Local farrier enjoys his work
By ROWENA PLETT
Staff writer
Eric Soyez of Marion calls himself a horseshoer, but the official title is "farrier." Nothing makes him happier than helping a horse walk well again.
Soyez is a full-time employee of J-Bar Ranch owned by J.B. Miesse.
Soyez lives in an apartment at the ranch and conducts his horseshoe business on the side.
As a farrier, Soyez trims horses' hoofs and shoes them.
He said a horse's feet are important to its well-being:
"A horse's feet are his secondary heart. When a horse steps down, it causes blood to be pumped back to the heart."
Most of Soyez' customers are local but he has some in Chase County. They usually bring the horses to him at the ranch but sometimes he goes to them.
Occasionally, veterinarians in the area call on him when a horse they are treating needs hoof trimming.
Non-working horses do not need shoes but their hoofs need to be trimmed approximately every eight weeks. If hoofs are allowed to grow too long, they can crack and eventually cause the horse to go lame.
Working horses get re-shoed on a regular basis. Soyez removes the shoe, cleans off the old sole down to the live sole. The sole then is filed smooth and the shoe nailed on.
Installing a horseshoe properly takes skill. Soyez said if a nail is driven too deep, it can make a horse lame.
The nails are an inch long and are driven through the shoe and into the sole about one-half inch toward the edge wall where the horse feels no pain.
Two other farriers in the Marion area are Tom Thomas and Butch Bittle. Some horsemen take training and are able to take care of their own horses.
Soyez is the son of Gary and Pam Hamm of rural Marion. He graduated from Marion High School and attended school in Pratt for a short time.
After quitting school, he did some cowboying, then joined the Navy.
After getting out of the Navy, he decided to become a farrier. He took an eight-week course at Purcell, Okla., and received a professional farrier's license.
"I like being around horses," he said. "I grew up riding them."
The 29-year-old gets a lot of satisfaction from fixing a lame horse so it can walk well again.
One time, a boy in Chase County had a Shetland pony which had overgrown hooves and was lame. His father was considering putting the horse down.
Soyez was able to work with the horse over several months, gradually trimming back the hoofs until it could walk well again.
"Saving that pony for that little boy made me feel good," he said.
