Working with backyard horses represents the “bread and butter” of many farrier businesses. In fact, data from the 2016 American Farriers Journal “Farrier Business Practices Survey” indicates 92% of all farriers work with a number of backyard horse owners.

While working with backyard horses represents a big part of the footcare market, it doesn’t seem to always get the amount of attention it deserves. In fact, the impact on farrier income from working with backyard horse business is probably much bigger than most people realize.

Evidence of the importance of this segment of the overall hoof-care market business was shown in a survey of farriers attending the 2017 International Hoof-Care Summit. Some 50% of these farriers indicated backyard horses make up more than half of all of the horses they work with in their footcare practices.

The Backyard Market

In a 2018 mid-summer American Farriers Journal electronic survey, 203 farriers took the time to answer a few questions regarding their experiences with backyard horses. The typical farrier who answered this survey works with 70 clients who each own an average of three horses. A few of these farriers worked with more than 100 backyard horse-owning clients.

Among backyard horses, the survey results indicated 27% are trimmed and left barefoot. While the remaining 73% are trimmed and shod, these numbers are evenly split between shoeing all four feet, only the front feet and only the rear feet.

Based on these survey results, 79% of backyard horses are left barefoot during the…