You lie awake staring at the ceiling. While footcare is only a part of your life, the daily challenges of running your farrier business still make you lose the most sleep.

With many changes going on in today’s equine industry, it’s no wonder you have many sleepless moments wondering about what tomorrow’s most critical challenge is going to be.

To compile a list of the major challenges keeping farriers awake at night, more than 160 attendees at last winter’s International Hoof-Care Summit took the time to share their concerns. Here’s what they told us.

1. Rising Costs. This includes dealing with rising costs for farrier supplies, fuel, insurance, charging enough to survive in business and dealing with clients who can’t afford to schedule footcare at the proper intervals.

2. Client Education. This relates to confronting bad advice from “so-called Internet experts,” convincing clients of the need for therapeutic work, handling customer unwillingness to learn about the importance of hoofcare, getting clients to invest in preventative footcare and tackling today’s lack of horsemanship skills among owners, trainers, riders and grooms.

3. Farrier Education. This includes finding ways to stay up-to-date on the latest research findings regarding trimming and shoeing techniques, the rising cost of attending clinics, avoiding complacency in your work and always striving to improve your hoof-care skills.

4. Tackling The Economy. This boils down to adjusting to the financial constraints of clients, not losing valuable clients, effectively balancing work, time and family (especially during the busy summer months)…