I have had it done by female clients on regular occasions, if i'm working and they have to leave and its too windy to leave on the shoeing box, Its only now I see they were really just copping a feel the dirty things il sue for sexual harassment next time I couldn't care less as long as i'm getting paid, would be worse if they said catch ya next time!!
I get that a lot. The thing that makes me smile we call the Diet Coke breaks when the women invite there friends round to watch the farriers work!!! They love a fit apprentice with his shirt off.
I will admit there is one farrier in the area that brings on my own "diet coke" breaks when he is working in the same barn. lol I have had one of his clients offer to text me when he is coming to do their horses. lol edited to mention no I didn't take her up on the offer,
...please tell me yall dont shoe shirtless..lol.. only one i ever heard shoe shirtless was that goof norval
people don't have a clue of we go thur everyday in this line of work. we have to deal with the clueless general horse owning public, the natural horsemanship BS'ers who dictate how they want to see the horse move in their idea way in training, the racetrack trainers, the higher level horse trainers that want the blue ribbon at all costs, the spoiled little children that don't win and dealing with the parents when the pony has an abscess and they just paid $200 for the class, then dealing with the green owners with green spoiled horses; and then vets who don't know why its lame; must be the blacksmith, then on top of that we have to deal with the horses that spoiled, mean, hyper, nervous, dog-shy, gun-shy, green, or dangerous, have conformation issues, lameness issues or just have lack of ground manners. We have to give perfect service and shoe perfectly, and get paid; and keep them as a client in order for us to make a living at it. We don't need other farriers coming in and being confrontational with us-- as well; and saying this is our barn--what are you doing here shoeing. Farriers as a collective whole should stand up for each other; help each other out; and learn from each other; not only in forging and making better shoes; but also when we do shoe and make mistakes and point them out as well; so we all can be better for it and horse. At the end......our client is the horse and it's well being should come first; before our egos, and before the owner, trainer, vets, ect.
Perhaps I'm just lucky, but the vast majority of my customers are knowledgeable, sensible owners and thoroughly nice people.
So are mine. I have a low tolerance for jerks. Foolishness well I'm fine with that. I enjoy almost all my clients. The few who are PITA are going to be replaced as soon as I have a better client to fill their spot. Off the top of my head I can only think of ONE I am looking forward to replacing and she is actually fake nice, not rude but fake nice is still not my cup of tea.
I also got a good list of customers. Over a period of time I've weeded out the bad ones. Most all know I enjoy a good cup of coffee and have one for me. I get others who always have a nice cold water in the summer. Couldn't ask for much more.
As are mine Gary, but I'm sure we've all experienced the situations Linda described. The longer we shoe, the better the clients get, but we still get the odd one. I think it has a lot to do with our attitude. Regards
I think ur pretty dang spot on with that rick...i feel our actions and attiude set the mood...come in happy leave happy come in with piss pour attiude leave that way..smiles are contagious. .so are piss poor attiudes..
Have today shoed horse to one pain in the a..! trimd the horse 4 veeks ago.. after that shes callt me 6 times the Hoofs chipt, the Hoofs sore.. i have told her ok i,ll ckeh it out, an thers no proplem so i told her that at propost shoeing the blody lavacoat... she asks to we have to??? no we dont i say.. she calls after coupel of days same shit.. the thing is she only loans the horse so i calld the owner hows wet.. and we disided to shoe her and put pads on.. now is must block her number in my mobil..
We need to be on each others side; and protect each other, warn each other of a dangerous horse/situations with owners. We need to stand up with each other on owners who try to put the welfare of a farrier in danger. We don't always have to be friends; but we should treat each other as professionals, and remember we have families that never want us to every be in the hospital or laid up and loose what we have because of some simple minded owner who's horse is more important then welfare of others.
....i agree so let me tell yall right away..im pretty easy going..i bill 90% of my larger type farms..i have folks ride me slam up to the next shoeing before they pay..I work 7 days a week most of the time during show season so everyone is happy..its rare I charge for a lost shoe as my run is real close and im norm close..if horse acts up we dope it until its trained by professional as long as its not close to a show...I once was sick and had someone drive me to a horse to run hoof testers around the foot while in my pajamas. .I have been fired by many only to be back working for them soon after as I hold no hard feelings...so with the above if you hear I have walked from a client ..I dont need to call around because if I get get along with them they must be a real mother trucker stay away..
In an earlier post I described the relationship between the Farriers around here as you write about above. We also get together for dinners, clinics, cover each other when sick or having family problems. We work with each other to learn and teach the newbies who want to learn.
