The Star: August 08, 2019

The Star Thursday August 8 2019
26
OUR PEOPLE
Master farrier keeps his foot in the
Brian Wilson, 85, is a
name anyone in the
horse racing industry will
recognise. The former
farrier can still be found
at Riccarton as the club’s
plating inspector. On
Saturday, race three in the
Grand National Festival
of Racing’s first event
was named ‘Brian Wilson
51 years a farrier’ in his
honour. Gordon Findlater
catches up with him
Can you remember the first
time you shoed a horse?
I would have been 14 or 15 on
the West Coast and one of the
guys that did have a horse was
Jock Butterfield, who played for
the Kiwis, and he wanted to put
some shoes on this horse, so they
gave me some tools and to this
day I feel sorry for the horse.
That was my first experience of
shoeing a horse.
What was it like growing up
on the West Coast back then?
I quite enjoyed it, but there
wasn’t a great future. You worked
in the forestry or the bush as we
called it, or the mines. I came
over here in 1951 and that’s
when I really got involved in
the horses. My brother was an
apprentice jockey, so I thought,
STILL SHARP: Farrier Brian Wilson plies his trade as the plating inspector at Riccarton on
race days.
PHOTO: MARTIN HUNTER
well, I’ll see how I go, but it
wasn’t to be.
How did you become a farrier
in Christchurch?
When I was apprenticed, I lived
in Rangiora and my boss had
horses trained in Christchurch
here at Riccarton. That was Bob
Wilson and his son Bobby was
the farrier there, so I had to spend
time with him and virtually
followed through the entire way.
The Wilsons were no relation, but
they were close friends. So that’s
how I got into the trade.
How has the industry
changed since you started?
You don’t have the same
blacksmiths work as you did in
the past. You had to make all
your own shoes out of bar steel.
It was all physical. You can buy
all these shoes already made
today and on top of that the
steel companies don’t import
steel because there’s not enough
demand because we’ve got such
a great range of factory made
shoes.
What did the average day
look like when you started?
I would make shoes from
about 6.30am until 8am and
then have breakfast. Then I’d
go out because you had to travel
to various places, you went to
the property they were on or
I’d go to the stables if they were
training here at Riccarton.
Do you have a favourite horse
you’ve been a farrier for?
My favourite horse overall was
a horse called Commissionaire.
He was the top weight-for-age
horse in New Zealand at the
time. He was something special.
I think he could have just about
put his own shoes on.
What do you think made him
special?
He just had so much presence.
All good horses have good head
pieces, you never see a mad
champion.
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