ARGYLE - A day of work for Matt Maurer involves 12 to 15 horses and a set of tools. He brings his hoof knife, pincers, rasp, anvil, rounding hammer, driving hammer and clincher to a stable. He enters the stalls with 14 years' experience as a professional farrier and a lifetime love of horses. In between tasks, he's likely to be on the receiving end of a home-cooked meal and a slice of pie.
Maurer has specialized in hoof trimming and horseshoeing as a full-time specialist in equine hoof care since 1999. Servicing horse farms throughout southern Wisconsin, he handles between 250 and 350 head of horses every six to eight weeks with his business, Maurer Forge.
Despite a healthy stream of business, however, Maurer knows the farrier business remains shrouded in mystery.
"You always get the same question from people - they're surprised someone can make a living doing this," Maurer said. "But when you're in the business, you kind of think - 'Well, there's an awful lot of horses out here if you drive out in the country and just start counting.'"
Maurer enjoys the history of his trade. Going back through the centuries, farriers and blacksmiths were essentially synonymous and constituted a "huge part of any small community," he said. Maurer said he loves the fact his farrier tools remain nearly identical to those used way back when.
"I think it's one of the few professions that you can go back 100 years or 200 years and they'd be using about the same tools we're using now," he said. "Certainly we have a lot of advances with products and digital X-rays, but the core set of tools - like putting six or eight nails in a steel shoe and nailing them on, hasn't changed in a long, long time. And I think it's just neat to be a part of that tradition.
"Plus, I like being around the horses. You get to work on your own and be around animals. It's hard on your body, but all in all I can't imagine doing anything else."
Maurer said his favorite story about the perception of farrier work involves a client who attended a historical re-enactment a few years back. "There was a blacksmith there building utensils. He was talking to the crowd and he said, 'Yeah, there used to be these people - and they called 'em farriers. They'd drive out to the farms and shoe your horses. But I don't think there's any of those anymore.'
"She came back to me and said, 'You're extinct, and you didn't even know it.'"
Maurer's fascination with horses started when he was a child growing up in southeastern Missouri. He said growing up, he "always wanted to be a cowboy, and if you were going to be a cowboy, you had to be on a horse to do it." His family never owned any horses, but he rode his neighbors' and "always knew that something with horses was where I wanted to be."
Maurer got into the farrier business shortly after managing an Arabian breeding farm in Waunakee, starting horses under saddle. The farm had a farrier out to the farm every six weeks, and as Maurer got to talking with him about his trade, he quickly discovered he was interested in learning all about it.
His fascination with farrier work led him to Dave Kinney, whom Maurer would shadow every Tuesday while slowly building up his own business. Despite gaining a handful of horseshoeing clients, Maurer would seize an opportunity to go to Texas to work on some ranches. But a nervous horse led to a broken leg for Maurer, and everything changed.
"When I had a broken leg, I worked for a blacksmith who had jobs for me on a stool," he said. And it didn't take long before Maurer realized he'd "be better under (horses) than on top of them."
In 2004, Maurer started working with Dean Johanningmeier, who provides farrier services at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's School of Veterinary Care. Johanningmeier pushed Maurer to understand more of the internal structures as well as therapeutic shoeing.
"He's just a wealth of knowledge for foot ailments," Maurer said of Johanningmeier.
A good understanding of anatomy is very important, Maurer said. While farriers are not allowed to invade soft tissue like veterinarians can, Maurer said "we have to be pretty careful about what we do." He added it's important "to know the mechanics of the foot so we don't make mistakes" and to work with veterinarians whenever necessary.
As our understanding of the species continues to evolve scientifically, Maurer said he keeps up with research about wild horses and how they wear their feet in natural environments. But while studies of the proportions of a horse's foot can be helpful, he said, the subjectivity of what constitutes a truly natural environment keeps him flexible in his approach.
"If I was going to keep gorillas in a zoo, I would want to go and study the environment of the gorillas, knowing I would never really be able to reproduce that in a zoo," he said. Maurer added that research can be used as a guide for farrier work, but variables such as dry weather and fungus bring his methods to "a balancing act."
Maurer said that at the end of the day, nothing makes working with horses go smoothly like experience. "Over the years I've found horses are real susceptible to the owner being anxious, and it's surprising how much.
"So you get to where you can study people pretty good. If the owner is nervous, you try to almost put them at ease before you even head to the horses, because if they're standing there with their teeth clenched the whole time, horses will (pick up on that)."
Maurer said business is good for local farriers because of "a huge concentration of horses" in this area, and pointed out that Oregon is considered the horse capital of Wisconsin.
Maurer recently attended a get-together in Mount Horeb populated by about 30 or 40 farriers from a 100-mile radius.
"There's a lot more of us than you think," he said.
For Maurer, the perks of the job make a pretty long list - from working with horses to just being able to wear jeans to work every day. But the best part, he said, is a core group of clients.
"I've been lucky where if I'm there all day, they'll fix you a nice lunch," Maurer laughed. "I think I get some husbands mad at me because their wives will bake me a pie, but they can't get a pie out of her.
