, Kevin McSorley, who was a farrier. He asked me if I needed a summer job and said I could ride with him and learn to pull and clinch shoes for a couple of months.”

Rosciglione took McSorley up on the offer and soon found himself fascinated by horseshoeing.

“I really liked the work,” he says. “After the summer, I’d be back in school or at a rodeo and find myself thinking about shoeing and missing the work.”

The soon-to-be high school graduate started thinking about a way that he could combine his twin passions of calf roping and horseshoeing. He approached Mark Michelswirth, the farrier who had been shoeing his calf-roping horses. The two of them reached an agreement and for the next 2 years, Rosciglione rode with Michelswirth 5 days a week.

It was a good choice of mentors, Rosciglione says, although he does say Michelswirth made him prove that he was serious about wanting to learn horseshoeing before he put too much time into training him.

Rosciglione says the real proof of good shoeing should show in a foot before a farrier starts trimming. The foot of this eventer remains symmetrical and well balanced, with solid heels, 8 weeks after he was last shod.

“Once I’d proven to him that I was committed, he started teaching me everything he could,” Rosciglione says.

Michelswirth, a proven and veteran shoer, introduced the young apprentice to the world of high-end hunters and jumpers that made up much of his shoeing book. That helped broaden Rosciglione’s experience beyond the rodeo horses that were a large part of his own background. He also was paid for each horse he helped with.

“I was lucky and got to get under a lot of very high-quality horses,” he says. “I got to see and do many things that a lot of guys don’t. I can’t say one bad thing about my experience with Mark. He was the best teacher I could have asked for. He went out of his way — and still goes out of his way — to help me.”

Working with Michelswirth also exposed Rosciglione to therapeutic shoeing work at Mid-Rivers Equine Centre near Wentesville, Mo., where Michelswirth frequently works and his wife, Dawn Hoover, is a veterinarian.

Rosciglione describes Michelswirth as a “stern but fare” mentor.

“We would joke and kid around during the day, but he made it very clear that work was work,” the young shoer recalls. “Mistakes were corrected, but always in a way that showed me why what I was doing was a mistake and how I could do it correctly.”

Rosciglione still remembers the first time Michelswirth let him nail on his first shoe.

“It was on one of his own horses,” he says. “My nails all went in perfectly and came out in a straight line. It was a great feeling — even though I’m sure there was at least a little luck involved.”

Rosciglione is careful to clean out the commissures around a frog as he trims, so that the foot will be selfcleaning. He also boxes the heels on his shoes so that a horse owner can more easily use a hoof pick to keep the frog area cleaned out.

One other thing Rosciglione seems to have picked up from his experience with Michelswirth is that a farrier never stops learning. Throughout the day, he brings up names of different farriers, veterinarians and horse owners who have helped him already during his relatively short shoeing career.

9:45 a.m. After breakfast, we get into his shoeing rig and head for a barn that was actually the only other stop he had scheduled on this shoeing day. During the drive, I ask him how he came to have a client in Lexington, which I mention happens to be a few miles away.

“It’s 350 miles from my driveway to her barn,” he says with a quick laugh. “I got a little lucky. She was up here for a horse show and was having some trouble with a couple of her horses and someone suggested that she have me look at them. Her horses were due for shoeing, so I shod them and she liked the way the feet looked and the way the horses moved in the arena. Then she asked me if I could come down to Lexington and shoe the rest of her horses.”

He made the trip a couple of times and eventually picked up a second, nearby Kentucky barn. He now makes regular trips to the Lexington area to shoe at the two barns.

“My truck gets 25 miles to the gallon, which helps,” he says. “I schedule it so I can be there for 2 or 3 days at a time so it makes financial sense.”

His rig is a diesel-fueled, 1-ton Dodge Dually, with a cap from Stone Well Bodies.

Making sure that the trips make financial sense is something else he owes to Michelswirth. He says in addition to teaching him about shoeing and hoof care, the veteran shoer also emphasized the business side of horseshoeing.

Rosciglione is careful to leave room for expansion on his shoes. One of his goals for when he returns is, “to see a foot that doesn’t look like it needs shoeing.”

“He talked about how to schedule, how much to charge, how to approach and deal with clients and how to handle things being said about you,” he says.

Rosciglione also saves cash by making his own heart bar shoes as well as some shoes he uses for navicular cases, rather than buying them from a manufacturer.

10:13 a.m. We arrive at the barn. Due to the change in schedule, we’re earlier than we would be. The horse Rosciglione is to shoe is standing in a nearby paddock. The farrier sets up his shoeing area quickly, then goes out to bring in the horse.

