Article updated: 8/3/2012 12:46 PM

Moving Picture: Arlington Park farrier readies hooves

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Hutch hammers a shoe on a hoof as the horse (mostly) stands still. The hammering sometimes scares the horse and he has to calm it down using a firm voice.

Mark Welsh | Staff Photographer

Taking a break, Hutch Holsapple leans against his truck, which holds many horseshoes of various sizes. He has shod 13 horses in a single day at Arlington Park.

Mark Welsh | Staff Photographer

Hutch, as he is known to everyone in the backstretch barns at Arlington Park, shoes one of the 1,500 horses kept on the property during racing season.

Mark Welsh | Staff Photographer

Hutch fills out an invoice on his lunch break in his dust-covered truck after shoeing a couple of horses.

Mark Welsh | Staff Photographer

Hutch hammers into the horse's hoof up to eight nails using a lightweight aluminum shoe. If the hoof is not in good condition and unable to take the nails, the shoe can be glued on.

Mark Welsh | Staff Photographer

Gallery Image

Holding up to four shoeing nails in his mouth at a time, Hutch has to make sure he drives them into a hoof straight and in the right direction.

Mark Welsh | Staff Photographer

About this Article

His clients have funny, unusual names — Kokakoka Ocean, Teambdancing and Half Foxy — but they also have four feet and wear aluminum shoes. For Hutch Holsapple, 42, of Rolling Meadows, the horses with those names and their owners and trainers make up his everyday life on the backstretch at Arlington Park racetrack, where he's worked for nearly 11 years.