The Gold Standard

I owe a lot of my career, especially on shoeing hunters and jumpers, to Jack.

He was like a brother to me and to many other farriers. Jack was one of those knights in shining armor. Back in the 1980s, I got hurt before a big horse show in Traders Point, Ind. Word got to Jack that my back was out. He came up from Georgia and did horses for me. When I got hurt again later, Jack and other guys did all the work and gave me the money they earned.

He was a demanding shoer. He taught me that if you shod a horse, watched that horse walk away and if it wasn’t right, you’d do it over — the whole damn horse. Never turn a horse away that wasn’t right. I learned that from Jack and I taught my students that lesson.

You never knew where you’d run into him. He was a vagabond, but Jack was the gold standard and he never needed a place to stay.

— Bob Peacock, Hamilton, Ohio

He Could Shoe Out Of A Shaving Kit

I first met Jack in 1974. For the high-end, traveling farrier, Jack invented a lot…