"It's like anything else; it's a relationship. You get to see their kids grow up; you get to see what happens in their lives, and they keep up on what's going on in yours. So I think the people really make it.
"You can deal with a lot more horse issues if you're dealing with a good person who knows you're trying to do the best for them."
Maurer has specialized in hoof trimming and horseshoeing as a full-time specialist in equine hoof care since 1999. Servicing horse farms throughout southern Wisconsin, he handles between 250 and 350 head of horses every six to eight weeks with his business, Maurer Forge.
Despite a healthy stream of business, however, Maurer knows the farrier business remains shrouded in mystery.
"You always get the same question from people - they're surprised someone can make a living doing this," Maurer said. "But when you're in the business, you kind of think - 'Well, there's an awful lot of horses out here if you drive out in the country and just start counting.'"
Maurer enjoys the history of his trade. Going back through the centuries, farriers and blacksmiths were essentially synonymous and constituted a "huge part of any small community," he said. Maurer said he loves the fact his farrier tools remain nearly identical to those used way back when.
"I think it's one of the few professions that you can go back 100 years or 200 years and they'd be using about the same tools we're using now," he said. "Certainly we have a lot of advances with products and digital X-rays, but the core set of tools - like putting six or eight nails in a steel shoe and nailing them on, hasn't changed in a long, long time. And I think it's just neat to be a part of that tradition.
"Plus, I like being around the horses. You get to work on your own and be around animals. It's hard on your body, but all in all I can't imagine doing anything else."
Maurer said his favorite story about the perception of farrier work involves a client who attended a historical re-enactment a few years back. "There was a blacksmith there building utensils. He was talking to the crowd and he said, 'Yeah, there used to be these people - and they called 'em farriers. They'd drive out to the farms and shoe your horses. But I don't think there's any of those anymore.'
"She came back to me and said, 'You're extinct, and you didn't even know it.'"
Maurer's fascination with horses started when he was a child growing up in southeastern Missouri. He said growing up, he "always wanted to be a cowboy, and if you were going to be a cowboy, you had to be on a horse to do it." His family never owned any horses, but he rode his neighbors' and "always knew that something with horses was where I wanted to be."
Maurer got into the farrier business shortly after managing an Arabian breeding farm in Waunakee, starting horses under saddle. The farm had a farrier out to the farm every six weeks, and as Maurer got to talking with him about his trade, he quickly discovered he was interested in learning all about it.
His fascination with farrier work led him to Dave Kinney, whom Maurer would shadow every Tuesday while slowly building up his own business. Despite gaining a handful of horseshoeing clients, Maurer would seize an opportunity to go to Texas to work on some ranches. But a nervous horse led to a broken leg for Maurer, and everything changed.
"When I had a broken leg, I worked for a blacksmith who had jobs for me on a stool," he said. And it didn't take long before Maurer realized he'd "be better under (horses) than on top of them."
In 2004, Maurer started working with Dean Johanningmeier, who provides farrier services at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's School of Veterinary Care. Johanningmeier pushed Maurer to understand more of the internal structures as well as therapeutic shoeing.
"He's just a wealth of knowledge for foot ailments," Maurer said of Johanningmeier.
A good understanding of anatomy is very important, Maurer said. While farriers are not allowed to invade soft tissue like veterinarians can, Maurer said "we have to be pretty careful about what we do." He added it's important "to know the mechanics of the foot so we don't make mistakes" and to work with veterinarians whenever necessary.
As our understanding of the species continues to evolve scientifically, Maurer said he keeps up with research about wild horses and how they wear their feet in natural environments. But while studies of the proportions of a horse's foot can be helpful, he said, the subjectivity of what constitutes a truly natural environment keeps him flexible in his approach.
"If I was going to keep gorillas in a zoo, I would want to go and study the environment of the gorillas, knowing I would never really be able to reproduce that in a zoo," he said. Maurer added that research can be used as a guide for farrier work, but variables such as dry weather and fungus bring his methods to "a balancing act."
Maurer said that at the end of the day, nothing makes working with horses go smoothly like experience. "Over the years I've found horses are real susceptible to the owner being anxious, and it's surprising how much.
"So you get to where you can study people pretty good. If the owner is nervous, you try to almost put them at ease before you even head to the horses, because if they're standing there with their teeth clenched the whole time, horses will (pick up on that)."
Maurer said business is good for local farriers because of "a huge concentration of horses" in this area, and pointed out that Oregon is considered the horse capital of Wisconsin.
Maurer recently attended a get-together in Mount Horeb populated by about 30 or 40 farriers from a 100-mile radius.
"There's a lot more of us than you think," he said.
For Maurer, the perks of the job make a pretty long list - from working with horses to just being able to wear jeans to work every day. But the best part, he said, is a core group of clients.
"I've been lucky where if I'm there all day, they'll fix you a nice lunch," Maurer laughed. "I think I get some husbands mad at me because their wives will bake me a pie, but they can't get a pie out of her.
"It's like anything else; it's a relationship. You get to see their kids grow up; you get to see what happens in their lives, and they keep up on what's going on in yours. So I think the people really make it.
"You can deal with a lot more horse issues if you're dealing with a good person who knows you're trying to do the best for them."