The turning point in my career came when I realized that things weren’t moving forward. My practice was at a standstill. To be happy, I had to change and decided to do something about my business. The result was that I needed to pick a path to focus on.

For me, that was the type of horses I was doing at that time. What were the ones that I would be happy about when I pulled up their driveway? 

The answer was dressage horses. I began with the goal of specializing by increasing my clientele with those horses and riders.

It isn’t easy to make a change of this magnitude on your own. Don’t be the Lone Ranger, doing your own thing and not interacting with other farriers. If so, you’ll find you are out of touch of the reality of the industry. You need to continue your education and regularly talk to a mentor.

Those farriers who focus on continuing education, rely on a mentor or talk with a group of farrier friends will reach the point of realizing they want a change and deciding how to make it happen much faster than those who withdraw from the industry. 

For example, I had a friend in shoeing school who I lost contact with for 20 years. When we met up again decades later, he was much further ahead…