The business of blacksmithing thrives in Carroll ?because horses mean big business.
“There are more horses today than before automobiles came along,” said Ralph Casey, president of the Brotherhood of Working Farriers Association, a nonprofit that provides information on horseshoeing by professional farriers. “You?d be shocked at how many horses there are. The demand for top-notch horseshoers” is huge.
Of the more than 153,000 horses in Maryland, more than 40 percent are involved in showing and recreation, according to the American Horse Council, which represents equine interests in Washington.
Horses are a $1 billion industry in Maryland, where 10,000 people hold full-time horse-related jobs.
Daniel Bielecki, of Westminster, is one of them.
On Monday, Bielecki shoed Tabasko, a chestnut quarterhorse, as owner Shelby Broos, 12, and her mother, Barbara Broos, watched from the frontyard of their New Windsor house.
“These are therapeutic, rocker-toe shoes that will help him not stumble,” said Bielecki, before he fired up his portable, gas-powered forge and hammered a red-hot shoe into shape atop a black anvil.
After 20 years of horseshoeing, Bielecki?s schedule remains busy, with 30 horses a week.
About half of his customers are what he calls “backyard horses,” like Shelby?s Tabasko, and the other half are horses at boarding barns and larger stables for breeders and racers.
The demand for Bielecki, a certified farrier and journeyman, and other local blacksmiths is so great that they aren?t in the yellow pages.
Most of them don?t have to advertise ? they stay in business through word of mouth.
Some blacksmiths easily earn six figures and make more than veterinarians, said Casey, who founded the nation?s first Farriers? National Research Center, in LaFayette, Ga., to teach shoeing techniques and offer continuing education.
More than 21 million viewers tune in every week to watch Casey host his television show, “Horseshoe?n Time,” on Dish Network.
To feed the growing interest in blacksmithing, Casey recently launched a second program, “Horseshoe?n Time Let?s Talk,” to introduce new horse products.
