Guinny gets new shoes!

Historical Fact: "During the American Civil War of the 1850s, the Northern soldiers' use of a horseshoe manufacturing machine gave them a strong advantage over the Southern armies." Undoubtedly, some of Guinny's ancestors were revered mounts in the Austro-Hungarian Army, but Lucky Guinny's only adversaries are wash mats and fake flowers!

David Barron, proprietor of TomCatForge, met Guinness on Saturday for a new pair of custom shoes. David is skilled in traditions of iron age blacksmiths, and also a gifted performance horse farrier. While materials have changed (Iron and leather are now european steel bars and Nails Swedish), the art is still apprenticed, practiced and perfected. David shoes both "hot" and "cold" but chose to make four individual hot shoes to match the specific outline of Guinny's feet providing maximum protection.

Here's a a video of David forming a shoe:

After the shoes are shaped, they are tested against the foot while still hot to create a perfect fit and validate the shape. This practice creates a lot of smoke, but Guinness was not phased!

smoking hot

After 2 hours, all four shoes were complete and Guinness, delighted with himself as usual, pranced out of the barn to enjoy some spring grass.

Fancy footwear indeed