Be Patient, Then Don’t Be Afraid To Ask

When one American Farriers Journal reader takes on a new well-to-do shoeing client, he normally doesn’t tell them what he charges. Once he has finished the first shoeing, he’ll ask the customer what they were paying the previous shoer. “I’ve learned that it’s often more than I would have charged,” he says. “New clients sometimes even say the amount is more than they had actually been charged. Once I find out that they were paying the higher price, I tell them that I will do it for the same price and end up making more dollars than if I had priced the work without knowing what they were used to paying.”

It May Keep The Shoes On, But At What Cost?

Curtis Brown recently learned that the staff in one barn where he shoes doesn’t pick up and clean out the hind feet. In fact, a barn worker explained that they purposely keep dirt packed in the foot to help keep the shoes on the horse.

“I told her the same thing you’re probably thinking — that maybe that’s why some of these horses have such bruised feet,” says the Bearnardston, Mass., farrier. “They have dirt and rocks packed in there and they’re stomping their feet all during the fly season. “But I didn’t get through to her. And the sad thing is how many young kids coming into the barn to take riding lessons will learn this new way of horse…