Slaving over a hot brazier on a scorching summer day is not every teenager’s idea of fun, but for 15-year-old Jaimi Sharp, working at the blacksmith’s forge is a normal family activity.
She and her stepfather Sean Elliott of Carstairs, Alta., participated in the two person creative forging event at the Calgary Stampede’s international blacksmith competition.
The pair had to select a piece of scrap metal and create art in 60 minutes.
“We decided (on a project) a minute and half before we came to the competition,” said Elliott, who is a full-time farrier.
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He is a graduate of the Olds College farrier program and has been practising since 1998. He is an old style blacksmith who makes all his shoes from scratch rather than using what are known as keg shoes. That extra effort means there is always a need for a helping hand.
That’s where Jaimi and her 13-year-old brother Tye come in as they help out at the shop in Carstairs. Elliott also travels to clients throughout southern Alberta, where there are nearly as many horses as people.
Making the family business a group activity creates a healthy exercise program and keeps the kids out of mischief, he said.
The Stampede event is four days long but because Elliott is vice-chair of the blacksmith committee, he only participated in the demonstration event.
During the first day of competition the temperature was 34 C, but next to the braziers it was more like 110 C.
Jaimi said she didn’t mind that but she does not plan to make a career of shoeing horses.
A petite, young woman with long French manicured nails and a bright smile, she had no qualms about wielding a sledgehammer, filing shoes or holding equipment as Elliott worked.
“I do it at home all the time,” she said.
Her real passion is barrel racing and last year she was in the finals of the Alberta Barrel Racing Association.
She plans to study equine science once she finishes high school, which she studies on-line.
Virtual school takes her about two hours a day so there is time to work with her parents and her horse.
The Stampede competition has been open to farriers from around the world for 28 years. Competitors come from the United States, Australia, Europe and this year for the first time, South Korea.
They must make specified stand-alone pieces as well as shoe horses often provided by movie companies.
Women and men vie for a $10,000 cheque plus other prizes including bragging rights.
“They can go in to work on Monday morning and say, ‘I shoed a horse for $10,000,’ ” said Elliott.
