H & L Online News
October, 2000

Harry Holiday Patton, the dean of California racetrack farriers, died last Friday, and with him went some of the greatest understanding and appreciation ever collected in one person about horseshoeing, the hooves of Thoroughbred racehorses, and life behind the anvil. Harry was 76, and had suffered from Parkinson's disease and cancer for several years.

Anyone who met the handsome, silver-haired paddock farrier at the Santa Anita and Hollywood Park and Del Mar tracks, expected flashy southern California glamour. What you got instead was a solid handshake, a few polite formalties, and then, "Ok, now let's talk horseshoeing."

No one ever told me more stories than Harry.stories I'd give anything to hear again, like what the California platers thought really happened to the Australian racehorse Phar Lap down at Agua Caliente in Mexico in the 1930s. Or what it was like when aluminum racing plates first showed up at the tracks in California. Or the time the platers went on strike, or threatened to.

Harry has a milelong resume of accomplishments and honors that you will surely read in a more formal obituary somewhere. I think the things he was most proud of were his long association with the International Union of Journeyman Horseshoers (he was national vice-president) and the way he reached off the track in his later years to become involved with "regular horseshoers". He loved starting his manufacturing and supply business, in 1986, selling all kinds of shoes, even the steel ones, and getting to know people through his involvement in the Western States Farriers Association, the American Farriers Association, and the Farrier Industry Association.

At the track, it was Harry's unofficial job to help farriers pass the union test. With Harry's help, dozens of people launched their careers. I'm not sure what was in it for Harry, but he unconsciously helped horseshoeing survive, period, back in the 50s and 60s and 70s by lending out his tools and his advice to all who came his way.

Like most track shoers, Harry shod lots of famous horses for lots of famous trainers and owners but he really loved just noodling around with his tools and inventing little devices that would make work a little easier for farriers. Stall jacks, and lever punches, and plating hammers made Harry's eyes light up more than win tickets.

You'll find Harry in the Horseshoer's Hall of Fame, of course; he was inducted this year. And if there's a winner's circle for horseshoers, Harry Patton will be there. His fellow farriers would see to it.

Harry was proud of his wife, Ada Gates Patton. Ada was his apprentice more than ten years before she became his wife. He trained her (and trained her and trained her, she says) until she could pass the Union test, a grueling test back in the 1970s: five hours in the fire and an hour under a horse. Under Harry's tutelage, Ada became the first woman licensed to shoe in California, if not the entire USA, and she still gives all the credit to Harry. 

Harry had two sons, Troy and Bruce, and plenty of grandchildren and even a great-grandchild. And then there was his beloved dog, Sammy, of course.

You can write to Harry's wife, Ada Gates Patton, at 448 Laguna Road, Pasadena, CA 91105. Harry Patton's Blacksmith Shop (farrier supplies) remains open for business at 223 West Maple Avenue, Monrovia CA 91016.

Donations in Harry's memory can be made to the Western States Farriers Association, 3302 E Calimyrna Rd, Acampo, CA 95220.

If you can't be in Pasadena with us that day, November 4 is the Breeders Cup and the races will be on TV all afternoon (NBC). Watch the best horses in the world. That's what Harry would have done that day.

It will be run at Churchill Downs in Kentucky this year, and there will no doubt be a paddock shoer there, diligently checking all the glue-ons and the patches and watching for illegal turndowns. He (or she) may never have heard of him, but will be following Harry Patton's example.

For Harry, being a farrier wasn't a sport, or just a job, or even a career. It was a life. A great life. Yours could be, too. 

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