“This horse is at about 8 weeks,” he says as he brings him in. “Since it has gotten colder, the feet aren’t growing as fast, so I’m letting him go a little longer.”

As he prepares to get started, Rosciglione says he emphasizes quality over speed.

“I’m not in a rush,” he says. “It will take me 45 minutes to an hour on each horse. I try to do three to five horses a day. I will do more if I have to, but I don’t really like to.”

The horse is a well-muscled, medium-sized Paint gelding named Oakie-Dokie. Rosciglione gets started by rubbing the horse down, talking to him and lifting his feet and helping him stretch his legs a little.

“I like to get them stretched out a little so that they’ll be comfortable,” he says, “especially in the hinds and when it’s cold like this.”

He also spends a couple of moments stepping back and looking at how the horse is standing.

“One of the things I’ve been taught is to shoe the horse and support the limb,” he explains. “I don’t just shoe the hoof.”

Rosciglione tries to keep himself low, to help make the horse more comfortable. He also holds a hoof in his lap, rather than support it on one leg, as this is more comfortable for the horse and also keeps the foot he’s working on more stable.

10:23 a.m. He gets started on the hinds, cleaning out the hooves with an older, dull hoof knife that he uses as a hoof pick. He then uses a creased nail puller to remove each nail individually.

“I think this is better for the hoof than using a pull off,” he says. “I think a pull off can bruise the sole and can be harder on the hoof wall as well.”

Once the shoe is off, he examines the unshod foot. “This is what I want to see,” he says, “even after 8 weeks, the heels are straight and level and the foot has a nice shape before I even start trimming it.”

Rosciglione says he takes that as an indication that he’s paying proper attention to what he considers the four most important aspects of shoeing; heel support, heel height, toe length and medial-lateral balance.

Oakie-Dokie hasn’t grown much hoof since his last shoeing, so Rosciglione does his trimming via careful use of his hoof knife.

“I want to take just the sole that’s almost falling out,” he says. “I don’t want to take too much. I am careful about cleaning out the frog and the creases and commissures around it. I don’t want to leave any debris in there that could cause an abscess.”

10:38 a.m. After he’s finished trimming the foot, he sets it on a Hoofjack and gives it what he describes as a “light dressing” with a rasp.

Rosciglione uses his hoof nippers to put a notch in the toe of a hoof, where the toe clip on a shoe will fit.

“I think this makes the nails come out cleaner,” he says. “I use a pretty dull rasp for this. I don’t want to remove much hoof wall.”

Oakie-Dokie is wearing Kerckhaert clipped SX-7 shoes on his hinds. Before he checks his fit, Rosciglione rubs the same dull rasp he used for the light finish across the foot surface of the shoe, making sure there aren’t any burrs or nicks on it that could lead to unwanted friction. He says he’s also ground the heels and toe areas to help avoid sole pressure in his workshop before putting the shoes in his rig.

10:47 a.m. Rosciglione is particular about the fit of the shoe. He makes several trips back and forth to the anvil, making small adjustments until he has the shoe just right. He also points out that he’s boxed the heels of the shoe.

“I do that to help the foot be able to clean itself out and to make it easier for the owner to get in there with a hoof pick and clean out anything that’s building up in there.”

He also seats out the sole a little using his hoof knife to make sure there won’t be any sole pressure. He then nails the shoe in place using Vector 5 slim blade nails. “I only use Vector nails,” he says. “They drive nice and hold the shoe in place. They’re very reasonably priced and are strong.”

10:53 a.m. He drives two nails and then carefully checks the fit again. “I’m looking to make sure I can’t see any daylight between the shoe and the foot,” he says. “After I’ve set the first two nails, I’ll set the foot down and let the horse put weight on it so I can be sure I have the fit I want.”

He also taps the clips in place at this point. While he was modifying the shoe at his anvil, he’d already tapped the clips over just a little. He believes doing this at the anvil cuts down on pounding clips into the hoof wall.

Rosciglione uses a lot of clipped shoes. When he does, he says he cuts down on the number of nails he drives. With Okie-Dokie’s shoes, he uses the toe nail holes and one nail just behind the clip in each branch. He also will use his rasp to notch the hoof wall just a bit, if that’s needed to make the clips fit the foot properly.

Rosciglione is picky about driving his nails high and keeping his clinches small.

11:03 a.m. Once he’s driven his nails, he uses a clinch block on each nail, but tries to limit himself to just a couple of taps on each nail.

