| When I first started my horse shoeing career I | | | | The message implied here? This horse lied in wait for |
| apprenticed for slightly over a year and was on a | | | | me, this horse stands motionless luring you in, drawing |
| shoeing job in Gilroy California at Savanah Farms. The | | | | you close, and right when you think things are the most |
| horse being shod was a very beautiful bay halter | | | | perfect he strikes with wild abandon and devastating |
| show horse - an Arab gelding. And I do happen to be | | | | power. The same day before we were done the |
| an Arab fan. | | | | horse kicked the farrier I was apprenticing with and did |
| We had the horse is cross ties and I had gotten both | | | | break his leg - right at the knee, a quick rush to the |
| front feet done and finished, both rear shoes are put | | | | hospital "he's in shock" and a bolt through the knee |
| on but needing to finish rasping. While shoeing this | | | | later and we're on our way home not knowing what in |
| horse it remained in the cross ties like a statue, never | | | | the world hit us. |
| moving a muscle. It was Beautiful and magnificent | | | | The long and short of this, it took me a full year before |
| looking. I had been working on this horse for about 40 | | | | I could do a full body weight squat on my knee. Every |
| minutes at this point and I was just saying to my self | | | | time I would try to squat down it felt as though my |
| "oh boy, he's being perfect all horses should be just like | | | | knee was full of fluid and would bind up and if forced I |
| this horse". I had just put his rear foot on the finishing | | | | knew something would be damaged. It was a year of |
| stand as I was saying this. As I bent over to pick up | | | | constant testing my knee and exercising it to see how |
| the rasp to finish his foot and right as I was thinking | | | | far I could squat before one day I finally got into a full |
| how perfect he was he NAILED ME! Like being shot | | | | bottom position with the knee - Only to find when I |
| by cannon! Full power kick dead center my knee. | | | | tried to stand up and extend the knee it would lock up |
| Everything went in slow motion for me. The kick | | | | before I even got several inches to stand up. I'd have |
| actually happened in probably thousands of a second | | | | to stop and massage the side of my knee and until I'd |
| but to me it was as if the kick came from clear | | | | get a very loud audible POP out of the side of my |
| across the room but I was frozen and couldn't move. | | | | knee before I could stand. |
| The slow motion experience is a strange one and my | | | | Then about another year of popping before I could |
| first experience with it. Had I not been bending over to | | | | treat my leg as something I was hopeful would return |
| pick up the rasp and lifted the foot of my leg off the | | | | to normal function. All the while during this process I still |
| ground my leg would have been broken completely in | | | | needed to make a living shoeing horses, and needless |
| two. Since my foot was "Off" the ground the kick | | | | to say all one had to do while I was under it shoeing |
| "Blew" my leg out from under me backwards instead | | | | was to sneeze and I'd find myself peeling myself off |
| of breaking in two like a chicken leg. | | | | the rafters , my nerves and the fear were intense. |
| There was not one mark on the front of my knee but | | | | The shook nerves I had lasted about six months. |
| the whole back side of my leg turned black and blue. | | | | Today I sometimes forget which leg was kicked. |
| My knee had been hyper-extended seriously. In the | | | | I got lucky. |
| same manner you would break a chicken wing in two | | | | I hope my friend, my new client, who is lying in the |
| before eating it. Of course my knee swelled the size | | | | hospital due to a kick can say the same thing one day. |
| of a grapefruit. Thankfully nothing broken but lots of | | | | God bless. |
| pain and I have high tolerance to pain. | | | | |