Great Yorkshire Show

"The best bit about my job" says North Yorkshire farrier Nick Clarke "are the good looking girls I meet in the horse yards!" We'll spare his blushes and not tell you what he says is the worst bit about his job, but it wasn't the hard work or the inevitable back ache.

Nick's been fully qualified for just over five years, but has been working as a farrier for around the last nine years.

He says he got into the business by complete accident. He knew he didn't want to work in an office, but didn't know what he wanted to do. That all changed when he met a farrier in the pub one night and got talking to him about what he did.

It's tough work and you only qualify after a long apprenticeship - which takes around five and a half years to complete.

Nick has been a regular in the farrier and horseshoeing competitions at the Great Yorkshire Show. There are no shortage of people wanting to take part, with 180 individual entries registered for the six different competition classes. Depending on the level of experience, these range from competitions for apprentices to testing the specialist skills needed to make surgical horseshoes.

In the "Hunter" class - the shoe which farriers have to make has got to be an identical match to judges specifications, so it fits the horses foot perfectly. "It's easy to get things wrong" says Nick Clarke, "you often see guys rasping like mad" to file the shoes to size and make sure there are no overhangs or bits of shoe sticking out of the back of the horses hoof.

"It's really good" says Nick, "you've got a load of guys from the same sort of area, who all know each other and who are all friends" but come competition day, friendships are put to one side as people try to "get one over" on each other.

If you like to see a bunch of guys glistening with sweat, it sounds like the forge is the place to be at the Great Yorkshire Show.