“I think if you pound on your clinch block too much, it can cause the nail to ripple in the hole and may cause you to side-quick a horse,” he explains.

He finishes the hoof using a rasp and a sanding block.

“I know some people like to use powered hoof buffers, but I find I can do a good job with a sanding block is just a few seconds.”

As he sets the finished shoe down, he points out that he’s left room for expansion, as well as for heel support.

“When I come back, I want to see a horse that doesn’t really look like he needs shoeing,” he says. “I don’t want to see a hoof that’s overgrown the foot, that has flares or big, knobby clinches.”

Rosciglione is particular about his clinches. He wants them small; small enough that, “I won’t be able to feel my clinches when I’m done.” He says clinches that are too big not only look bad, but are dangerous to horses as well as owners.

“If a horse pulls a shoe with big clinches, a lot of hoof wall can come with it,” he says.

11:13 a.m. Rosciglione moves on to the second hind. He says he usually prefers to do all the work on one foot before he moves on to the next one.

Rosciglione makes some adjustments to a keg shoe at his anvil.

“If I’m shoeing a horse for the first time, I will pull both hinds and trim up the feet, so that I can use my dividers and make sure I’m getting them balanced the way I want.”

Rosciglione is careful to keep the hinds low as he does his trimming work. He also makes a point of taking the foot in his lap as he works, rather than holding it up on one of his legs.

“If you use both of your legs to support the foot, it isn’t moving around as much while you’re trimming it or while you’re driving nails,” he says. “That makes the horse more comfortable as well as giving you more control for your work.”

A desire for improved control is also one of the reasons he finishes feet using his Hoofjack.

“I like the Hoofjack because you can adjust the height for each horse,” he says. “If you try to finish a foot holding the hoof, it’s hard not to get your body swaying back and forth as you rasp. That gets the foot and the shoulder swaying as well, and that’s not comfortable for the horse.”

He says that Michelswirth always emphasized making the horse comfortable, as opposed to being worried about his own comfort.

“I love this work, but you don’t want to come into it thinking it’s easy to do,” he says. “It’s challenging and it’s hard on your body.”

11:23 a.m. As he seats out the sole of the second hind before nailing on his shoe, he notes that not much sole needs to be removed to avoid sole pressure. “Just a couple of millimeters is enough,” he says, “just enough to make sure it isn’t rubbing on it.”

As he finished nailing the second hind in place, he mentions that he’s as particular about nail placement as he is about his clinches.

“I like to drive my nails as high as they can go,” he says. “A high nail is better for the hoof. You do need to be careful with that, though. You need to know how high you can go safely. You can learn to judge that by looking at the thickness of the hoof wall.”

He says one of the big reasons he prefers high nails is because the hoof expands more near the bottom of the hoof wall. A low nail has more contact with that flexing part of the hoof, which can make the nail work its way loose within the nail hole, potentially causing damage to the hoof wall, as well as making it easier for the horse to lose a shoe.

11:37 a.m. Once the hinds are finished, Rosciglione moves to the front feet. He says he’ll shoe the fronts using St. Croix Eventers with a toe clip.

“This is one of my favorite shoes,” he says. “I like the rolled toe because it lets the horse breakover wherever it wants to.”

As he cleans up the first front foot, Rosciglione points out some of the things he’ll pay particular attention to as he works.

“I want the hoof angles to be close to the slope of the pastern and the shoulder,” he says. “I don’t look at just one or the other like some shoers do. I also want a nice, flat coronet band. Bumps in a coronet band are a sign of balance problems.”

Again, he reiterates that he’ll pay a lot of attention to the interrelated problems of heel height and toe length.

“Heels grow down and forward. That creates a pressure point wherever the heel ends,” he says. “I’m very careful about trimming the heels to the widest part of the frog. If you let your heels get too far forward, you get heel and quarter cracks. If you have proper heel height and support them well, you get the horse’s weight distributed more evenly over all the foot.”

Note the solid heels on the unshod foot. The second photo demonstrates how much heel has been added between this shoeing and the previous one 8 weeks earlier. The shoe the horse was shod with is laid over the new one.

11:42 a.m. Rosciglione uses Duckett’s Dot to help guide his shoe placement. Because the foot will grow forward during the shoeing cycle, he wants more of the foot located behind Duckett’s Dot than in front of it. Often, he says, that means he’ll take a little more off the toe. He says this also helps relieve stress on the heels and should help give the horse a smoother landing.

Unlike a lot of farriers, Rosciglione will often use toe-clipped shoes on front feet.

