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Just as Paul Verville is about to shoe Kapu, the horse decides to relieve himself. Pensions and IRAs aside,
farrier Paul Verville is making
a good living -- one day at a timeBy Cynthia Oi
Star-Bulletin"Thanks a lot, Kapu," Verville says wryly as he shovels green-brown balls of manure out of his way.
The sharp odor overwhelms the scent of the nearby ocean, but Verville doesn't seem to mind. In fact, there is very little about his job that he doesn't like.
As Americans celebrate Labor Day today, the farrier is one who counts the blessings of his occupation.
"I get to drive all over the island. I have the freedom to meet real people, seeing different ways of life, the diversity, and I go shoe horses," says the vigorous 52-year-old.
Verville says he's one of only about a half dozen "qualified farriers" on Oahu. "Then there are guys who do cowboy shoeing," but they don't know the intricacies of the trade, and there are many.
"Lots of stuff can go wrong with a horse," he says, his Massachusetts accent still strong enough to carve through his words.
On this morning, Verville is making his scheduled rounds at Correa Trails Hawaii in Waimanalo, a trail-riding tour company where 20 horses await his ministrations.
Company manager Pamai Correa regards Verville with admiration and amusement.
"Paul does excellent work," Correa says as the farrier files Kapu's hoof with a rasp. "He's real good with the horses." Then he adds, "He's also a character."
That Verville is. With just a bit of prompting, he will talk animatedly about the American work ethic, his girlfriend's pet business and his love of the islands.
He knows his trade
But his focus is definitely equine.He'll discuss different types of horseshoes and why he'll put what kind on which horse; shoe nails, how to attach them and the number of nails to use (three on a side, not four); hoof problems and diseases, and how to spot them; the evolution of horses and the mistakes in breeding them.
Verville came to Hawaii about 10 years ago and worked as a warehouse supervisor for C. Brewer and Co. Ltd.
After he was laid off in the mid-1990s, he began to shoe horses, a skill he acquired at an agricultural high school, through owning horses and at the Oklahoma Farriers College in Sperry.
The only reason horses need shoes, he says, is because "we ride them."
With domestication came breeding as humans sought to tweak the animal for their own purposes.
"Horses are grazers; they gotta keep moving. They escape from danger by running," he says. "If it can't run because it has bad hooves, it will die."
But breeders choose traits like color, head size, speed -- traits he thinks are secondary.
"They don't look at the feet," he says. "By rights, feet should be first. Feet should take a front seat in breeding."
A gentle nature
Although his voice is aggressive when he speaks to humans, with horses he is gentle.Working on Kapu, Verville leans into the horse's shoulder, taps its leg a couple of times and murmurs, "Come on, Kapu, come on."
The Morgan obediently lifts its hoof, and Verville firmly wraps his thick fingers around its fetlock and begins to remove the old shoe.
When Kapu gets fidgety, he calms the horse with a soft "whoa."
The work is physical, but mental, too.
"You've got to be able to read the horse, check his mood, interact with the horse," he says.
Getting kicked isn't the biggest danger.
"A horse that bites can take your ear off. I've seen farriers with pieces of their ears missing," he says.
More of a pain are the people who own horses and don't care for them, and "people who don't know, but think they do," he says.
Most of the horses Verville tends aren't pampered pets.
"Like these guys," he gestures toward Correa's herd, "they work for a living, they have a job to do."
Verville shoes five to seven horses a day, charging an average of about $65 per creature. He tries to take Sundays and Mondays off because that's when his girlfriend is off.
'There's a life to be lived'
Anyway, working isn't his reason for being."People forget there's life to be lived," he says.
He's not concerned about getting old, retirement plans and the like.
"My dad died at 52, exactly my age now. He worried about saving money for retirement and he didn't even get close to that," he says. "People make excuses for staying in a job that doesn't make them happy -- gotta have medical, pension plan, IRAs. They forget they are living life now."
He realizes he could make more money in another type of job that doesn't involve manure, mud, dusty corrals and sweat -- his and the horse's.
"But sitting in front of a computer all day -- it's not for me, just not for me," he says.
"So here I am, nailing shoes on horses. But at the end of the day, I'm feeling happy. I'm making a living here in Hawaii. I'm very, very happy right now."
See more photos in Features.
