For more than 4 years, New York farrier Taylor Keenan has worked with an Oldenburg that has a severe club foot. Not only would you not call this a text book case, but you might as well threw the text book away with this horse.

When it comes to anvils, John Halko of Georgia Farrier Supply says he's actually calculated the cost of lifting one in and out of a rig all day long vs. having it mounted on a swing-out mechanism.

Nothing beats sound horses as a means for keeping your clients happy. However, a farrier business is a service-based business and it is important to pay attention to more than just trimming feet and nailing shoes on feet.

California farrier James Jimenez finds taking thorough notes on his horses benefits everyone involved in the care of the horse.

A case of a warmblood prompted Blake Brown to address a problem he sees all too frequently: shoeing a horse incorrectly.

Frederick, Md., farrier Doug Anderson believes that respect is an often overlooked, yet critical, part of the farrier-client relationship. For him, respect is based on a healthy interaction of communication, but not when the client dictates what should be done to the horse. Anderson finds that if a client tries to dictate how a horse should be shod, often times the client has paid less for hoof care in the past and has hired a farrier who likely lacks appropriate education to address the needs.

Many mobile payment devices attach to your smartphone and allow you to accept debit and credit card payments. There are many designs, but you may find one that attaches directly to your smartphone through the headphone port as the most practical for your business.

There is one way that the farrier profession is similar to that of professional athletes. Athletes are compensated richly because they are good at what they do, but also because the required physical endurance means they can usually only perform professionally for a relatively short period of life. Their bodies break down prematurely due to the hazards of their business. The same goes for farriers.

Eli Beiler shoes several top Standardbred racing horses on the East Coast. In any kind of high-end, competitive discipline you need name recognition. He says the Standardbred market is no different.