Life is like a giant jig saw puzzle. It takes years to find out who you are. You get a few pieces at a time. Those pieces do not go together, sometimes for many years. You also have no idea what the picture looks like that you are putting together. Learning about yourself and staying true to yourself and who you are is a struggle.

We had a medium talk to us at our writers group. Books on paranormal are what is selling right now. We wanted to be able to write with some authority on the subject. Oma, the medium who talked to us, was very approachable. She was a pleasure to listen to. Quite a few of the authors in the group are romance novelists.

I worked with my mentor for a few minutes this week. One of my customers has an older donkey that has foot problems. The owners had the veterinarian out to do radiographs. The veterinarian wanted a more radical trim done. I have been working on this little guy for two years now and have worked hard to keep his feet as short as possible. A different veterinarian said I should be a little more cautious since the coffin bone was rotating toward the sole.

This was confusing, so the owners and I called Bob in. He didn’t take very much foot off at all, so apparently I was doing right by the donkey. I considered the stop a training day. Bob knew I was out there about 4 weeks earlier so he said he would not charge anything. I think we did the best we could for this customer. I was glad to see I was doing the right kind of trim. It is difficult to resolve within yourself that you cannot make some horses feet better. The best you can do is maintain or minimize pain and damage.

Bike Across Kansas

Hubby decided he wants to enter the Bike Across Kansas ride in 2010. I tend to think in terms of my schedule and not other people’s schedule. Because this is important to him, I have made a point to get Hubby and his bike in the car a couple of times a week to go to a trail so he can ride. Sometimes I shop and eat my way through downtown Lawrence and have him meet me at Starbucks. Sometimes I drop him off on the bike trail and drive to the other end and wait for him. He needs to be doing twenty miles regularly this year and 30-40 miles next year. To ride Bike Across Kansas he has to be comfortable riding 60-70 miles a day.


When autumn came around, which is my favorite time of the year, I got tired of watching him have all the fun or waiting for him. So I bought a bike of my own. I am up to ten miles now. That is where I can still make it back to the car and am not sore the next day. Tom will have to go with his cousin on the Bike Across Kansas tour, though. I will happily stay in the air conditioned Subaru with the spare bike parts and repair kit and follow them. We are checking out a Katy Trail vacation next spring. The Katy Trail is a rail trail across Missouri. We can take the car to the train station in Kansas City. From there we can get on an Amtrack train where we will travel 60 miles east. We will depart the train and ride the bikes back. There are Bed and Breakfasts all along the trail. I love going out on the trails to ride bikes. Tom named my bike Helen because I am hell-on-wheels on my bike.

I am still working on the Smokey Westford novel. It is excruciating and slow! I have to figure out how to add the chunks of the books that create the mystery. I am confused about putting in the technical stuff. I love books with technical information. I can’t put them down until they are done. When peers edit my work, they keep asking me to take out the technical stuff. They are usually romance novelists and their books are supposed to be light in substance. I don’t know if I should put my tech stuff in or not. I call myself a Chick Lit novelist, but that is because I don’t think I can pull of the larger technical aspects of a thriller.


I am signed up and ready for the November National Novel Writing month. I plan to ditch all the technique issues and just get some writing done. It is so much fun creating characters and making them come alive. My character, Lena, is the person I would love to be. She has more guts to live life to the fullest than I will ever have.



The Shawnee County and Topeka Library Friends of the Library had its' annual book sale in mid September. The sale raised over $55,000 during the 16 hour three day sale. Even though I sort books once a week all year long, I still brought five bags of books home.

As I trim and shoe my way through the summer I have talked to my customers about my novel. Most express surprise that I am a writer. When I sat down and thought about it, I have been writing all my life. It should not be a surprise that a novel would be the culmination of that work.

Writing is a difficult as horseshoeing. I am not talking about physical labor. Rather self confidence, tenacity, and failure. As a kid, and still today, I live a whole different life inside my head than the face people see. I thought everyone was like that, but as an adult I realize that is not true. I was always fascinated by horses. My first story on paper was part of a homework assignment in middle school. I was so proud of that story. It was 43 handwritten pages on notebook paper in its’ finished product. I titled it Blue Max. It was about a 100 mile endurance trail ride. I mostly wrote for myself for the next few years. There was a magazine called Horse of Course. I sent a fiction horse related story to them when I was 11. They used it six years later. They never notified me or paid me. I was not getting the magazine anymore, but someone in 4-H with me was, and showed me. As a senior in high school I wrote for the newspaper and the literary magazine. I had several stories published in the literary magazine. One of my English teachers, Polly Cleary, put my name in for the national Quill and Scroll award without telling me. I won the award. I remember how special I felt. I was also a scholarship finalist for a journalism school.