“Some people don’t like the clip there because it’s in the way when they want to move the shoe back,” he says. “What I do for that is put a little notch in the toe with my hoof nippers so that the clip will fit into it. I think the clip does keep the shoe from sliding and being pulled back. I can also get away with just one clip instead of two. If a shoe with just one clip does get pulled off, it doesn’t do as much damage.”

Rosciglione says he doesn’t use clips on all shoes and when he does use them, he’s careful to tap the clips carefully into place.

“I don’t want to clamp the foot in a vise,” he says. “But with the clips, you also can use fewer nails, which limits damage to the hoof wall.”

11:53 a.m. As he checks the shoe fit, Rosciglione also says he pays careful attention to its lateral placement.

“I want the shoe even and centered on the foot,” he says. “I don’t want the horse rocking back and forth from side to side on landing because of an uneven shoe or a difference in heel height.”

12:07 p.m. Once he’s finished up the first front, Rosciglione points out the amount of room he’s left for expansion, as well as the amount of extra shoe he’s left to support the heels. He doesn’t believe that letting a little shoe length extend behind the heels makes it easier for a horse to step the shoe off.

Rosciglione checks the fit of a shoe.

“If a horse doesn’t have enough heel support, when in motion his foot can go into a broken-back stage and he might reach up and catch the shoe,” says Rosciglione.

Once the shoeing job is done, Rosciglione spends a few moments carefully examining each foot and also observing the horse as a whole.

“I’m constantly looking and re-looking at things,” he admits. “I want to make sure everything looks right. If something doesn’t look right, the odds are it isn’t right.”

12:26 p.m. Once he’s done, Rosciglione puts Oakie-Dokie in a stall, then repacks his equipment, writes up a bill and leaves in on a clipboard.

“This is a regular customer, so I just leave them a bill and they’ll mail me a check,” he says. “I’ve never had any trouble with them.”

One thing that might surprise other young farriers is just how much Rosciglione charges for his services. He charges $120 for four keg shoes, $80 for a “half-horse,” and $40 for a trim. For hunters and jumpers, he charges from $150 to $200 depending on how much work needs to be done. He charges more for shoeing at horse shows.

Those certainly aren’t outlandish prices, but they’re higher than those charged by most shoers of his age and more than many farriers who have considerably more experience. According to the 2008 American Farriers Journal Farrier Business Practices Survey, the average price charged by farriers in the Central U.S. region, which includes the St. Louis area, is $88.98 for four keg shoes and $31.28 for trims. National averages are $101.31 for four keg shoes and $35.54 for trims.

Again, he says he’s simply following the advice he received from Michelswirth and his other mentors that he not sell himself short.

“I’d give new shoers the same advice I was given,” he says. “Be picky about who you work for. Don’t do bad horses. I don’t want to get a reputation for doing bad horses.”

12:39 p.m. Next we head over to Rosciglione’s parents home, where he has his workshop as well as where he boards his two horses. He says looking at the shoeing job will demonstrate how he’s handled a couple of problems.

The shoes of this horse, used in calf roping, still have room for expansion, 6 weeks after they were nailed in place.

As we make the drive, Rosciglione mentions that he’s picked up a lot of knowledge from other farriers, in addition to Michelswirth.

“When I work at hunter-jumper shows, I get to watch a lot of very good farriers work,” he says. “T.C. Snider was sort of my heel-support mentor. He really stressed the importance of that.”

Other farriers he mentions include Fred Goodman, Ed Hecker, Frank Moran, Mike Vorthman, Dusty Kraus and John Griffith. He also says he learned a lot from Bob Schantz, the International Horseshoeing Hall Of Fame member who operates Spanish Lake Blacksmith Supply, where Rosciglione buys his shoeing supplies.

“I’m a big fan of the basics,” he says. “It’s possible to over-analyze some situations. Adding too much to a shoeing job can backfire. You can cause too much stress on the foot and the limb.”

12:57 p.m. Once we’re inside his stable-workshop, Rosciglione brings out Reno, a 7-year-old calf-roping horse that he’s clearly attached to.

“I’ve had him since he was a yearling,” he says. “He’s a great calf-roping horse, but at one rodeo, he stopped so hard that he tore his left hind suspensory. It took 3 years for him to heal.”

Rosciglione says this is the first year Reno has been back in competition since his injury. He says the key to healing turned out to be wedging up the hinds.

“He wasn’t making much progress until I decided to try a wedge shoe,” he says. “I put the wedge shoe on and he went from 50% to 80% sound. After 8 months, I took the wedge shoes off and he was sound.”

