When Sedalia, Colo., farrier Tad Keegan earned his private pilot’s license, his instructor offered some keen insight on education.

“My instructor told me, ‘Your pilot license is a license to learn,’” he recalls. “So should your career be in shoeing horses. Graduating from school is only the beginning of your education.”

Indeed, farrier school is a great start, but your education doesn’t end with your name on a piece of paper. Farriery is a lifelong journey, and it’s up to you to build upon the foundation that you’ve established with your training in farrier school.

You can accomplish this by attending clinics, conferences, competitions, reading publications such as this, and talking with fellow farriers.

When investing your time at clinics and conferences, you’ll often find that the subject matter will almost exclusively focus on the equine hoof capsule. And why not? You chose this profession because you wanted to help horses. Yet, it’s important to remember that you’re also a small business owner.

In order to survive in the world of equine hoof care, you’ll need to know more than how to trim and shoe horses’ feet. You must also balance budgets, track inventory, schedule clients and receive payment — and many others.

That’s where the 11th edition of Getting Started in Hoof Care comes in handy. This publication is designed by the publishers of American Farriers Journal to help you navigate the business of farriery.

Within these pages, we have assembled a small collection of knowledgable farriers who want…