For the Want of a Nail, The Shoe Was Lost

By Chris Gregory

Chris has done clinics and shod horses on six continents, as well as almost every state in the US. His bestselling textbook, Gregory's Textbook of Farriery, has helped farriers help horses around the world. Since starting his first farrier school in 1992, Chris has taught well over a thousand people to make a living in the craft that he loves.

We are all standing on the shoulders of giants. This is Chris’ story of the many farriers and blacksmiths who helped him in his journey to become a mentor to so many folks in this industry. Ever the master story teller, Chris’ accounts of his time with these legends are filled with insights, wisdom and humour.

I caught myself laughing out loud more than a few times while reading this. As the first instalment in a series of Chris’ memoirs, I can’t wait for the ones to come.

From his humble beginnings as a cold shoer supporting his rodeo habit, to the legendary teacher and clinician he is today, this is Chris’ story of the mentors who helped him along the way.

Brian Mullins.
Brian is a Farrier in Canada who has a podcast and a well-known friend of mine.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Chris Gregory
• Release date: Jun 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9780983314042

Chris Gregory

Chris Gregory - writer Hello, thank you for showing an interest in my writing. I have been writing stories for over ten years and would like to share them with you. You may be interested in historical fiction or science fiction or, like me, both. Both have the potential to take us on an adventure, a journey to another time. And both allow us to look at our own time from another perspective. You may be interested in why I write and the theme that runs through all my stories: home. If so, please take a look at my website. When I am not writing, I design new and refurbished homes. I am a fencing coach who enjoys helping beginners (the sport with swords, not timber panels!) And I work hard as head of staff, looking after my creative writing director (my cat).

Book preview

For the Want

of a Nail,

the Shoe was Lost

Chris Gregory

Dedication

To my soulmate and wife of over three decades and counting,

Kelly Gregory

As iron sharpens iron, so one person

sharpens another.

Proverbs 27:17 (NIV)

I have seen the results of seemingly insignificant encounters and those that came in like a firehose on a campfire. This book contains stories of both.

The following proverb, For the Want of a Nail the Shoe was Lost, penned by the great Benjamin Franklin in Poor Richard’s Almanac, serves as the catalyst for these stories. This proverb, or a variation of it, has been used for many centuries. The gist has always remained the same; e.g., a horseshoe nail costing a kingdom.

For the want of a nail the shoe was lost,

For the want of a shoe the horse was lost,

For the want of a horse the rider was lost,

For the want of a rider the battle was lost,

For the want of a battle the kingdom was lost—

And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

Here I am simply copying the idea of one of my favorite authors, James Herriot, who wrote a series of books, titling each one from the line of the hymn from Cecil Francis Alexander:

All things bright and beautiful,

All creatures great and small,

All things wise and wonderful:

The Lord God made them all.

Those James Herriot books were some of my favorites, and my mimicry is only in the highest form of flattery and admiration.

CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter 1 How It Started

Chapter 2 Frank Turley, Number 1

Chapter 3 Mike Edwards, Number 2

Chapter 4 Danny Ward, Number 3

Chapter 5 Kevin Hatridge, Number 4

Chapter 6 Dave Showen, Number 5

Chapter 7 Jim Keith, Number 6

Chapter 8 Bob Marshall, Number 7

Chapter 9 Dusty Franklin, Number 8

Chapter 10 Sandy Beveridge, Number 9

Chapter 11 Derek Gardner 10

Chapter 12 Paul Duddy, Number 11

Chapter 13 Mike Miller, Number 12

Chapter 14 Conclusion

The Interviews

Frank Turley:

Mike Edwards:

Danny Ward:

Kevin Hatridge:

Dave Showen:

Jim Keith:

Bob Marshall:

Dusty Franklin:

Sandy Beveridge:

Derek Gardner

Paul Duddy:

Mike Miller:

About the Author

Introduction

Although this is a book about some of the influential farriers that helped build my career, it goes without saying that Kelly Gregory has been the most important person that I have ever met. No matter what else you do, I recommend that you marry well. You can have an amazing or horrible career, wealth or poverty, live where you don’t want to live, etc., but if your marriage is great, your life can still be great. There is no doubt in my mind that I would never have accomplished anything without the support of that great woman, so this book would have been entitled Top One if it were about the one person who made the biggest impact on my life and career.

Added to that was the fortunate event of being born to amazing parents and a lot of family support throughout my life. My grandparents were important people in my young life, and my big-city aunt has been a loving ally since I was born. I also had two incredible kids that have become wonderful adults and parents of their own, giving Kelly and me some grandkids that are smarter and more advanced than any other young humans ever were (excepting your grandchildren, of course). I have to say that my life has felt like one blessing after another.

All of us can look back on our pasts and see the people and events in hindsight that brought us to wherever we have landed. This book is about twelve men I was lucky enough to cross paths with and their impact on my career. I decided to tell some of the memories I have of their part in my story. I sent all of them a list of questions and have included their answers at the end of this work in their own words.

