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.