Bob Kleinpaste has spent a lifetime as a blacksmith in the standardbred industry. Now with a bad back and a career of good memories, Kleinpaste is turning the work over to his two very capable sons. By Keith McCalmont

Some records simply stand the test of time.

In 1948, the year longtime blacksmith Bob Kleinpaste was born, Joe DiMaggio launched a 56-game hitting streak that spanned from May 15 to July 17. During that time, the Yankee Clipper batted .408 with 15 home runs and 54RBIs.

Many ballplayers have dared to challenge DiMaggio’s feat over the past six decades, but none have really come close.

Cincinnati Reds great Pete Rose managed 44 games on the trot in 1978 before his streak came to an end, and recently, in 2011, Dan Uggla of the Atlanta Braves ran his streak to 33 games.

DiMaggio’s streak required a mix of talent and longevity, which brings us to a whole different type of record, an unofficial record of sorts, belonging to the now retired Kleinpaste.

The 66-year-old Orangeville native spent 32 years as the farrier of record for the world famous Armbro Farms where it is estimated he trimmed and shoed nearly a quarter of a million horses!

“The people at Armbro figured out how many I shod there, with a rough estimate from day one to the day they sold the farm, and it was well over 230,000,” said Kleinpaste. “The foals had to be done every month and they had around 200 foals there, and at one time close to 900 horses in total at the farm. In their heyday, they had up to five stallions including the greats Armbro Omaha and Armbro Ranger, and all these horses had 150 mares booked to them.”

Regarded as one of the finest in his trade, Kleinpaste built a clientele that spanned multiple breeds and put food on the table for a growing family that included his wife Sally, daughters Sherri and Mary and his two sons, Paul and Kevin.

“I was with Armbro from 1972 to 2004 when they sold, but I had many other clients along the way including Gardiner Farms, Conn Smythe, Warrawee, Northfields, Casimir, Green Gables… all huge farms,” said Kleinpaste. “I was very busy and many days I worked from 5:30 in the morning to 9:30 at night. It was a lot of work.”

Sons Paul and Kevin have since followed in their father’s footsteps, and when Bob retired in 2013 they assumed command of a vast family business servicing thousands of horses across the province.

For the elder Kleinpaste, he sees the blacksmith trade as something that should be of interest to up-and-comers, given a youth unemployment rate that hovers near 15 percent according to data collected by the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities.

“If young people today looked at blacksmithing, it’s a great opportunity for them. There’s so much money to be made and it’s a chance to work with some great standardbred horsemen in a wonderful industry,” said Kleinpaste.

Granted, the grizzled veteran of nearly four decades of trimming and shoeing thousands of mostly unwilling participants is abundantly aware that his chosen trade seems to be designed to break the back of even the sturdiest human.

“I recall reading a magazine survey from a trade school in California back in 1974,” grinned Kleinpaste. “They found that of the 50 students enrolled every 12 weeks that only two remained shoeing after a two-year period.”

Perhaps Kleinpaste’s 34-year run at one of the world’s most grueling trades is as impressive a record as the number of hooves he shaped.

How did Kleinpaste keep at such a demanding craft for such a lengthy time?

It likely stems from the fact that he never felt he had a right to complain.

His parents, John and Titia, who were of Dutch descent, endured difficult tenures in Japanese prisoner of war camps during the Second World War.

“My parents met in Indonesia and when the Japanese took over the island they were made prisoners of war. My dad went to a separate camp from my mother,” explained Kleinpaste. “My dad’s camp started with 750 men, and by the time the war was over there were only 47 men left.

“The only reason they survived is because they ate dogs, cats, rats, grasshoppers...all the lovely stuff. It’s what they had to do to survive.”

His dad worked on a railway line stretching from Bangkok to Burma, built by prisoners of war under the direction of the Japanese Imperial Army. It came to be known as the ‘Death Railway’, and it is said to have cost the lives of some 13,000 prisoners as well as thousands of native lives.

“Just before the war ended, they took him out of there and sent him to the coal mines in Japan. When the Americans dropped the two atomic bombs, they pulled him out of the mines along with the remaining prisoners and had them clean up all the dead bodies at Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” recalled Kleinpaste.

Incredibly, both his parents survived.

“After the war was over, they met again and got married,” said Kleinpaste who was born just after the war in 1948 and lived for nearly three years in Indonesia before moving with the family to Japan.

His father, a world-traveling salesman, led his family by example.

“We couldn’t get much out of my dad about the war. My mom was the same way, and by my experience, most that went through that don’t want to talk about it,” nodded Kleinpaste.

The Kleinpaste family moved to Canada in 1958 and settled on a farm in Caledon East with a few horses and some cattle. Even at the age of 10, it was time for Kleinpaste to get to work.