Rosciglione used Kerckhaert Triumph 2.5 degree aluminum shoes for the treatment. He prefers using wedged shoes to a shoe-and-wedge pad combination.

“I think a wedge pad creates sort of a sandwich in between the foot and the shoe,” he says. “You get too much movement. I think the wedge shoe provides better heel support and keeps it where I want it.”

In treating soft-tissue injuries like this one, he says he’ll also shorten the toe a little more than usual. While working with Reno’s injury, he says he also got help, advice and support from Carl Martin, an equine veterinarian from Omaha, Neb., whose son, Randy, is married to Rosciglione’s sister, Nicci.

“Carl has always been willing to spend a lot of time with me,” he says. “He’s really helped me in therapeutic situations and has helped give me a better understanding of anatomy.

Rosciglione also mentions that he’s found when he is working with a vet, it’s best if he can communicate directly with the veterinarian, rather than having the vet’s advice relayed through a horse owner.

1:13 p.m. Rosciglione explains the shoes that Reno is wearing now. “In calf roping, you want a lot of support in the hinds because of the hard stops and the torque involved. In calf roping horses, you like a conformation that has their hinds set under them. You want them to be able to sit down quickly for hard stops. But you have to provide support for that.”

He also points out that Reno has slightly sloped pasterns, which makes added support even more important.

1:21 p.m. While Reno was laid up, Rosciglione did most of his calf roping on War Paint, a 15-year-old gelding.

“When I got him, he was very clubfooted,” says Rosciglione. “I managed that by bringing the toe wall back and getting the heels back to the widest part of the frog.”

This wasn’t done all in one shoeing. Rosciglione adjusted the toe length over a long period of time until he got it where he wanted it.

Again, Rosciglione turns to the concept of heel support. He points out that War Paint’s hind shoes end just a little past the back of his frog and not quite as far as the back of the heel bulbs.

“Getting the right amount of support is important,” he explains. “If you get too much back there, and a horse is landing on something not close to his foot, you create too much torque. If the heels dig in too soon, you can cause a toe slap and that’s not good for the horse.”

Rosciglione likes to leave additional heel support. This shoe also shows how he leaves room for expansion. He wants the foot to match the shape of the coronet band.

1:35 p.m. Once Reno and War Paint have been returned to their stalls, Rosciglione goes to his workshop area and demonstrates how he makes navicular and bar shoes.

“Special shoes like that cost a lot in the store,” he says. His system for making the shoes is probably better described as manufacturing and welding, rather than forging. He makes a navicular shoe from two keg shoes, using a band saw to cut the branches of one shoe off just behind the third nail hole. He tapes the two shoes together with electrical tape, and then welds them together using his mig welder. He tacks it together just behind the fourth nail hole so that he can still use a creased nail puller.

After running a weld across the front of the heels, he puts the shoe into a vice to make sure it’s flat, then finished welding the shoes together.

He cleans up the welding work with an angle grinder, the takes it to his belt sander to finish it off.

1:45 p.m. The whole process, which results in a sort of two-stage shoe which allows the horse to roll its weight forward off its sore heels, takes only about 10 minutes. Rosciglione figures that’s a much more economic investment than paying the extra cost for a manufactured shoe.

2 p.m. Rosciglione drives me back to the center where we met that morning so I can pick up my rental car and head back for the airport. As we make the drive, he shares a few more bits of advice that he thinks have helped advance his careers.

• “Don’t do this just for the money. If that’s why you’re doing this, you’re better off picking up a golf club. This job is way too hard to do just for the money.”
• “Invest in good tools. It pays off in the long run. Keep your hoof knives sharp. Do anything you can to save your body.”
• “Expect to have to prove yourself to other shoers and to horse owners. If someone asks me if I’m any good, I suggest they let me shoe a horse for them, then they can see.”
• “If you want to learn a particular type of shoeing, find a shoer who specializes and ask to ride along with him. Meet people. Go to all the shows. Get yourself introduced.”
• “Keep your eyes open. Listen. Ask questions.”

Rosciglione knows none of these suggestions are original. It’s the same kind of advice that a lot of veteran shoers will give farriers who are just starting out.

But the point is, that a lot of novice shoers listen to these “shoeing platitudes,” and don’t choose to listen. Or they say they’ve followed the advice and it hasn’t worked.

But — with the right attitude, some perseverance and enough follow through — a young farrier can flourish. Just ask Pete Rosciglione.