The farrier hot shoes a pony

The farrier in the forge hot shoes a pony for its owner in Modbury. Farriery is the shoeing of mainly equine feet. The smith recounts a few memories of when he started in the Forge. He recalls being hit after losing control of a large hammer which he calls the Sarge in reference to a bossy army sergeant stereotype. A smith works with metal in a furnace to bend a shoe into shape using a hammer and an anvil before placing the cooled shoe on the hoof and nailing it on.

Modbury is a beautiful village set in South Devon's Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The Old Smithy exists in name only near Ivybridge. A rival farrier in Aveton Gifford charged 2 shilling and 2d or pence undercutting the Modbury Forge by tuppence for four horseshoes. Farriery was practised first in the Roman Empire although in 1897 four bronze horseshoes were found in an Etruscan tomb dated at around 400 B.C. The domestication of horses, changes to diet and less roaming meant hooves were shoed enabling a horse to bear weight more easily.