Martha Stewart’s Master Farrier
Martha has a barnful of horses, including the four prize Friesians, Rinze , Bond , Hylke, and Geert, she brought over from the Netherlands. The horses and their housing, feeding, and care are but one small piece of the entire economy that is Martha’s 150+ acre Cantitoe Corners in Katonah, and yet the horses alone require enormous attention. There’s barn stewards, and groomers, and regular veterinary care, and a farrier, named Marc Hill, who is a graduate of the most esteemed school for farriers at Cornell, who regularly attends to the horses’ hooves. ...But when any of Martha’s horses require special attention - they call upon the Master Farrier, Michael Wildenstein, ‘the Hoof Doctor’, to come for a ‘barn call’.
Over the course of his distinguished career, Michael has taken the task and skill of shoeing horses to an art form. “I grew up in Mt. Upton in the Northern Catskills in a family of farmers, loggers, and millers,” Michael recounts. “I had plenty of time around large farm animals - certainly enough to learn that you have to be calm, cool, and collected to keep the animals stable. They read your energy from forty feet away. I remember that, in his Prairie Home Companion radio show, Garrison Keillor used to parody the slow and monotone speech pattern of a character known as the Norwegian Bachelor Farmer - pointing out that the slow and monotone affectation was a direct result of working with large animals…and I recognize I sound a bit like the Norwegian Bachelor Farmer. And I had some experience showing horses and working with them around the farm. …So learning how to shoe horses was a natural part of that upbringing.”
“I went to Paul Smith College to study Forestry and Biology, but in the mid-70s there were about three positions in Forestry for every Fifteen Hundred Forestry graduates. …With some inspiration and help from my grandfather, I decided to make my hobby shoeing horses into a career. Because I couldn’t get into the most prestigious program at Cornell, I went to a Canadian agricultural school in Truro, Nova Scotia for a specialized course of study in Draft and Coach horses…and I did well enough that one of the professors then got me into Cornell’s Farrier Program! At Cornell, I studied the specialties of lameness, anatomy, and theory, and then got full-time work right out of school as Farrier to six different large hitches - which were groups of up to twenty-five large horses travelling around on a professional event circuit - and I did that for almost ten years. …Then I fell in love with a Danish veterinarian who was in the United States doing research at the University of Pennsylvania… and I moved to Denmark for about the next five years. During that time, I took the Danish examinations and earned ‘elite’ farrier status, and competed in International horseshoeing competitions and worked all over Scandinavia and Europe with numerous veterinary clinics, and did quite a bit of work on Dressage and Jumpers.”
“Then, in 1991, I was hired as the Resident Farrier at the Cornell Veterinary School…and enjoyed that role - being a teacher at Cornell’s Veterinary and Agriculture Schools - as my primary gig, for twenty years. I worked with students from Cornell’s Veterinary and Agriculture Schools. I also had the opportunity to take the ‘English’ farrier examinations which are the most stringent in the world and earned a fellowship with honors from the Worshipful Company of Farriers, established in 1356,” Michael explains. “This opportunity to teach at the highest level was a great honor, and even a greater pleasure! …And in 2006 I was also inducted into the Horseshoeing Hall of Fame - and have a horseshoe hanging at the Churchill Downs Museum to commemorate that honor!”
“Since 2010, the world has been my classroom,”
Michael declares. “I’m on the road two hundred days a year, coaching, consulting, and teaching at farrier schools, and tending to a few special horses for special clients like Martha…and I’m not going to tell who else. Word-of-mouth is my only advertisement.’
“There’s always work for a good Farrier,” Michael says. “The profession is very much alive and there are plenty of schools to learn the skills. Although not every horse needs shoes, there are horses everywhere, and there are dedicated Thoroughbred, Hunter, Jumper, and Dressage, and Heavy and Draft Horse communities all around the United States. Though ‘Farrier’ is often defined as a blacksmith who shoes horses, the two jobs are actually distinct. A blacksmith works with iron - a farrier shoes horses. …I’m both.”
“Where the real talent comes in is providing individualized and proper care for each horse, one hoof at a time,” Michael teaches. “We start out trying to get as much information as possible about the horse. How does the horse run? We want to make adaptations to work with that horse’s confirmations and skill set to best enhance that horse’s abilities. Hooves - which are a protein like our fingernails - are naturally very dynamic, even humidity and weather can make a difference, and any disease or pathology will get better, or worse, depending on what’s happening - and on the shoes. When we trim the hoof, we try to leave the ideal target area for the small nails we use to affix the shoe. Sometimes, we work with adhesives or pads, but like with the human nail, it’s not healthy to seal the hoof. Then we pick just the right shoe. For Martha’s Friesians, for instance, because they are big Draft horses we use a wider shoe, and in order not to increase the overall weight of the shoe we use aluminium instead of iron. And, depending on a horse’s particular purpose, we choose shoes with more or less traction, or other specific characteristics. ”
“I’m 67, and I’ve had a beautiful life experience,” Michael exalts. “I’m thrilled to still be working full-time, and feel lucky to work among passionate and dedicated people, and with some amazing horses. In addition to my regular teaching, I get to help some horse rescues and some mounted units. And I’m fortunate to be sponsored by a company from Holland called Kerckhaert Horseshoes, Farrier Product Distribution out of Shelbyville, Kentucky, and Keystone Leather out of Pennsylvania. And I’ve got a line of Instructional Videos that are available on the Farrier Product Distribution and Keystone Leather websites. …I do go to a horse race or a horse show if I know a particular horse or an owner who’s involved, and I like to watch competitive carriage driving, but when I get some free time I like to go kayaking, mountain climbing, and hiking. I have a home in Sharon, Vermont, and, as I travel around the country, I always have a kayak - or two - on the roof of my car, ready to jump into the next roaring river.”
