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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow never envisioned Sheree Osborn as the village smithy under his spreading chestnut tree. Rappahannock’s newest resident blacksmith doesn’t fit the big and brawny heman stereotype. At five foot, four inches, she barely tips the scale at 100 pounds., Sheree admits that she’s having difficulties gaining acceptance in the county as a farrier. “It’s hard getting started around here. People are reluctant to try someone new on such a delicate operation as a live animal’s foot. Being female has alot to do with it and being small doesn’t help.” She maintains that strength and physical size 11 Individually owned shops under one roof Downtown Front Royal have little to do with capabilities as a horse shoer. “I tell people that being short saves back aches. I don’t have as far to bend.” Besides, she continued, “a horse is so strong that if he doesn’t want you to work on him, there’s not a whole lot you can do without ropes and stuff —even if you’re a 400 pound man.” But if it takes extreme tactics to get the job done, she’s ready for that, too. Most of the horses I’ve done around here have been pretty nice—alot better than the ones I learned on. Most of them had to be thrown with ropes.” Sheree is a graduate of the Hill Craft School of Horse Shoeing, located outside of Denver, Colorado. She attended an intensive four month training course there, one of ten students taking instruction from two teachers. Most of the animals brought in for students to work on were problem horses that established smiths in the area refused to bother with. The novice farriers not only hfd to subdue the unruly horses but they had to custom make each and every shoe that went on the animals. Sheree counts
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