COUNTY LIFE
Female farrier turns horsin’ around into a new career
By DEBRA DUNLAP
Nikki Smith loves to horse around. In fact, the pretty, soft-spoken Wichita Falls resident spends most of her waking hours with other people’s horses working as a farrier.
There are very few female farriers. Shoeing horses has, for centuries, been a man’s world.
Not so in 2015 as Smith works up way up the ranks of horseshoeing.
How does a 30-year-old wife and mother of two get into horseshoeing? For Nikki, it was a natural progression.
Stephen had recently received a medical discharge from the military due to an active-duty injury. There they were, with all those horses to care for, his career at an end and bills piling up.
“One of the Veterans Administration programs was horseshoeing school,” recalled Nikki. “So I informed Stephen he was going to go.”
He graduated from Oklahoma State Horseshoeing School and went into business. The plan for their new venture, S&S Horseshoeing, was Nikki would to go along with Stephen on jobs to drive, hold the horses, and help him out. Read the full feature in your weekend News.
Nocona is preparing for the 74th annual Chisholm Trail Rodeo May 8 and 9 at the Chisholm Trail Arena.
The rodeo will take place at 7:30 p.m. Nightly with the Ryan Ready Band playing for the rodeo dance afterward on Saturday night. Tickets in advance are $12 and $15 at the gate.
All the traditional rodeo events are planned along with non-sanctioned events of junior barrels for 16 and under. There is $250 added each night, a jackpot nightly and contestants have a $50 entry fee. Entries open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on May 4-5.
The new Chisholm Trail Rodeo Queen and Princess will be crowned during Saturday night’s performance. Read about these young ladies in your Thursday Bowie New.
Clara Anderson
TxDOT is hosting a virtual meeting to review projects included in the 2027-2030 Rural TIP.
The program is at 4 p.m. on May 6 and 11:59 p.m. on May 19, all online at https://bit.ly/4uhDwMG
The Rural TIP is a list of local projects to be funded during the next four years in the Wichita Falls District of the Texas Department of Transportation.
The counties included are Archer, Baylor, Clay, Cooke, Montague, Throckmorton, Wichita, Wilbarger, and Young. Transportation projects cannot receive federal funding unless they are included in the Rural TIP. This includes projects for private vehicles, bicycles, pedestrians, public transport, and commercial vehicles.
A section of Roach Street has been closed for the last few weeks as a new sewer line was installed replacing old clay tile line. It is phase two of multi-phase sewer line project across the city funded through a Texas Water Development Board loan of more than $9.7 million. The project will replace nearly10 miles of aging lines. (News photo by Barbara Green)
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