When a shoer who’s worked for Jim and Allan Ferrie for over 4 years decides it’s time to go out on his own, the brothers (shown below) hand the farrier the shoeing work on 300 horses.

While that’s certainly a great way to get started in a farrier business, it doesn’t represent a substantial part of the Ferrie shoeing business. Located at Newmilns, Scotland, this operation includes Jim, Allan, four Journeyman farriers and three apprentices. They also have three office staffers, build shoeing tools and run a farrier supply business. In addition, two farriers who went out on their own run their shoeing businesses out of the office.

“We could use 11 farriers in the summer and five farriers in the winter,” says Jim Ferrie. “But nine shoers is a good number to have the year-round and we operate out of six shoeing trucks.”

The brothers run a multi-farrier business so they can make a good living and enjoy life.

 “With a multi-farrier practice, Allan and I enjoy a better lifestyle and have better quality lives,” says Jim. “We even have time to fish for salmon. In fact, we can shoe a dozen or so horses from 7:30 to 11:30 a.m. at the shop with the rest of the…