FARMER CITY -- Mitch Gardner grew up in a household of metal forgers, so it was sort of expected he'd become a farrier.

Not so.

"When I was little, I actually talked about it all the time," said Mitch, a 2006 graduate of Blue Ridge High School. "My dad kind of talked me out of it, because in this area it's a little harder. But even around here, there are a lot more horses in this area than you realize. I've always been interested in it."

His parents, Mark and Mindy, own Flood Plain Forge, which focuses on the artistic side of metal-working. Mitch is instead going into horse-shoeing end, and trained at Heartland Horseshoeing in Lamar, Mo., one of the nation's few farrier schools.

Mitch learned the ''hot shoe'' method, heating and shaping metal shoes to fit each hoof. He has a portable gas-powered forge that he can take on site. And it's a built-in repeat business: Hooves generally need to be trimmed or re-shaped every six weeks.

He prefers hot-shoeing to the alternative, which uses pre-made templates to stamp shoes to hooves.

"It has a lot of benefits," said Gardner. "You get it red hot and shape it to fit the foot. Like you and I, there are no feet in the world that are the same."

Heat forms an instant callous on the hoof, helping keep out bacteria. The method also allows Gardner who to help horses with heel spurs or other problems.

"It's called therapeutic shoeing, or corrective shoeing. For example, if a horse 'wave' to the inside a little bit, they can hurt themselves with a metal shoe hitting them in the feet. But you can put more weight to the outside of the shoe, or trim the horse, and get them to where you can correct a lot of their strides."

He knows his vocation is slightly out of the ordinary.

"People think we're kind of crazy," he said. "At least rodeo people start on top of a crazy horse; a horseshoer starts underneath. But I really enjoy it."