Hands-on approach to learning from an established farrier can be the most effective way for a new farrier to learn the trade.

The late Paul Goodness, senior member of Forging Ahead, a group farriery practice in Round Hill, Va., says most students should arrange to do some kind of mentorship after graduating from a farrier school. His practice provides a 1-year internship program for new farriers.

“We can speed up young farriers’ careers by getting them out there and exposing them to all sorts of things they need to know to be a successful farrier,” he said. “It’s not just working with the horses, but also working with the clients.”

Farriery Is More Than Horses’ Feet

Farriery has many facets that must be combined for a successful business. A person might mechanically be the best farrier in a certain specialty, but if he or she can’t deal effectively with the public, scheduling or bookkeeping, the business could fail.

“Perhaps a client has spent the past 3 months trying to get her horse to a certain competition and it’s the biggest thing in her world right now,” Goodness said. “It’s our job to do our best to figure out how to help her get the horse sound enough or traveling properly to meet that goal. Clients appreciate someone who tries to understand their point of view.”

Managing and balancing a schedule is another important aspect, Goodness added.

“It’s crucial to show up on time and to realize that the clients have lives, too. They need to know when you are coming, and you need to get there when you say you will. They may have taken time off work to be there while you are trimming or shoeing the horse. Some farriers treat their clients poorly, with no respect for the clients’ time.”

Putting the Horse at Ease

When selecting a mentor, make sure that he or she can teach areas you are deficient in. One example may be horsemanship skills.

“A big part of success is how well you can handle all kinds of horses and make that horse feel at ease,” Goodness said. “You have to be able to slip in there and have the horse actually want you to change its shoes. The horse needs to be able to trust you, rather than view you as a threat to its well-being.”

The late Jim Keith, a Wingate, Ind., farrier, had been working with apprentices since 1984.

“Apprenticeships are great for young farriers because they need to learn what the business is,” he said. “They also tend to get hurt because straight out of school, they’ll get all the cheap, bad horses that no one else wants to do. Working under an experienced farrier, they get to see what it’s like to have a good clientele and good horses.”

As a farrier, you will encounter many challenges and a good mentor will recognize opportunities to help you work through them.

Getting Your Foot In The Door

A young farrier has many options when seeking an apprenticeship.

“If they go to the International Hoof-Care Summit or other meetings, they can leave their name and number with different farriers they meet,” Keith suggested. “Our Indiana Farriers Association does this in our newsletter every couple months.

“We also do it by word of mouth. If someone wants to get an apprentice, they may call the schools to see who is coming out.”

For new farriers seeking a mentor, it helps to write down specific expectations, goals and the role they want a mentor to play in their career. Once a potential mentor is identified, ask to meet that person to discuss the possible arrangement.

“I’m a firm believer in the old saying that you retain 10% of what you read, 20% of what you read and see, 30% of what you read, see and hear, and up to 90% of what you teach,” says Loxahatchee, Fla., farrier Dave Farley, who began teaching apprentices in 1975.

If you have to explain or show it to someone else, it makes a big difference.

“I grew up in an era when farriers would not share anything; they kept all their better ideas to themselves,” says Farley, past president of the American and Canadian Associations of Professional Farriers (AAPF and CAPF, now International Association of Professional Farriers). “Now, farriers are discovering that if you teach, you learn more than anyone else — just by doing your research to teach it.”

Whitestown, Ind., farrier Mike Whisler advises persistence when looking for an apprenticeship.

“I went to shoeing school, then tried to find somebody to work with so I could make some money and get more experience,” explains Whisler, who has been working with Keith for 7 years. “I met Jim at the horse fair in Indiana. He told me he might have a position open up and I just kept bugging him and calling him.”

That persistence has paid dividends in getting his farrier practice off the ground.

“Working with Jim has helped my career,” Whisler says. “New farriers have an attrition rate of more than 95% in the first 5 years. So, I felt I should get hooked up with someone who already has an established career — if for no other reason than to wait out those first 5 years. After that, the attrition rate drops dramatically.”

The Selection Process

Finding a mentor or someone to help you along might not be easy, though. Not every established farrier wants an apprentice or student helper.

“Being a mentor can be a difficult and demanding position,” Goodness said. “You have to be a teacher, as well as do all your regular work.”

Mentors sometimes have a trial period to make sure there are no personality conflicts.

“The potential apprentice needs to ride with you for 2-4 weeks,” Keith said. “In that length of time you’d know if you are compatible or if they have habits that drive you crazy.”

Before accepting an apprenticeship, a mentee should ask questions about the hours they’ll work, schedules, compensation and other expectations. These agreements vary from apprenticeship to apprenticeship.

“Jim and I had an arrangement in which I would get paid a certain amount of dollars per horse that I worked on,” Whisler explains. “I’m an independent contractor and if I didn’t feel comfortable doing something or had some issues with a client, I had the right to choose not to do it. A person has to be judicious about this, however, and not overuse that kind of choice.”

Coming out of school, Whisler suggests apprenticing with more than one farrier.

“My arrangement with Jim was that I had a day off,” he says. “I worked with him 4 days a week and worked on my own for a day or two. I picked up the Indiana Farriers Association directory and persistently bugged any of the members who were within driving distance to see if I could give them a day’s work.

“In the beginning, this helped build my client base, but it also gave me a broader look at things. I could observe different ways of doing things, more ideas about how to shoe horses, how to run a business and so on.”

Out On Your Own

When you’ve gone through an apprenticeship, there has to be some thought about how to end the term.

“It is important that both the student and the mentor have a clear idea of where it should end, and be working toward that goal,” Goodness said. “Everyone is better off having goals to shoot for.”

After mentoring for nearly 30 years, Keith has some standards.

“I usually have them stay with me for a minimum of 2 years,” he said. “One apprentice was already working on his own when he came to me, so his level of learning was higher, and I didn’t have to teach him as much.”

Some shoeing schools are very specific about what their graduates need to face by the time the apprenticeship concludes.

“They spell out certain milestones or goals they’d like their graduates to achieve by certain times,” he said. We incorporate these into our program. By the end of a 1-year internship term, these individuals will have a certain base set of skills and can go out into the world and market those skills.”