Horsing Around in the Shop

"Why," the email said, "do you have a picture in your shop "of what appears to be a horse in a shop?" So, here's the story with this pretty cool photograph. Bunch of years ago, when I was doing work for American Woodworker Magazine, we were shooting in my old shop and one of my kids was walking around the shop, and around and around and around with this pony, whose name was Bootsy. We got done early and were kind of looking for something to fill the afternoon, so we walked Bootsy into the shop and we got her over the table saw which was what we'd been shooting on all day. And Bootsy had a great temperament so we put on the ear muffs, we put on the safety glasses, we put the pencil up there under the earmuffs and we kind of entertained the notion of doing some kind of safety poster of "Don't horse around on the shop," or "No horsing around for safety's sake," or something. In the end, the picture never went down that route, but its just really cool that we were able to get this very well mannered horse into the shop, walked her right through the three foot wide service door.

Interestingly enough, for Bootsy, she's a horse that lots an lots of kids here in western Wisconsin had learned to ride on, my kids were some of the last to ride Bootsy. She lived to be 41 years old. And when we would take Bootsy to the County Fair everybody there would yell "Bootsy, Bootsy, Bootsy!" And it seemed like everybody there had some experience with Bootsy. So, it was really cool to be able to get her into the shop and take advantage of her demeanor and get this really cool picture. And that's why it still hangs in my new shop today.