Sören Nordin or “Papa” as he was called in the US and “Gubben” in Sweden is one of the people who has meant the most to my farriery. My first meeting with Sören was in the US and a short job interview. Sören put his arm around me, a nervous 24 year old farrier, and asked – Do you like girls? Best of all, I answered – Do you drink alcohol? – A schnapps with food always goes down the drain. – That’s good, you can start right away”.
It felt like an honor to be trusted to work as a farrier for one of the world’s most skilled trotting trainers and balancing artists. I got to work with many fine horses at ”papa’s” – some I remember especially were Jean Bi, Lender Hanover, Anders Crown, and the world record horse Kindava Hush.
The first morning I was called to the office for a review of how he wanted his horses shod. Sören drew on yellow paper exactly how he wanted his shoes. It was a detailed training combined with practice on several of the best horses in the USA. With Sören I learned balancing on a millimeter level, everything was measured and weighed. I had previously worked as a farrier for Stig H Johansson and Tommy Hanné, it was a fantastic combination together with Sören’s famous balancing art.
Sören sometimes also proved to be “human” and it was by no means that he always knew immediately which balance was right even though it was usually the case. I particularly remember an occasion where I had to shoe the same horse six times in the same day before Sören felt completely satisfied with the balance.
The result was usually that we ended up with different shoes on the hooves. A week or so later, we had a completely new balance and trotted even better if possible. The horses were balanced according to their daily form and nothing was left to chance, with the special help of the scale down to the smallest gram. Sometimes things went wrong if we tested a little too much. So we just had to construct new hooves out of plastic. There were no completely given rules.
The stable had been doing a little worse than usual for a couple of years before. Sören said that they had had less money to buy horses for and selected horses with top-line that had exterior defects, which could be bought fairly cheaply. What the horses did not have, Sören solved through his balancing art. I have understood in retrospect that the period I was part of was quite unique.
There was definitely room for your own initiative and ideas, but Sören almost always had a better idea. Sören seemed to love teaching the art of balancing. I was given a lesson most of the time. Sören was absolutely fantastic as a teacher. My entire continued thinking in my farriery has largely been influenced by my time with Sören Nordin and has played a large part in the successes I have had with other trainers over the years.
A few years later, I had to go back to Sweden to apply for a residence permit. Which turned out to be complicated and time-consuming. This meant that I had to put the USA and my job with Sören aside and moved to Italy instead.
Here I experienced my greatest appreciation for my farriery ever. I was working for Giancarlo and Lorenzo Baldi at the time. Incidentally, Team Baldi won pretty much everything there was to win during that period. One day I got a call from Sören Nordin. He had moved to Italy and Scuderia Biasuzzi and had heard that I was in Italy.
It was an honor to have the world’s absolute best trainer of all time call and want me to shoe him a second time. We talked for hours on the phone. Sören told us about their new venture and in detail how he had invented a completely new harrow and its construction.
Sören also told about a transformation number that had lowered five seconds through balancing. Sören believed that many horses are too lightly balanced. He had filled the shoes with a material I had never heard of, double toe weights and boots. From a very mediocre horse to star ”just” by finding the right balance.
That’s the only thing I really regret in my life, is that I unfortunately turned down the offer. I had worked for Biasuzzi before and had a slight grudge against them. Besides, I had a very good time with the Baldi family.
Sören was a special and unique person. We always said that Sören could never die physically. He would never allow it – Sören lives on forever.
Thanks for everything Soren.