If the shoe fits

Lynn Tyndall of Deep Run is that rare man who is really into shoes.

As surely as Cinderella’s glass slippers and Dorothy’s red shoes, they have changed his life.

It is the clanking of metal horseshoes on an anvil and the tap, tap, tapping as nails fasten shoes to horses’ hooves that are music to Tyndall.

As a farrier, he has used that tune to transform an early love of horses into the trade that kept him earning a living when textiles could not in North Carolina.

“As a kid, something with horses was all I wanted to do,” said Tyndall, who is 43 now. “But I was 20 before I got one and I have had one every since. When I got started I couldn’t get anyone to shoe them like I wanted.”

Now he drives a $65,000 rig tagged “SHOES4U” over Eastern North Carolina from Shallotte to Williamston, and up the East Coast, carrying everything a farrier needs to keep some of the best horses on the show circuit stepping up.

Tyndall straps on a heavy leather shoeing apron and starts work with the first anvil he ever owned and a chest of tools, most of which have been worn out and replaced many times in 14 years.

“There aren’t many days I don’t work in one, at least one,” he said. “I do all the school horses in Martin Community College stable, between 40 and 60 horses all the time.”

A perfect fit is individual for each show horse because they are judged on movement, he said. A full set of shoes, now made mostly of aluminum on the front for lighter weight and better traction and often steel on the back, costs $125.

Being a farrier requires Tyndall to combine some of the skills of a blacksmith in fabricating and adjusting metal shoes with some veterinary medicine expertise, particularly understanding the horse’s lower leg anatomy.

“My mentor is R.C. Clark, who I consider one of the best farriers on the East Coast,” said Tyndall. He worked with Clark and lived with him in Oxford for a while as he learned his trade.

“There are several around and the good ones are in demand,” Tyndall said. “I’m not bragging but I am in high demand, mostly for show horses. I average shoeing seven a day, about 35 a week.”

Most show horses get new shoes every five to eight weeks, depending on how much they are ridden, he said.

His work is mostly trimming and shoeing hooves but it requires him to be a specialist in equine hoof care. For the shoe to fit, Tyndall has to trim hooves so the horse keeps even balance.

For horses like Amy Haire’s Appaloosa, K.C., who is at the Gables’ Run Equestrian Center off Thurman Road, the job also requires patience and hope.

“K.C., is an ’86 model,” said Haire, Gables’ Run operator with Tyndall and trainer since Nov. 1, 2007.

Haire grew up in New Bern and has been riding since she was a little girl.

“It’s something I can’t get out of my blood,” said Haire. Her daughter, Nikki Haire, also rides and is among the top 10 in her class in the world. . “It’s a lifelong journey and commitment.”

K.C. is one of ten horses at the 16-stall center now with names like Try, Hershey, Squirt, Speckles, Rodder, Scooter and Zeb. He is 22 years old and mostly in great shape. K.C. was shown until last year but now has Cronin’s disease, a problem involving a small brain tumor that results in his hooves falling apart.

“It takes six months to a year to grow a new hoof,” Tyndall said. Therapeutic work, pads to make the horse comfortable and an epoxy mixed to fill and fix, are required for him.

Among the more difficult horses to show are Tennessee walkers, said Tyndall. “They move fast and have heavy pads and steel shoes and we want them to walk like a ballerina.

“It helps that you are into riding; you see things from the rider and trainer perspective about what they are trying to get from the horse and the shoes.”

Tyndall said he “ran into some bad ones when I first started out, and some can still be pretty rough, I’ve handled so many by now I’ve pretty much learned how to approach them, keep them calm.”

Tyndall also shows horses, mostly quarter horses in pleasure and hunt seat western style in about 20 competitions on the Quarter Horse Circuit in North Carolina and the East Coast.

“I do pretty good,” he said. “It takes a while to get to the top but I’m doing mid-level competitions now. I do a lot of big shows.”

Shows for most riders “are just a hobby,” Tyndall said. “You do it and it costs money.”

At some of the bigger shows, riders can win $1,500 to $2,000 but it takes getting to the truly upscale celebrity circuit to win the big bucks, $100,000 to $250,000.

“People sometimes start out hoping to get to that level but that takes getting the right horses and a lot of hard work,” he said. “And the stars and the moon have to be lined up just right.”

So do the shoes.

Sue Book can be reached at (252) 635-5666 or sbook@freedomenc.com.