You hear this sound, close your eyes and think you are at Kings Landing Historical Settlement experiencing a time that was.

When you open your eyes, you realize you are in downtown Fredericton. This sound usually emanates from a little grey building behind the fence in turn four where farrier Paul Jennings works.

Jennings has been working as a farrier at the Fredericton raceway for 24 years. In that time, he's seen a lot of changes: a once thriving business is now at risk of disappearing without government assistance.

Growing up in Saint John, Jennings started going to the track to be with his grandfather, who worked at the ticket gate. Jennings got involved with horses because he says, "their personalities just hook you in."

He says this as his horse, Knight Surfer, grabs the towel from his hand and the two of them get into a tug of war.

Starting out as a driver/trainer, Jennings got interested in blacksmithing while watching local farrier Ned Lindon shoe the horses. He then decided to go to Nova Scotia Agricultural college to study to be a farrier and came to Fredericton full-time.

Besides the enjoyment of working with horses, and the people associated with them, Jennings feels a certain pride when he sees everything come together for a horse and it wins a race.

Of course as he says, "with every race there are 7 losers". That is when he says he will sit down with the different trainers and see if the horse's shoe can be adjusted in a way to make the horse more comfortable and hopefully faster.

It's a job that Jennings hopes to do until retirement. But, it's also a job at risk with the latest changes to the sport of harness racing.

One of the latest cuts by the Lord Government is funding to the sire stakes, which Jennings describes as being the "life bread of the (harness racing) industry" in New Brunswick.

Raising a horse to race isn't something that can just be stopped, he explained; you can't just lock up the doors to the barns and go back when funding is restored.

These are living animals, and of they are not properly trained and cared for, they will lose their edge, Jennings says.

He also points out that if the horses are not fast and powerful to watch, then everybody loses.

The biggest impact on the industry was the launch of video lottery terminals into society, Jennings says. He saw a sharp decline in attendance and betting at the track once people had an alternative for their few betting dollars.

In provinces such as Ontario, the government recognized that this was happening, and combined the two together as one gaming facility. This allowed the horse owners to share in some of the revenue.

Jennings wonders if government is cutting their funding because they are competition to the VLT's.

Jennings says local horse owners are not looking to make a huge profit; most are just looking to break even. When asked if he will always continue to do his work as a farrier, he says,"I'm just like an old race horse, I'll keep going till I drop".

The owners of the horses at the raceway love to show people how beautiful their horses are, so next time at the track, take a walk past the stalls and feel the magic the horses create.

Poke you head in the door of the little grey building by the fence in turn four, and listen to the clanging of the precision shaping of a new shoe, and hope that this won't be just a story you will tell one day......of what was.

Photos and Story by Stephen MacGillivray

Photo Descriptions:Click on these four thumbnails to go to their own page with captions. The top photo is Paul hammering out a white hot shoe on his anvil with his propane oven in the background. If you would like to see how this looked layed out in the paper click here.

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