Top Ten was a phrase that drove me for many years as a young farrier. It was in reference to a magical place and time: The World Championship Blacksmith Competition in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It happened every year in July during the Calgary Stampede. Billed as The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth, it lived up to that title in my mind. What better place than The Greatest Outdoor Show On Earth to host a world championship in my chosen trade? I thought I would borrow that phrase, Top Ten, to write about my personal top ten career influencers. However, it wasn’t enough. To stop at ten would have left out some that needed to be included, so I went to twelve. Maybe a little selfishly at that, since there were a few years at Calgary where I would have been in the championship shoeing if they had taken twelve. I think Top Twelve has a ring to it, don’t you? I can remember being in eleventh or twelfth place more than once and thinking if only. Well, these are my memories, so I decided to make it twelve instead of ten.

My career, thankfully, began in a time before the internet. In fact, I often bragged as a young school owner that I was in an internet-proof business. As if such a thing exists. I thought the internet would probably not catch on, and only be useful to academics and such. Sure glad I didn’t do a lot of investing in Wall Street with my skill at seeing the future. I could not have been more wrong about the World Wide Web (and many other things as well), and I was ultimately forced to play the game of social media since I had become accustomed to eating.

For those that will never know the world without the internet, it was a time where you only got to learn by direct exposure to those that knew what you wanted to know. It took a lot of time, effort, and money to advance your skills. You were at the mercy of your ability to get to the right place with the right people. Nowadays, you can see and learn some amazing stuff at three in the morning in your pajamas, or when you need an answer in the middle of the day. However, there is the danger of so many opinions that the young farrier is tasked with winnowing the wheat from the chaff. As Jim Keith mentions, it is important to know anatomy at a high level so that you can determine whether the information makes any sense. Bad theory that is cleverly marketed has been a problem for a lot of horses because it was applied by someone that did not understand the application and the manner it would affect the horse.

There was no better place or time on the planet to become a competent farrier than to be at Calgary for that contest. Everywhere you looked you could see a new way to bend a toe, build a heel, or pull a clip. That week would fuel you for a year, and those that got involved found it to be addictive. I know I sure did.

I was never an amazing competitor. Although I wanted to be, it wasn’t in the cards. I was cursed by the same affliction as everyone else of only 24 hours in a day, and there were other demands that I had to meet. Not that I did not try my best. In 18 trips to Calgary, I only made the Top Ten once. (Maybe I will tell that story in another book.) I was between 10th and 20th over a dozen times, but there aren’t any prizes that far down the list. But I was exposed to, got to know and learn from, and expanded my horizon by being there amongst some very great farriers.

This book is about some of the inspirational people that played a huge part in my career. Let me emphasize the word some. When it came to people teaching me this craft, it has been happening since the beginning of my career and continues today, 35 years later. I have been to hundreds of clinics and got to work with and see many of the legends of farriery. I have spent hours at the anvil with many world champions and worked side by side with so many incredible farriers. Students teach me things all the time, and it is humbling to be doing this trade for so long and still have so much to learn. It would be impossible to name these people, so I have decided not to try. In this book are some of the ones that really stand out in my memory and were willing and able to answer the interview questions I sent them. These guys were part of those game-changing moments that we all experience in life.

There are times where I will work hard to get a student to learn something with no success. For instance, I’ll say, This is the sweet spot, stay on top of the horn, this is where you bend the shoe, this is where you straighten it, etc.—maybe a dozen times or more, saying it in every way that I can think of. Still they will look at me like I am speaking another language. Later, maybe hours, maybe days, that student might say to me, Hey boss, Kelly finally taught me how to shape a shoe. She told me to hit it here and then hold it so that I work on top of the horn like this. Man, that used to frustrate all of us as teachers. But what is really happening is that the student is finally ready to hear and understand, and the time you spent working towards that goal is what helped them get to that point. Kelly might have gotten the credit in the student’s mind, but that is not the important thing as long as they end up learning the skill. I would guess that when I was in the early years of learning, there were people that tried to teach me something but others ended up with the credit. That is just what happens as we go through life.

It is also important to emphasize that I am focusing on the farriers that were part of my early farrier career, not all of the other great people who were part of helping me achieve whatever measure I was capable of. I’ve had great preachers in my church, family support, friends in publishing, teaching, manufacturing, marketing, and so many other aspects of what it takes to go beyond the mechanics of shoeing a horse. I have also been exposed to so many amazing farriers around the globe, and a lot of them are close friends that have shared important parts of my career. I hope to continue the stories so that they can be recognized for their part, but it is beyond the scope of this work. Again, to name a few would be disservice to those that I would unavoidably forget, and I hope that as they read this they know how much I appreciate them all.

If you get the chance to write a memoir, you will find that amongst the great