My best friend, Diana and I were so in love with Starsky and Hutch. We started writing an S&H mini novel. She would hand write on paper a segment and hand it to me. I would add to it and hand it back to her. One day, I was so excited about what I wrote, I could not wait until after school to tell her. I don’t do very many ‘bad’ things. But that day, I went down to the bottom of the floor of the senior high school all the way to the back of the building where there was a pay phone near the gym. I knew the gym would be deserted that time of day. I looked up the phone number for the junior high school and called the office. I told them I was Diana’s mom and needed to speak to her about an eye doctor appointment. When Diana got to the phone I read the new passage to her while the poor girl was being watched by the principal of her school.

Now that I have been shoeing horses for the past few years, I have developed a much tougher skin and have quite a bit more self confidence. People seem to respond to my writing now. I think I can with stand the continual rebuffs now and still keep trying to write.

I have some new trim customers that are great. At one stop my customer cried while I was trimming her horse. I asked if I was doing something wrong. She said the past five shoers hit her horse when the mare would not hold her leg up. While I realize this is in my benefit because it gets me customers, I still can’t believe there are shoers out there that don’t understand geriatric horses don’t have the flexibility to hold their legs up. When I arrived at the barn, the first thing I noticed what how swollen the horses joint are. The tendons on the back legs were so stretched, they would not hold the ankle up. Her face looked old. I let her smell me and rubbed her withers. Then I kneeled down on the floor and rested her front leg on my lap to trim. On her hind feet, I picked up her hind leg and rested her hoof on the titanium on my boot. She was not in pain, so she left her leg there. It made it uncomfortable for me to trim, but she was happy. The owner was thrilled that I didn't hit her horse and begged me to come back in eight weeks.

The Smokey Westford novel is coming along slowly. I have the idea on paper, which is the easy part. Now I have to learn the techniques to polish the novel, add humor, create excitement and push the drama. I have not decided how to install the love interest for this character. I would like to take some time before I introduce a man, so Smokey has a chance to go out on some very bad dates.

I belong to Kansas Writers Inc. They have a training tape library. The tapes are great. They have been extremely helpful, but they do prove how much I need to learn and how much more work I have to do on the novels.

Horseshoeing finally kicked it up a notch last week. I expected last week to happen at the beginning of March. Horse people are starving their farriers this year. Even twenty year horseshoers are looking for part time work. No one has disposable income right now. I picked up a few new trim customers with good quiet horses.

I am still pushing to complete the first Smokey Westford novel. I meet at a Topeka coffee shop on Thursday evenings with several other writers. We spend a couple of hours writing. It helps to have other writers around to bounce questions off of. I am at the point in writing where the work starts. The concept or creative part of the story is on paper.

The next step is to connect the dots of the story, to make sure the story keeps moving and check for consistency. There is a Midwest Writers Conference at Ball University in July. I hope to attend the training classes and meet with an agent to pitch the book. The conference also gives me a deadline to have the book ready. I am also having a graphic artist make a Smokey Westford logo. My brother-in-law is taking a likeness of me, and turning Smokey Westford into a ‘Toon’ (cartoon). Once we have the logo and the Toon, we will start building the smokeywestford.com web site.

It is no secret that gasoline is expensive. I went to the Toyota dealership to measure the cargo space in a Prius. At the moment, it looks like I have painted myself in a corner. My truck is Blue-Booked at just over $10,000. I owe $7,700. The dealership is willing to provide $3,300 for trade in on the truck. My vehicle payments would double, which we can’t afford. The Prius is young enough that there are not very many previous year trade-ins. If a trade-in becomes available, it sells within thirty minutes for about $1,000 less than a new one. There is also a six month wait after you order one before it is delivered. It looks like I will be driving my truck this summer and looking for a used Subaru to shoe horses out of before next season.

A yacht captain friend of mine in Maryland called me a turtle. He said I hide in my shell until I am sure it is safe. Then, I peek my head out. I never venture too far away from my shell. Last year was my first year on my own shoeing horses. I spent last year working to better my shoeing skills and gaining confidence. I only know how to shoe horses The Bob Way. I was not willing to learn another way until I was a little more confident. This year, I called a farrier who lives near me to meet for lunch.

A few weeks later, he invited me to a clinic and training class in Missouri. Horse shoes have names depending on what the shoe is supposed to accomplish. This clinic was about two different styles of a shoe called a Heart Bar shoe. The purpose of the shoe is to put pressure on the frog of a horse that sufferes from laminitis. The pressure, or load, on the frog increases blood flow to the foot. The blood flow speeds healing. Like the turtle, I was willing to stick my head out to meet one person. Going to a clinic with A LOT of shoers was a big step.

I need to digress here for a moment. I have a part time job at a greenhouse. Common sense would say that horseshoeing would make you hurt more than working at a greenhouse. My muscles get sore horseshoeing and I get very tired. But the greenhouse work hurts my hips, back and knees. For the past two months I have been balancing the two jobs with very little time off. So, I was debating whether I should go to the clinic. My line of reason for going went something like this: I would be chauffeured; I would be able to sit most of the morning; I would not have to do any physical labor the whole day; there would be free food. How could I turn that down? It was one of the better decisions I have made in awhile.

