Horseshoe Fish

Another one of my designs.

From A Filming Session

Here are a few of the feats I performed for a recent filming session in North Carolina with "Pound for pound the worlds strongest man" Dennis Rogers and Aaron "Mighty Mac" McKenzie.

The bolt on the left is 3/8" thick by 7-1/2" long and I bent this in a manner known as unbraced. Basically what this means is that the piece is bent only by the hands - no bracing on the legs or other objects.

The bolt on the right is 3/8" thick by 11" long and this time I performed what is known as braced bending where I pushed the bolt down over my thigh and then supported my wrists with my legs to do the final crush on the now "S" bolt with my hands.

In the center is a pair, yes a PAIR of #2 horseshoes. I duct taped them together and bent them with my hands while the shoes were braced against my leg. Once the two shoes were taped together they measured 5/8" wide by 5/8" thick. That was a fun bend for sure.

When the video footage of these bends is made available I'll post an update for where they can be seen.

Keeping It Interesting

I like to bend all sorts of different sizes and styles of horseshoes. I also like to bend them into many different designs to keep things interesting. For the most part in performance I'll stick with flattening them out into an "S" shape or crushing them into the "Paperclip", but when I'm just having fun "doing what I do" I like to mix things up now and then. Same goes for training, diet, reading material, etc. Don't fall into a stale boring routine, mix it up every so often and renew your enthusiasm.

Visiting Santa

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve and I thought I had better go see the jolly guy and let him know what's on my "wish list". What else, big shiny horseshoes - LOL!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

New T-Shirts Are Available NOW!

They are here, in stock and ready to ship! Pre-shrunk, 100% cotton screen printed T's with full size front and back designs!

This two color design features a white "tribal" pattern overlayed in metallic silver with some of the implements I have become known for destroying - framing hammer, 12" spike, 12" adjustable wrench, and of course the # 5 draft horseshoe.

The front of the shirt features these items in the before stage, and on the back - AFTER...including my signature "S" hammer!

Show your love for the oldetime feats in this unique printed shirt. Sizes from Large through XXX-Large. $20.00 U.S. plus $5.00 U.S. shipping to the Continental United States via first class insured mail. Combined shipping on multiple orders available as well as international shipping quotes per request. At this time I am accepting postal money orders and Pay pal.



X-LARGE

XX-LARGE

XXX-LARGE

An Oldetime Favorite - Bending Horseshoes

One of the greatest overall strength feats is the bending of a horseshoe. There are several styles that can be used in the performance of this feat, my personal favorite is the "push - pull" on the side of the leg. I feel that this is a more difficult technique and requires greater wrist and hand strength to be successful. I also like to perform a variation I came up with that does not use any bracing against other body parts, doing the bending while only making contact between my hands & wrists and the horseshoe. More on my un-braced horseshoe bends at another time.

There are several designs that can be made from the twisting of a horseshoe. One of the classic strongman designs was to bend the shoe to 180 degree's which will make an "S" shape. "The Mighty Atom" Joseph Greenstein, would make the "W" pattern in his shows. This was done by continuing past the 180 mark and bringing the "legs" of the shoe back around, thus resulting the pattern of an "W".

"The Human Vise" Pat Povilaitis created a design known as "The Horseshoe Heart". He has accomplished this by bending the horseshoe the entire way around and continuing on until the heels of the shoe are lined up in front of each other. This has become the standard design which is imitated by strongmen all over the world - myself included, as I have received instruction from this Master Strongman.

I mentioned in the previous post that I have some unique feats, this carries into the horseshoe design also. Looking to have something different in the realm of horseshoe bending, I began to do my own original design. I call this the "paper-clip". I continue to crush the shoe all the way down until the "legs" are parallel with the twist. Pictured is a 3/8" thick by 1" wide #5 steel horseshoe that I "paper-clipped". It is shown with a quarter for scale.