“My dad was a tough guy and didn’t believe in the word ‘can’t’,” said Kleinpaste. “He would say, ‘For every problem in life there’s a solution, so figure it out and you’ll succeed.’ He kicked us out of bed every morning at 6:00 a.m. and had us working.”

It was at the farm that a young Kleinpaste first put eyes on the trade that would support his family for generations.

“The blacksmith came to the farm one day to put shoes on the horses and I was watching him work. I loved it. The clinching, nailing them on,” recalled Kleinpaste. “He told me to get educated and when I got back I could apprentice with him.”

And after graduating from the North Texas Horseshoeing Institute, Kleinpaste did exactly that. And he didn’t complain once.

“Persistence is to the character of man as carbon is to steel,” – a quote attributed to the late American author Napoleon Hill is a fitting description to the far-reaching career of Kleinpaste.

It was persistence that landed Kleinpaste the biggest client in Canadian standardbred racing.

“I started out shoeing back in ‘71. After graduating, I’d been out for a year on my own and one day I dropped my business card off at Armbro with Shirley Walker (Shirley Butler, in ‘72), the secretary,” recalled Kleinpaste.

Walker promised that she would give Kleinpaste’s card to Dr. Glen Brown.

“A week or two went by and I didn’t hear from them, so I dropped off another card,” laughed Kleinpaste. “A couple more weeks go by and I dropped off another one. After the fifth card, Shirley went to Dr. Brown’s office and said ‘Glen, I want you to hire this guy because he’s starting to become a pain in the ass.’

“In August of 1972, I got a call from Dr. Brown and he asked me if I could look after the Armbro account and I was elated. Absolutely elated.”

A week later, Kleinpaste was hard at work trimming yearlings.

“It's tough work as they were barely halter broke and as a young man starting out, I spent more time on the ground than I did standing up,” joked Kleinpaste. “Years later they did break them for me, but it was a struggle in the early years.”

Success starts from the ground up and the growing Armbro operation put their new blacksmith to work.

“It was my job to go over the foals every month and check them out and make sure they were standing straight,” said Kleinpaste. “With the ones that weren’t straight, I had to write the names down and every two weeks do corrective work so when it came time to put the plates on the yearlings they stood pretty good.”

Kleinpaste’s hands touched the legs of a litany of hall of fame horses through the years. Too many to count, really, through some stand out more than others.

“I do remember one foal I liked from day one. I trimmed him and as a yearling he went for $125,000. His name was Armbro Goal. I loved him and he turned out to be a champion,” said Kleinpaste of the millionaire 1988 Hambletonian champ.

The Kleinpaste family has owned a few horses through the years and his son Paul is co-owner of top pacer Alexie Mattosie. However, it's one that got away that’s on Kleinpaste’s mind on this afternoon.

“I remember telling my son Paul to have a look at Armbro Chronicle. I always look at the legs. The way they line up, the size of the foot,” said Kleinpaste.

And Armbro Chronicle seemed to have it all, with one notable exception.

“Because of a paddock accident he only had one eye and went for just $6,000. Kent Baker bought him and the horse made nearly a million dollars. There was a lot of good stock there,” said Kleinpaste without a hint of regret.

What’s so important about a blacksmith anyway?

Murray McConnell, proprietor of the racing and breeding operation Casimir Farms, reckons Kleinpaste is responsible for thousands of additional dollars made at horse sales through the years.

“Bob is the most knowledgeable man I know in terms of corrective trimming and trimming of yearlings,” said McConnell.

McConnell found Kleinpaste through necessity after being confronted at a local sale regarding the tiny-footed yearlings on display.

“When I first got into the yearling business, I went to the sale and I had a partner/trainer look at my yearlings and he said, ‘Murray, you have to change your blacksmith. whoever it is get rid of him.’

“Living in Northern Ontario, there weren’t a lot of options for a blacksmith but a friend, Dr. McKnight (head veterinarian for Armbro Farms), told me to call Bob. When Bob came up to the farm it was like we knew each other all our life. We hit it off right away. He’s been my blacksmith ever since and we’ve had a great bond.”

The change effected by Kleinpaste’s handiwork was immediate and dramatic.

“The yearlings went from having these little egg shaped feet to nice big round feet,” said McConnell. “The difference at sale was not hundreds of dollars, but thousands. The old saying, ‘no foot, no horse’ holds true.”

Kleinpaste’s technique is tried and true.

“Whenever I trim, I took heel and toe off at the same time but made sure there was pressure on the heel so the foot would extend and become a nice big foot. Without a big foot, you have nothing,” said Kleinpaste. “Within a year the feet were huge. It shows you that it’s easy to screw up on a foot. You can trim a horse a certain way and within six months you find out you made a mistake and it will cost you.”

A blacksmith’s value can also be measured in terms of reliability, not only with his technique, but with seemingly the simplest of tasks – showing up on time.

