Page 72 - Speedhorse October 2018

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Horseshoers look back on their time at Remington Park. by Richard Chamberlain
“But, me shoeing them didn’t make them win, let’s get that straight. All I did was, I didn’t slow them down.”
- Butch Pridemore
No hoof, no horse. That’s an old piece of wisdom every horseman learns early. Or at least, they should learn it early. Feet are foundation. It’s knowledge that people pick up in every other line of work. No matter what you’re doing, it’s best to build from the ground up. Start with the foundation.
That’s what farriers do. They shape the foundation of racehorses. Now, consider two of them who also have helped shape the foundation of racing in Oklahoma. Butch Pridemore and Hank Morgan have tacked racing plates on Quarter Horses and Thoroughbreds at Remington Park since the day the Oklahoma City track opened in 1988. It’s farriers like them (along with a myriad of others who work behind the scenes) who helped cement Remington’s reputation as a great place to run horses.
“When I started at Remington Park, there were some really great race platers there: Bill Hoskins, Darrel Barlow and, I dunno, four or five of the Remy brothers,” Morgan says. “There were some outstanding shoers, so you really had to hustle to get any work. And I was pretty young then. Back then, the horsemen would give you a chance, but if
you couldn’t step up to the plate, they’d get somebody else. It was kinda tough.”
But, Pridemore and Morgan were tough enough.
“Me and Hank shoe a whole lot alike, do the horses pretty much the same way,” Pridemore says. “We both worked with some real good shoers and we’ve been doing this a long time.”
They’ve been doing it long enough –
and well-regarded enough – to shoe World Champions such as Refrigerator, Tailor Fit and SLM Big Daddy when those horses were making their way through the Sooner State.
Now 58, Morgan started shoeing when he was 23 years old. He and wife Debbie live in Ada, Oklahoma, where they raised three sons to be high school Champion Team Ropers and still rope together quite a bit. Morgan laughs, “I’ve roped with G.R. Carter a lot, too, and they always announce, ‘This is the leading jockey...’ but they don’t ever say nothing about the horseshoer.” The Morgans’ eldest son, Dustin, now builds houses, Jess trains reined cow horses, and youngest son Cole is following in his Dad’s footsteps.
“Cole is shoeing with me,” he says. “Cole’s on his fourth year of apprenticeship. I wouldn’t let him just shoe six months
70 SPEEDHORSE, October 2018
arrier ables