Page 75 - Speedhorse October 2018

Place Futurity three times, most recently with Phoebes Otoole in 2004, and the Remington Park Futurity twice, with Chicks Call Me in 1999 and Le Magnifique FG in ‘01.
One of the horses that Morgan shod for Reed was not the most people-friendly animal.
“I shod Refrigerator while Rodney had him,” Morgan says of the 2-time World Champion. “I didn’t go to Ruidoso and shoe him for the All American or anywhere else, but I shod him up till Rodney sold him. Refrigerator was good to shoe, but he was a real aggressive horse. By aggressive, what I mean is he didn’t want nothing passing him. He’d pin his ears and go to the front. He had a lot of heart and try. But his attitude around people was, just leave him alone and let him do his job.
“But maybe the best horse I ever worked on was Phoebes Otoole,” Morgan continues. “That was a gelding Rodney had. He won the 2004 Heritage Place Futurity-G1 and ran out $370-something thousand. He had a super disposition. He was a happy horse.”
HORSE KEYS
Keeping horses happy is key to winning races. Keeping them healthy is key to keeping them happy. When a good farrier puts down a foot, he leaves a horse in better shape than when he picked it up.
“Shoeing racehorses, it’s the longevity,” Morgan says. “We’re trying to keep them sound all year. That’s our goal. Our goal is to keep them running as long as we can, keep them as sound as we can.”
Which brings up the old canard about trimming a racehorse’s foot with a low heel and long toe to lengthen stride. Ri-i-ight.
“I don’t believe in low heel, long toe,” Morgan declares. “You can only shoe to conformation. I’ve shod a lot of racehorses, I’ve shod a lot of rope horses, I’ve shod two Fort Smith Barrel Futurity Champions, and
I can tell you, with any athlete – whether
it’s a running horse, barrel horse, whatever – you’ve got to get the foot off or you’ll run into trouble. What I mean by ‘get the foot off ’ is, you can’t leave them long-footed, you can’t leave the toe long because you’ll run into lots of suspensory trouble and unsoundness issues.”
In other words, it’s best to work with owners and trainers to spot and clear potential problems before they became issues.
“Oh, sure, most definitely,” Morgan says. “You deal with abscesses, thrush, lots of things you see when you pick up a foot. It’s more than just tacking on a set of plates.”
Which brings us back to that early emphasis on foundation.
“The owners used to trim the colts as soon as they weaned them – started a trimming program early,” Morgan says. “Nowadays, a lot of colts aren’t messed with until they get to the
Hank Morgan and his family.
trainer. When Louie and Rodney got colts in, they would start putting polo wraps on them when they put them on the walker. When they got to where they could put polo wraps on them, we would start shoeing them because they would hold their legs. They would stand there and let you handle them. So, I would like to see people handle their colts’ legs a little more, so when the shoer gets there we can handle them.”
Pridemore agrees.
“Yeah, you bet, I’d like owners to pick their feet up,” he says. “People don’t do it anymore. Like one time I told an owner, said, ‘Here you want me to shoe that horse and I can’t pick his feet up. Can you?’ He said ‘No, I hired you to do it.’ I said ‘No, you hired me to shoe him, not train him.’ That’s the number one thing I’d ask owners: Get your horses to where you can handle their feet before you call us.”
Speaking of calling . . .
“Let Hank get all the glory in this story,” says the septuagenarian horseman Butch Pridemore, “because I’m about ready to quit.”
Morgan appreciates the sentiment, but he agrees only to a point.
“This article should have been written on Bill Hoskins when he was alive,” Morgan says. “He was the greatest race plater that ever lived, in my opinion. He come from California, where he shod for Blane Schvaneveldt and Ferrel Jones and all those great trainers. When he came to Oklahoma in the late ’70s, people back here were still shaping shoes on anvils. He changed race plating. Bill helped all of us at Remington Park – Butch, me, everybody. We all owe him.”
Everybody owes something to somebody. When a horse runs well, horsemen owe their farriers.
“It gives me satisfaction knowing that I did my part,” Morgan says. “Winning a race is a team effort. Louis Wartchow always said a great stable isn’t just the trainer and jockey. A great stable is from the grooms to the horseshoer to the vet, everybody.”
Got it. We’re all in this together. It starts at the foundation.
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