There were about 18 farriers there, all men. No one assumed I was the wife of a shoer. No one immediately walked up to introduce themselves. As the day progressed, every one of the shoers came over to visit. The few who live closer to me provided their contact information and encouraged me to call if I need any help. I was impressed with their skill level and their willingness to work with other shoers. I had the chance to watch one shoer, Scott, put handmade front shoes on an Arabian mare. This is the first person that I would want to emulate in blacksmithing skill. His forge and shaping work was beautiful. There was no wasted motion. He let his tools and the heat do the work for him.

There was also a veterinarian at the clinic. He brought an IDEXX Digital Radiography computer with him. He would radiograph the leg and foot so we could see if all the joints in the leg were level after the horse was trimmed. He used the radiograph to help pinpoint the exact placement location for the heart bar shoe. It is uncommon to have access to this type of equipment (sticker price $90,000) for free and we took every advantage of it.

Two weeks ago, I had a call from one of the few female shoers in the area. She has 22 years experience. She recently picked up a large boarding barn and wanted to know if I would work with her for the day. I thought she did a good job on the horses’ feet. She truly does work completely opposite of The Bob Way. I couldn’t seem to get out of her way. She wanted me to help, but she kept working with me so she could show me her way to do things. That is appropriate, as these are her customers. Trying to learn a different way to cut clinches, pull shoes, cut nails, clinch, and finish rasp under the gun is difficult at best. I did learn some things from her. I would like to practice how she works on a back foot, although for many of my customers her way would be too dangerous for me. A horseshoers first customers are usually horses no one else wants to work under.

You always take something from everyone you work with. Most of the time, you learn additional ways to accomplish your work. Once in awhile, you see things you don’t want to do. I would work with her any chance I have. She is good company, handles the horses well, and is a skilled shoer. I would not price my work the way she does. She wants to keep this barns’ business, so she is cutting them deals. In my opinion, if someone wants me to pull 4 shoes, trim and replace those shoes, I am charging my full price. I don’t care if it is every 5, 6, or 8 weeks. I still have to do the same amount of work, am still at the same risk of injury, and still had to drive there. I have had customers argue with me on the phone about my prices. I don’t get mean about it, but I tell them I don’t discount my service.

Welcome to the Smokey Westford Monograph. Smokey Westford is a fictional character who lives in the Flint Hills of Kansas. Smokey has a name like a stripper, but refers to herself as a fat suburban housewife. She is a farrier by trade who would much rather be with horses than humans. Like most people, Smokey projects a confident and strong physical persona. However, inside she is insecure and harbors multiple ‘issues.” There are three Smokey Westford books outlined that, I hope, will be available in print for your enjoyment.

I am Cheryl Swayne, a professional farrier and a writer who resides in Kansas. The purpose of the BLOG will be to share stories about the life of a horseshoer and provide updates for the Smokey Westford novels.

We are just coming out of an unusually cold and wet winter for Kansas. This is the time that customers starve their horseshoer. People ran out of money at the end of fall last year and skipped their last farrier visit. The few people that did schedule bailed when we had a one-two punch of weather. An ice storm, followed a few days later by a blizzard, prompted the rest of the customers to postpone until after the holidays.

People are just now beginning to return calls. I have not heard from some of these people since last summer, but they want an appointment immediately because their horses’ feet look bad or the horse is lame. That is another irony of the trade. For ten weeks you twiddle your thumbs, and then overnight you are booked three weeks out.

I usually have one or more part time jobs in the winter. This winter, that did not work out. I was able to spend time at home. Personally, I do enjoy being alone. I was not sure it would be tolerable for ten weeks. I was never bored and never had time for a nap. I didn’t really watch TV during the day, except for the Gilmore Girls. I did drink too much coffee. I lost a few pounds and went to the gym a lot. I am in the category of upper middle aged and female. It was critical that I spend time in the gym to maintain the muscle tone I have. It will still be physically painful to jump back into horseshoeing this week. But it would have been impossible if I had not taken the time to go to the gym.

I write a column called Gardening Among the Stacks for the Master Gardener newsletter. I was able to write an entire season of articles while I was home. I am also a trustee for the Meriden Library and I volunteer for Friends of the Library in Topeka.

I have a miniature horse customer that is foundered. For whatever reason, her founder has been quite active this winter. I have been able to keep ahead of it for the past two years, but this winter I had to call in help. The person who trained me, Bob Grady, still helps if I ask. He was certainly more aggressive at trimming hoof than I would ever have done. The owners’ husband helped us hold the mini. We had to lay her down on the barn floor to trim her. She was very sore when we put her in the stall. I understand that the next day, she was running in the pasture and they could not catch her. The owner said they had not seen her run or act playful for several months. That is the reason for doing this kind of work.