HORSE PSYCHOLOGY COMES IN HANDY.Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY Dennis McCarthy may refer to:
Ink Knudson's been quietly cussing out stubborn horses for 56 years. Get too loud, and they're apt to kick you or step on your foot just to make a point, the 78-year-old horseshoer says. Mules are different. Mules you don't want to cuss out - even quietly. Mules think nothing of backing up and sitting on you if they think you're copping an attitude with them. It's knowing little things like that - Horseshoe Psychology 101 - that gets you to age 78 with all your limbs intact in a job where your peers from the old days are long retired or dead. It gets you a nod of respect from the young guys when you walk into Canyon Horseshoe Supply in Pacoima to buy a few dozen more horseshoes because the ones you had yesterday went on the three horses you just shoed. ``A lot of the young guys in the business today can't do that many horses in a day because it's a lot of hard work,'' store owner John Slattery John Slattery (born 13 August, 1962)[1] is an American actor. Aside from his current role as Roger on AMC's series Mad Men, some of his more notable television roles have included union organizer Al Kahn on Homefront said. ``Ink's turning 79 in a few months, and doing three or four horses a day. Incredible. He's the last of the old-timers and gets a lot of respect for it.'' There's nobody still around who shoes horses like Ink, says Millie Howlett, who owns Valley Farms in Hidden Valley. She's been hiring Ink since 1965 to shoe the hundreds of horses she's had in her stables over the years. Two days a week, Ink drives from his home in Granada Hills out to Hidden Valley, near Newbury Park, to shoe nine or 10 of Millie's horses. ``Ink just knows horses better than anyone else,'' she says. ``He talks to them like children. When they act up, he cusses them out a little if they need it - but always gently, quietly. ``They listen to him,'' Millie says. ``We all do. After he's done, he'll sit and talk for hours, telling wonderful stories.'' Like how he got his nickname. His name was Ingwald, but everybody called him Inkwell inkwell GI surgery A surgically constructed vagination-'intussusception' of a short sleeve of esophagus sewn into the stomach which, as intragastric pressure ↑, is compressed, forming a functional valve–eg, Nissen fundoplication. See Nissen procedure. in school. Later, around the stables, it got shortened to Ink. ``My dad called himself Ed. I don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. why he did that to me,'' Ink says. In 1948, he took a horseshoeing class at Cal Poly Cal Poly may refer to:
 `ĭs ōbĭs`pō), city (1990 pop. 41,958), seat of San Luis Obispo co., S Calif., near San Luis Obispo Bay; inc. 1856. on the GI bill. There were 13 students in the class. ``I came back and starting shoeing horses on Howard Hughes' property in Culver City Culver City, city (1990 pop. 38,793), Los Angeles co., S Calif., a residential suburb of Los Angeles; inc. 1917. It is a center of the U.S. motion-picture industry, whose roots in the city date to c.1915. Its chief manufactures are rubber products and computers. , and the other ranches in the area back then. There were plenty. ``When I moved to the Valley in 1953, every third house had a horse in the back yard. Now they're all in stables.'' Out of sight, but still around, Slattery says. There's still a big call for horseshoe supplies, still young men getting into the business because there are plenty of horses out there who need shoes every six weeks or so. ``I think the numbers have probably decreased, but only because horses are not used for the menial MENIAL. This term is applied to servants who live under their master's roof Vide stat. 2 H. IV., c. 21. types of jobs they used to be used for,'' he says. ``Today, it's more pleasure and competition.'' Ink's shoed horses for Ronald Reagan (when he was an actor), Robert Taylor Robert Taylor or Bob Taylor may refer to:
``He used to come out and shoot the breeze with me while I was shoeing his horses,'' Ink says. ``He was a regular guy.'' Ink shoed a Kentucky Derby horse one year named Fighting Hodge. Last he heard, the horse was still running, trying to finish the race, he says, laughing. ``The amazing thing is, in all those years working a physical job like this, my body still feels great,'' Ink says. ``Sure, I got kicked plenty of times, and had fingers and toes Fingers and Toes See also anatomy; body, human; hands. adactyly a birth defect in which one or more fingers or toes are missing. dactyl a digit; a finger or toe. See also measurement. broken - even my ribs once - but I've got no real aches and pains.'' So, he'll keep going - just at a slower pace, since he's officially retired. He'll keep pulling up to Millie's stables a few days a week in his pickup truck to unload his horseshoeing anvil anvil Iron block on which metal is placed for shaping, originally by hand with a hammer. The blacksmith's anvil is usually of wrought iron (sometimes of cast iron), with a smooth working surface of hardened steel. , puller and trimming nippers, rasps - the same type of equipment he used 56 years ago. Because things haven't changed that much in the horseshoeing business, Ink says. You still have to cuss the stubborn ones out once in a while. Quietly. Dennis McCarthy, (818) 713-3749 dennis.mccarthy(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Ink Knudson has been shoeing horses for more than 50 years. His fans have included such horse owners as Fred Astaire and James Cagney. Joe Binoya/Special to the Daily News |
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