Dennis Manning

Dennis Manning

Artist; Occupational; Blacksmith; Farrier

Profile of artist Dennis Manning

1946

Blacksmith and Farrier

The dream began when Dennis Manning inherited an anvil from his grandfather. Teaching himself to shoe horses by pounding cold machine-made shoes on the anvil until they fit, he eventually built a forge and learned to fashion horseshoes from straight bars of red-hot steel. After honing his skills by competing in international tournaments where he met and learned from master smiths, he began researching and making what has been known since pioneer times as "Mormon iron puzzle hobbles." Today the fishermen and packers who use Dennis' hobbles and the horse show and endurance horsemen whose horses he shoes, are not the only ones benefiting from his dream. Besides forging tools, horseshoes and hobbles, he is teaching his seven sons, "forging" a third generation of Manning blacksmiths.