The first and only stop on Daryl Bean’s “Shoeing For A Living” day is a good testimony to the importance of giving every horse and client top-notch service.

After backing her shoeing rig up to the barn door, Bean notes that this barn belongs to Wendy Trocano, one of her longest continuous clients. She’s been shoeing horses for the owner for 28 years of her 31-year career as a farrier.

“When she first contacted me, she had two horses,” recalls Bean. “But over the years, her business has grown, and now I’m here all day at least once a week.”

Right now, the barn houses 33 horses and Bean shoes all of them. Not only that, but Bean leaves itemized shoeing bills with Trocano, who adds them to the boarding bills of her tenants, and pays Bean in one check, eliminating a lot of potential bookkeeping headaches for the farrier.

There’s clearly something to be said for cultivating successful long-term relationships. And it has paid off for Bean, who’s built a profitable shoeing business on rock-solid principles of keeping horses sound and her customers satisfied.

8:30 a.m. It’s very early January as Bean finishes setting up her shoeing equipment. She notes that this is “a little slower time of the year”…