Page 47 - The Hunt - Summer 2021

I’d say, ‘Don’t tell me the pathology; it limits my outcomes. Let me do my thing,’” he says. Fellow farrier Werkiser was in the same
Royal Veterinary College program, which had residencies at Penn Vet’s New Bolton Center in Kennett Square. He grew up in Wallingford and majored in agriculture at Penn State University. Werkiser once traveled, too—
but when he and his veterinarian wife had children, he stayed local. Most of his clients are “weekend warriors, not Olympians.”
At home in Newlin Township, Werkiser has three family horses, an off-track thoroughbred and two quarter horses. Like Teichman, he knows he can never fully retire. “I’ve been kicked, bit, slobbered on, ejaculated on, and crapped on,” he says. “But we’ve also been essential workers, working through the pandemic.”
Back at the Matz barn in Coatesville, horses come and go. The conditions will be wet at Tryon, and it’s Teichman’s job to ensure the shoes stay on. “This is the last time you’re going to shoe her,” says Jenny Brannigan, who owns the 12-year-old Hanoverian hovering over Teichman. “It’s a little sad.”
Tyler Held, another who boards here, is also getting sentimental. “None of mine have lost a single shoe all year because of Steve,” she says.
Teichman is left-handed, but he switches hands readily—a result of a year of unforgiving Catholic nuns at Saint Katharine of Siena in Wayne. “They made me write with my right hand,” he says. “At least in this business, switching hands is helpful—as it is as an artist.”
In his home studio, Teichman forges mostly sterling-silver jewelry—like the bracelets he wears on his wrists. He paints, too.
After six cycles of the Pan American Games and another six in the Olympics, Teichman
is stepping out of a whirlwind. “It’s your identity,” he says. “It takes over your life. Who are you if you’re not a horseshoer? So much of it was tied to who I am, though it’s not who
I am. But it feels like there’s a big hole.”
A hole others must fill. At one time, Teichman had eight trucks on the road and
“It’s your identity. It takes over your life. Who are you if you’re not a horseshoer?”
a dozen farriers working for him. Rebecca Ratte has taken over. “She’s absolutely, unequivocally the best,” says Teichman.
Aly Maxian is the intern with him
today. She recently graduated from Cornell University’s four-month farrier school, one of about 15 in the country. “It’s almost like he was born a farrier,” she says of her mentor. “A person like me can’t become a great farrier without a Steve.” TH
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