Business Practices

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From the Desk of AFJ

Three Steps for Molding Better Clients

Every farrier has at least one client who square dances on your last nerve while wearing 4-inch spike heels. Although it’s tempting to fire an emotional or difficult client, improving your communication skills can go a long way toward improving your practice and keeping an otherwise good paying account.
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Success with Show Horses Demands Managing the Schedule

Managing the schedule of show horses requires careful planning and thorough communication with the footcare team

For about 20 years, I have worked at busy 3-day eventing, endurance, dressage and driving barns. These barns range in size from a half-dozen to 3 dozen horses. Over the years, I’ve developed a strategy for managing show barns that fits most disciplines, regardless of size.


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Shoeing for a Living

Horseshoeing’s Engineering Puzzle Charms Finger Lakes Farrier

Kirk Smith enjoys the challenge of balancing the horse’s system of levers and pulleys

Horses have been a staple in Kirk Smith’s life long before he started shoeing horses in Freeville, N.Y.

He always had horses while growing up in the small farming town of Clark in northeastern South Dakota. He cut his teeth working cattle part-time as a high school student and later during his summer breaks while attending Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. Along the way, he broke and trained horses.


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Briefings March 2016

Memory Foam Orthotic Can Comfort Horses

Ethylene-vinyl acetate — better known as memory foam — is noted for its softness and flexibility. Manufacturers use it for mattresses, pillows and shoe liners to provide comfort and support for human consumers. Lake Elmo, Minn., farrier Scott Lampert uses them for the same reasons with horses by placing a lightweight memory foam pad under a foot.


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