Lazar Lacatus
 “I am a 40 years old farrier from the village of Fize
ul Gherlii, just near the town of Gherla. We were all
blacksmiths in our family. I learnt my craft from my father;
he learnt from his father – I guess that is what you call a
family tradition.
“I don’t know of any school or training programme for
farriers. Not that we wouldn’t need one.
“Usually, people don’t come to me unless their horses’ shoes
need more complicated work; they don’t hesitate to fix
things themselves, it is cheaper. But every three months
they have to come to me, for a proper shoeing.
“Sometimes I see horses that are lame as a consequence of
improper farriery work: nails that were hammered wrong,
hurting the horse’s foot. They come to me and I have to fix
them.
“I can make my living out of farriery, but there’s no real
business for me. I am constantly going to fairs, to markets.
I use this old car as a mobile farriery shop, trying to
cover a region as big as possible.
“The horses are very important for the farmers in our
region. I guess I am among the few who doesn’t need a horse
of my own. But I am dependent on other people’s horses –
they are very important for me.
“I guess the quality of my work speaks for itself: I go 60
kilometres away from my home to fix horseshoes in a market,
the people over there come to me, instead of using the
farrier from their village. They trust me more.
“You can’t compare the quality of the work provided by a
professional farrier with what a farmer does with his
horse’s shoes occasionally. I work with about ten horses
every single day, while a farmer is doing his so called
farriery once every few weeks.
“Life is hard in the countryside, but I would never change
it. I don’t think I could live in a town; I was born in a
village, I grew accustomed to life in the village, I like
having animals around the house and that wouldn’t be
possible if I were living in a town.
“I believed that, with Romania getting into the European
Union, I would need to find another job, I was sure that
farriery would die. Now I am getting more optimistic,
because I understand that recreational horse tourism could
be growing, so I might not get out of business, after all.
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