About three years ago I decided I wanted to learn the back-breaking skill of horseshoeing. Six months ago I enrolled in the Oklahoma Horseshoeing School two week course. Over Christmas break I traveled to Purcell for the course.

Every morning at 7 all of the students were in class receiving a lecture or a quiz on the leg or foot of the horse. On the first day of class by 10 a.m. I was putting my first shoe on a horse. It was extremely hard at first to remember all the steps. After the first day I thought I was going to fall over and die from exhaustion.

After the third day I started to get the...