It Begins

Farriery has been on my mind big time since my experience with Mr. Masterson. I think about it day and night, and I talk about it to anyone I can rope into listening. Last night I dreamt about it. I was standing in a golden field. My truck was there, properly outfitted. Horses were standing around grazing. The sky was blue and the mountains were behind me. I was hammering shoes, and the only sound I could hear was the wind. I was alone, making my own way in the world with the tools of raw creation. I was my own boss, working in the Great Western Outdoors, master of an arcane trade - simple in its concept, complex in its subtleties. I was utterly at peace, and all the world was right.

I sat bolt upright in bed, and it took me a moment to realize it was only a dream.

I called Mr. Masterson on the phone this morning.

"Hello," he answered plainly.

"Mr. Masterson? Billy Roberts here," I said.

"Why Billy Roberts!" he said, his voice suddenly coming to life. "Great to hear from you! How are you doing, man? I'm really looking forward to working together!" His reaction was as if he were hearing from an old friend, which I found to be both comforting and reassuring - if not slightly unexpected.

We talked a little about work (his and mine), the weather, his application to vet school and some other small talk, then talked a lot about farriery. Seems I'll be his first apprentice and he's as excited about it as I am.

"So let's see," he said. I heard papers rustling on the other end of the line. "I could use you all day Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday of next week. Then the week after that..."

"Whoa," I said. "I do have a full time job and I'm a full time grad student, so my schedule isn't that flexible just now." We ended up scheduling two full days' work back-to-back to get things rolling. "We'll get you under a horse right away," he said. He told me to wear my boots and jeans and bring leather gloves, and that he had an extra pair of chaps I could wear. I'm to meet him at the crack of dawn at the horse barn, to get things setup before the horses start coming in. He said I should plan on shoeing a whole herd's worth of horses. Well, I won't be doing the shoeing. I'll mostly be doing the grunt work: cleaning and trimming and learning the detailed anatomy of a horse's foot. Some of this I know already. I do basic hoof maintenance and horse grooming every week before and after riding, and at the two horse rescues where I've been volunteering. But soon I'll be using knives and files and learning things I don't even know I don't know. "Just knowing how to hold a horse's foot without wearing out your back is the biggest challenge for new guys," he said. "But you'll get it in no time."

Do you ever get the sense that something big, some significant and exciting new thing has just popped into your life? That's how I'm feeling. I keep trying to explain it away or brush it off, but I can't shake it. I've felt that way about all of the big things that have come into my life and enriched it or changed its course for the better: Texas A&M, Austin, Gerard and Colorado to name a few of the biggest. I think - I hope - I'll eventually be able to add this experience to the list.

Dang. I'm excited.