Kids didn’t have career choices in the 1800s. Children were expected to follow in their parent’s footsteps, often in a family business. Blacksmiths of the time, like other tradesmen, relied on their sons to learn the skills and backfill the ranks as their elders retired. Most daughters weren’t offered an option back then.

Jacob Butler doesn’t currently shoe any gaited horses — there aren’t any in his area of Nebraska.
However, he did shoe Saddlebreds and Morgans while living in Colorado. The 2022 International Hoof-Care Summit Mail-in Forging Exercise gave Butler an opportunity to revisit his shoeing roots.