What is a shoeing stock?

Good Question!

Remember the cold metal things in the old department store shoe sections?

The aluminum ones with black paint, that you had to step on with stocking feet and the “shoe person” would check the length of your foot along with its width with the sliding metal tab-thingies?

 

I remember Carlisle’s Department Store in Painesville, Ohio.  There was a Kresge’s then too……………….ancient history.

Going to Carlisle’s was an up-scale pilgrimage.

 

 

 

 

It was second best only to going on the “Rapid Transit” to downtown Cleveland to visit Santa Claus at Higbee’s and Halle’s Department Stores………………that was an annual-all-time-biggie!

 

 

 

 

Stiff crinoline petticoats, Peter Pan collars, and little white gloves…………..that was just part of the necessary uniforms for these special trips….

 

 

(Mine always had Bosco stains on them…………along with an indelible Bosco mustache.)

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

But back to the cold, metal thingie that you had to step on in your anklets to have a shoe sized to your foot…………………..

Well………………that’s not what I’m talking about in this post…

Sorry, Lola…………..digression seem to be my middle name………….actually it’s Ann.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Where was I?

I’m talking about the large, timbered and metal-braced apparatus that an Amish gentleman by the name of Yoder created.  (“Yoder” is to the Amish like “Patel” is to the Indians or “Smith” is to the English————there are lots of Amish “Yoders”.)

************Claire has demanded a shoeing stock************

 

!!!!!All four of her hooves are 9 1/2″ wide……………I measured them!!!!!

She’s not a petite girl.

 

She’s raw-boned, hairy, and a super-huge, angular behemoth……………….I love it!

And her hooves are super heavy………………….AND she doesn’t like picking them up…

I could drug and sedate her everyday of her life, so that I can pick up and treat each hoof………………………..but somehow that just doesn’t seem prudent, does it?

My young farrier suggested a stock.

Claire could snap him in two.

We both think in her mysterious past that she has only known how to pick up her hooves in a shoeing stock.

A stock may look a bit like an apparatus that has been time-warped forward from a Spanish Inquisition dungeon, but it really can be a kinder, more secure way for a big horse to feel comfortable about having its hooves lifted & fussed with.

Having lived in rural Ohio as a child, I grew familiar with a lot of the Amish’s culture.

So recently, in order to contact Yoder’s store in Ohio, I called the telephone number and left a message.

 

A few days later, I got a return call from Amos.  (Apparently Amos could use the telephone.)

We talked…………….when he receives my bank check, he will send out the shoeing stock hardware.

Photo of Shoeing Stock/Rural Heritage Magazine

Then I can use the blueprints from Rural Heritage magazine, and buy the necessary lumber down here.

I’ve already asked Jimmy Billy if he’ll put it together for us………………..yep!

And………………………………..Bob’s your Uncle………………………………(Bob’s back!).

We will soon have a shoeing stock for petite Claire’s tootsies……..