HANNIBAL, Mo.

A combined love of the outdoors and horses provided the impetus for Debbie Daugherty to make what some might consider a seismic career change.

Two years ago Daugherty, 51, went from working as a dental hygienist to being a ferrier. She shoes horses instead of cleaning teeth.

Daugherty said the approach of her 50th birthday caused her to review her life.

"I decided I was only going to do stuff I loved," she said. "I started because I wanted to show my own horse. I just gravitated toward it."

Daugherty also has an organic farm and raises chickens and sells the produce from both at Hannibal's Farmer's Market, which reopened for the season on Saturday.

Daugherty and her partner, Nick Striecker trained two years ago at Midwest Horseshoeing in Macomb, Ill. Both are versed in cold shoeing and making custom-made shoes. Different breeds or horses and the work they do all require different kinds of shoes.

"It is hard work," Daugherty admits. And a lot of it is done upside down.

Daugherty stands bent over filing down the hoof of Portia, her half-thoroughbred, half-trahkner show horse. "It's physical, but you have your own schedule."

Daugherty and Striecker are drawn to what they call an "an old-world craft," but they say it's a dying art.

"It's hard physical labor and you have to know about horses and you have to be willing to work hard," she said.

Daugherty does most of her shoeing at her place, Donegal Farms, located just north of Hannibal off U.S. 61. The stables on site are clean and well-lit. There is a wall of horseshoes of varying sizes, with anvils nearby for shaping and sizing.

As she works on a buckskin named Bindi, Daugherty strokes her hand down the very pregnant horse's leg, talking soothingly to her.

Quickly, efficiently, Daugherty moves from horse to forge, where a small shoe has been heating. She pounds the steel shoe, pauses a minute, looks the shoe over, then hammers some more. She said Bindi has a narrow hoof and needs the heel turned in some.

After taking the shoe to Bindi, she eyes its fit and nods her head.

"We got lucky today," she said, with a laugh. "Usually you're going back and forth."

More so than Daugherty, Striecker likes to go on the road. Striecker, 49, also made a career change when he began shoeing horses. He had been a carpenter for years, and had never been around horses much before he and Daugherty met.

"I enjoy the horses," he said, as he worked on a Belgian draft horse named Molly, whom he called a "gentle giant."

"I like traveling, meeting people ... and I love making shoes," Striecker said as he pulled a glowing shoe out of the small propane-fired forge at the stable.

-- apierceall@whig.com/(573) 221-5879