In the 1850s there lived in Götzingen a man about sixty-five to seventy years old. People called him de Schmetchen—probably because he had once been a blacksmith. This man knew how to make horses go lame and how to make them sound again; all he needed was to know what kind of hair the horses had. If people gave him his food and his schnapps (his favourite drink), they could be sure their horses would soon go lame. Schmetchen would then cure them again—for a small tip. Among other things, the following is told of him:

One night, quite late, Schmetchen and a few companions went into a farmhouse at Böwingen called “Beses” and demanded brandy. The master of the house saw that the newcomers had already had more than enough of the good stuff and refused to give them any, saying: “Come back tomorrow, then you shall have as much as you like.” When he persisted in his refusal despite Schmetchen’s pleas, the latter cried out: “Well then, if you won’t give us any today, tomorrow you’ll send for us—and be glad when we come!”

The next day the farmhand reported to his master that all the horses in the stable were lying on the ground with all four legs stretched out. The master, well aware who had caused the trouble, quickly had Schmetchen of Götzingen fetched. He came, looked over the horses—and they were healed. The horses he cured, however, remained lame for just as long after the cure as they had been lame before it.

If he had but a single hair from a horse, he had only to wind it around a horseshoe nail, hammer the nail into a post, and the horse was “nailed fast” and could not go properly. The real name of this man was Nicolas Nicolas.

Reported by schoolmaster Beljon of Buderscheid.