“Bob was diligent, reliable and could be counted on. If we said we wanted to start at 7:30 in the morning he was there at 7:00 a.m.,” recalled Dr. John McKnight, who worked with Kleinpaste at Armbro Farms for decades. “Bob was energetic and ambitious. He would tackle an insurmountable number of horses in a day and do the last one with the same degree of care and dedication that he did the first one.”

With a young family to feed, Kleinpaste was hungry for work and the more foals he took on, the more money he brought home.

“When I first started at Armbro, I got $3 for a trim and $8 for new shoes,” laughed Kleinpaste. “It’s well over $120 for new shoes and $40 for a trim now.”

While it doesn’t seem like a lot of money now, the reputation that Kleinpaste built has certainly opened doors for his sons as part of a family brand of reliability that is entrenched within the standardbred community.

“He was supported because he was dedicated and reliable, and those characteristics are sometimes few and far between,” said McKnight. “He passed that work ethic to his sons. The fact that he tried to do so much work in a day, probably contributed to the back deterioration that curtailed his career. In the meantime, his two sons came on board and benefitted from the large clientele Bob built up. Both boys are as dedicated as their father was.”

Paul now runs a thriving practice and counts Tara Hills Farms among his clients, and Kevin is also working seven days a week and counts McConnell’s Casimir Farms among his top providers.

“How long they’ll hold up I don’t know,” said McConnell. “Bob is a short fellow, but his kids are tall, lanky fellows and it’s hard on the back. That said, when they grab hold of a horse, that horse stays grabbed.”

About those injuries…

“I’ve got a real bad back,” understated Kleinpaste. “I have spinal stenosis and degenerative discs and it’s because of years of hard shoeing, working on foals and heavy mares. It was very tough work.”

Years of crouching in that awkward hunched pose of the blacksmith, hammer in hand, led to the stenosis in which the spinal nerve roots in the lower back are compressed producing a number of symptoms not limited to sciatica, a tingling, weakness or numbness that sparks from the lower back down to the legs.

Incredibly, Kleinpaste recalls only one major incident in his lengthy career that was caused by one of his patients.

“When I went to blacksmithing school, I was taught the correct way to get under a horse so I never had any major problems with getting hurt,” started Kleinpaste. “However, I did get kicked once by a thoroughbred. He double barreled me right in the back and I crawled out of the stall because I couldn’t stand up. I was lucky to get out alive.”

Kleinpaste’s friendly, patient manner had a soothing affect on his clientele, both human and equine.

“I had no fear with horses. I went under them confident and I could get the job done, and that attitude transferred to the horse. If you’re nervous under the horse, they’ll sense it,” he said.

His long, hard days at Armbro, including a record 89 horses trimmed in one day, were prolonged with the regular maintenance of a chiropractor.

“Without the chiropractor, I wouldn’t be here,” said Kleinpaste. “Those long days would be painful, but you go to bed and wake up the next morning fine. A little stiff maybe, but it works its way out.”

At a time when Kleinpaste should be enjoying his retirement, he now has to deal with the onslaught of Parkinson’s Disease. But, despite the troubles, Kleinpaste soldiers on.

“As my Dad would say, ‘Whenever there’s a problem, there’s a solution,’” said Kleinpaste.

And he’s meeting this new life challenge head on with the help of a website he believes can offer long term relief.

“It’s rough,” he admitted. “I’ve got a terrible back and I’m paying for it now, but if I had to do it all over again I would.”

Perhaps the most important part of Bob’s story is the foundation he has laid for the future of the Kleinpaste family in Ontario.

Kleinpaste and his wife raised two sons and two daughters, and are blessed with three grandkids and another on the way as their son Kevin is expecting his first child later this year.

“He taught me to run a good honest business and to keep the clients happy,” said Kevin. “If you say you’ll be there at 8:00 in the morning, make sure you’re there at 8:00. I’ve picked up a lot of clients who loved their old blacksmith, but he’d show up late and people don’t have time to sit and wait for you. It was always stressed that we have to be honest, charge a fair price and be personable with the client.”

Whether Bob realizes it or not, he’s missed in the community.

“As soon as I get in the barn now, it’s the first thing clients ask. When am I bringing dad out,” laughed Kevin. “He left a very good impression on everyone.

And the Kleinpaste kids are determined to maintain their good family name through another generation in Ontario agriculture.

“The name helps. It definitely got me into barns I might not have otherwise,” said Kevin. “I don’t ever want to mess that up. Dad told me to work hard and keep the family name going and I hope I’m doing that for him.”

Bob is pleased with the work he’s done as the patriarch of the family.

“I’m proud of all the children,” said Bob. “But, I’m happy to be fully retired now and spend my days mowing the lawn and looking after my grandkids.”

And maybe teaching them a few life lessons along the way.