Ed Kay: not horsing around when it comes to shoes
Ed Kay of Saint-catherine-de-hatley says that his work shoeing horses could keep him busy seven days a week if he let it.
“It’s a full time job,” he said, pointing out that although some people might think of putting shoes on a horse as something from pioneer days, he has more than enough work to keep him busy both in his own neighbourhood, and on the road.
For those who may not know, Kay explained that the work of farriers like him, craftspeople who trim and shoe horses’ feet, is of great importance to working animals and show horses.
“The horses that stay out in the field; most of them don’t have any shoes on because they’re not doing anything other than walking around in the grass and eating,” he said. “Their feet really don’t wear out, they just kind of grow, but if you bring that same horse into a sand ring and start working them, the foot will start to wear down, like they’re on sandpaper.”
The more that horse works on the rough terrain without proper protection, the more risk they run of foot injuries that could end their usefulness for show or work purposes.
These days, Kay said, horseshoes come from a range of different companies with different manufacturing practises and styles. Even if the product comes out of a box, though, he argued that a good farrier knows that every horse has different feet, and that the shoes still need to be worked in order to achieve a good fit.
“When you get a shoe, it’s preshaped, but it doesn’t fit on the horse. You have to heat up the shoe and fit it to the foot,” he said, underlining the difference between the work he does and that of “backyard guys” looking to get the job done quickly.
When he makes a distinction like that, it’s important to recognize that Kay has been practicing his craft for almost 40 years now.
“I started when I was about 15 or 16 years old, just playing around,” he said. “I didn’t know very much then, but an old farmer passed me some tools, and that’s basically where it started.”
Working, at the time, more-or less as one of those ‘backyard guys’ himself, Kay said that he picked up tricks and techniques here and there as he was able. Dissatisfied with that method, however, he eventually registered for a six month course near Kemptville, Ontario.
The course then led to an apprenticeship with renowned Canadian farrier Larry Rumsby, whom Kay referred to as a great mentor.
“A lot of guys try to hide all their little secrets, but he showed me everything,” he said, adding that, “he’s basically one of the one of the top shoers in Canada.”
That partnership lasted about five years before Kay went off on his own, but it also proved to be a relationship that changed his career
“He called me back later because he was shoeing some horses for a big client in Ontario, so I went to help him out, and we shod the horse Hickstead, he went to Beijing Olympics and won the gold.”
After having worked on a horse considered by some to be among the greatest show jumping horses of all time, the farrier said that his clientele quickly grew to include more highperformance animals.
“I’ve done two horses that went to the Olympics this year,” he said, explaining that Brittany Fraserbeaulieu’s ‘All In’ and Naima Moreira Laliberté’s ‘I do kiss’ were both shod by him in the lead-up to their departure for the games.
“Usually the show horses are done between four and five weeks beforehand,” Kay pointed out, sharing that unfortunately, due to the complications of the COVID-19 Pandemic, he won’t be on hand to see the two horses compete in person.
“I was supposed to go to Tokyo, but because of Covid it’s only the riders and the grooms that are allowed to go,” he said.
Without international travel to worry about, however, Kay can continue to work away with his other clients and anyone nearby who might need a helping hand.
“I have some real good horses that I do, and then I have some people that I do around home and they’re just as important to me,” he said. “I do the best job I can on every horse; every horse is an Olympic horse for me.”
Looking back on his career, Kay said that the more he works on shoeing horses, the more complicated the job feels.
“When I first started, I thought shoeing horses was going to be easy, like putting on a pair of shoes,” he reflected. “The longer I’ve been doing it, the more I think there’s a lot more to it than it seems.”
In addition to working with farrier associations to build and develop his knowledge, Kay said that he has also taken on an assistant of his own to start the work of sharing what he has learned over the years.
“He’s 19, which is the perfect age to start bringing somebody up,” he said. “It really helps to have another set of hands.”