Mitch and Suzi Shelhamer were tickled pink

The Basin, Wyo., couple’s 2022 summer was off to a rosy start. Mitch’s farrier and horse training business was doing well, as was Suzi’s Serenity Wellness Retreat. The cherry on top came in mid-June with the birth of their granddaughter.

American Farriers Journal readers and International Hoof-Care Summit attendees might recall the Shelhamers’ story. The daily rigors of shoeing horses for more than 30 years seemingly had caught up with Mitch. He was facing double knee-replacement and hip-replacement surgeries, as well as a doctor-advised change in professions. The third-generation farrier wasn’t quite ready to hang up his shoeing apron. Suzi introduced him to yoga. Ten years later, Mitch continues to shoe horses without surgical intervention.

Suzi and Mitch Shelhamer

“I can do more horses in a given day without the fatigue and stiffness I had suffered from before and feel great,” he says.

While the Shelhamers were preparing an AFJ Farrier Business Success Academy presentation on prolonging one’s farrier career through yoga, their bright existence and future suddenly became clouded. Just one month after the birth of their granddaughter, Mitch didn’t feel well after spraying weeds. He was experiencing headaches, vertigo and numbness. An MRI revealed a vestibular stroke in his brain stem.

As questions surrounded Mitch’s future, neighbors banded together to make the house more accessible for him.

“The community has overwhelmed us with love,” Suzi said at the time. “So many prayers and blessings.”

While Suzi was naturally worried, Mitch was…