With an economy of movement, harmonically pounding a square-headed nail in a crescendo of dinks, the horseshoer attaches a steel shoe to the foot of an amiable 12-year-old mare named Missy.

She is placidly standing on three feet in the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Veterinary Sciences Large Animal Clinic. Her fourth foot is wedged between Dean Johanningmeier’s leather leggings, resting perfectly on a metal stool called a hoof stand.

It is Thursday and the farrier is in. Johanningmeier is here Mondays and Thursdays and sees seven to 10 four-legged customers each day.

Missy is getting new shoes with a therapeutic wedge specially fitted by Johanningmeier to reduce, and remove, her lameness. The 63-year-old Cross Plains farrier will raise Missy’s heel and also rasp away part of her toe as part of the “treatment.” The goal — after consulting with the veterinarian and examining X-rays — is to get her legs in a straight line, her four feet flat and comfy.

Missy’s owners, Ken and Sandi Hinett, of Gurnee, Ill., couldn’t be happier with the clinic or the farrier, both chosen with a vet’s advice.

“We drive a long way to see Dean and the UW,” said Sandi Hinett.

Johanningmeier, a University of Wisconsin-Platteville graduate, has been the School of Veterinary Medicine’s farrier since 1985, and a full-time farrier since 1970. He started in the business informally, trimming the hooves of his family’s farm ponies in Iowa.

“What I’ve done my whole career is pay attention to detail. If something isn’t working, you have to change and try something else,” he said.

Johanningmeier will be more than a casual spectator at this year’s Midwest Horse Fair, which starts today at the Alliant Energy Center. The show includes a unique focus on the skills of a farrier, as there will be three days of competition among 48 of the best, fastest horseshoers in the business for the World Championship Blacksmiths. (This not the “World Blacksmith Championships,” however. They are held at the Calgary Stampede in Canada. The U.S. team of four farriers for that will be chosen from the winners of five WCB contests, including this one in Madison. Part of the competition includes making a perfect horseshoe from scratch.)

One of the two competitors from Wisconsin is Matt Lybeck, a protege of Johanningmeier’s from Bancroft.

“He’s incredibly skilled at the forge,” said Johanningmeier, adding that Lybeck also took advantage of the elder farrier’s standing offer to aspiring and young horseshoers to watch him work on Mondays and Thursdays at the university. (Johanningmeier is passing on a tradition, as he once made weekly trips to Elkader, Iowa, to watch Vernell Theise work on horses.)

According to the American Farrier’s Association, there are more farriers working today than ever before, However, numbers are elusive — everyone counts horses (120,000-plus in Wisconsin), but no one counts farriers. There are no license requirements or apprenticeship programs. The American Farrier’s Association has 2,500 members, but that is a small percentage of the total.

And besides horses, there are other hooves that need attention, too: on goats, zebras, pigs and livestock.

Johanningmeier is a ruddy, lanky man with large — appropriately, for a hoof-grabbing profession — hands. Like most who survive in physically demanding industries, he has learned how to protect his back, use leverage and concentrate power into a focused task. His movements between tool cart and horse are quick and smooth.

“You have to have a plan,” he said last week, after finishing with Missy’s new shoes and wedges. Taciturn at first, he is not a horse-hugging sort, but he clearly loves the animal.

“My health is fortunately very good,” he said, when asked if he has ever been injured by a horse. Some will nip, others kick, and some will just push against you.

“I have always tried to work with the horse. You have to ask the horse for the feet. If your clients are working with their horses and teaching them, if you don’t approach them right, you are going to get jerked around. You can always get injured no matter how good your horse savvy is.”

He doesn’t make horseshoes anymore. (“If I can buy something already made, I’m not going to ruin my shoulder.”)

A frequent speaker at clinics and certified in equine lameness and “natural balance trimming and shoeing,”

Johanningmeier’s philosophy is that what he does to a horse’s foot affects the whole horse.
“When I change a foot, it directly relates to all three feet. What I fix, or attempt to fix, affects the whole horse and how it uses its muscles,” he said.

Just as an experienced mechanic can tell how a car drives by looking at its tires, Johanningmeier can tell you how a horse rides or pulls by looking its feet. Similarly, he sees the need for various skill levels in his profession.

“There will always be a place for the younger shoers, just because of the way the industry works. There’s not much of an apprentice program out there. Some horses will never need the highest degree of (farrier) skill or care,” he said.

“We are one of the last trades that is not licensed by the government, and we would like to keep it that way,” he said. “There are guys, like me, who do this full time, and it is easy to count us. But there are many who do this part-time, and then there are a lot of guys who are do-it-yourselfers.”

The highest official ranking a farrier can attain is journeyman.

“I think there are only seven journeymen farriers in Wisconsin,” Lybeck said.

Johanningmeier is one of them.

“There have been so many horses over the years, but my favorites are always the ones (with feet) that you didn’t think you could fix, but who could make it.  You got to love the ones who get through the pain and come out of it. Those are the ones I remember.”

About the World Championship Blacksmiths

There will be 48 blacksmiths from all over the country gathered at the Alliant Center for the Midwest Horse Fair’s regional competition of the 2009 World Championship Blacksmiths, a series of horseshoeing qualifying contests that lead to a national championship.

 This weekend, each round will feature 10 entrants competing at 10 stations. At the forging station, for example, a competitor will be timed while creating a specific horseshoe.

On Sunday’s 70-minute final round, each competitor will shoe a horse and be judged on hoof preparation, the shoe and its fit.

IF YOU GO

What: Midwest Horse Fair, with demonstrations, speakers, and entertainment.

When: 8 a.m.-7 p.m. today and Saturday; 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday.

Where: Alliant Energy Center in Madison.

Admission: $12 per day.

For more information: Go to www.midwesthorsefair.com.