Do you work with others? Alone? How many do you do on average by yourself. Start to finish with only you touching the horse. How many do you and your crew complete in a day. How many do you expect your apprentice to do by themselves?
Michael, 2 to four shoeings or 8 0r so trims, basically whatever 9 am to 1 pm will allow,including travel, then i might see one or two back home,or might not,per day now, if it ain t too cold, I ll work on horses without a handler if they stand but never under any circumstances if there is not someone on the property not just there but paying attention in case anything goes amiss. never had an apprentice. ray
Ray, you bring up a good point about always having someone around who is paying attention. We had a trainer here who was working with a horse alone. Her husband came home from work to find her unconscious in the barn. Apparently she had been kicked in the head. She is in a coma and has been for some time now. If someone had been there the outcome may have been different. I don't always have someone with me when I shoe but this is sure enough to make me reconsider it.
Always smartest to have someone close but nowdays it is hard for folks to be home and I don't like working nights..
Gary, I agree that it is hard for someone to be home, and i m not trying to compare farriers to medical doctors but...... most of them don t do night office hours for the convenience of the patient,,,,,,,,, the cable tv guy don t make night calls for the convenience of the customer, refrigerator repair, etc.. not saying no one offers services in the eve. but those who do probably ask xtra for it. course for safety ,since there should be someone round ,some smart fella should start "Fly by night horseshoeing" , it probably wouldn t work out any better because the customers need their sleep! and couldn t be bothered to be at the barn. Point is to me, if you don t ask for yourself,whatever the reason, your not going to get,especially if we keep making the excuses. Ray
Micheal, What you posted on the everyday thread would be a pretty typical "average" day for me, especially alone.I have therapeutic Vet referral days that I might only do one horse, as well as a 16-18 horse trim only stop that I'll do all at once..... it varies every day I find that apprentices tend to slow you down early on if you are taking the time to actually teach them something and not just using them for indentured slavery..... I have a new girl right now that has been with me two days a week for a few months now... she probably adds an hour to the day.... but, the tide will turn and usually by 6 months, I'm breaking even and soon after you can actually speed the day up with them.... she is my fifth apprentice, I usually have them for around two years or so, and I like to teach. To Ray's point...... I NEVER work without someone else around who is in legal "care, custody, and control" of the horses I'm working on. I don't catch, cross tie, halter, or turn out horses that I'm there to do foot work on. Well, I gotta get this morning's work done, 'cause I have a pretty client that's taking me out to lunch!! Dave
Counting 3 or 4 trims as a shoeing, when I was younger I felt 30 a week, ave of 6/day was about as much as I could handle. Might do them in 4 days or 6 days, but about 30/week. I will sometimes work on a horse with no one around, but even doing my own horses, I prefer someone there.
Smitty, that's the equivalent of 30 sets/week. If I would shoe four and trim three for example, I would consider that the same as five sets.
I was watching a clip of a Rick Redden vid he says in the vid he trims 20 an hour and walks them both ways
Smitty, a few yrars back when the money in the TB industry in Kentucky flowed like water; Dr Redden might have done 20 in an hour; now it is more likely 20 in a week. Hard to even find a farm there with a total of 20 horses, let alone foals.
Hate to say this about a "giant in the profession", and a mentor to someone I greatly respect, but Redden in my opinion has always been a "legend in his own mind".. This is not meant to discredit some fine work he has done, but you have to take some of his opinions and claims with a grain of salt. I was warned about his opinions early in my career by another farrier for whom I have great respect. My experience has shown that warning to be correct. As far as him trimming 20 in an hour, if he actually said that, an extreme example of farrier math, IMO. ( I think we all recognize that ). Regards
Ok I am going to brag a little about my day... 1 trim 1 half shoe 1 full shoe. I started slow and tapered off fast however, Tomorrow I am going to trim 21 in 59 minutes with lunging them all in both directions walk, trot, canter (before and after trim). and doing 25 pushups between each horse.
do the math, that s 525 push ups, i don t think so.......... as to horses 20 trims in an hour allows for 45 seconds per hoof, now if you run 20 foals down a gravel drive all together ,call it self trimming, i could see ,on a good day getting them caught in an hour, if your also lucky. ray
Rick, I've heard Redden himself admit that he can get carried away with something that seems good early on and proves later to not be so good.
Jack, I have heard him admit that as well. He has my respect in that regard. I believe him to be a valuable member of his profession. I do not believe he can do 20 trims in an hour. Hence my statement "you have to take some of his opinions and claims with a grain of salt". Regards
Hey I did a chronic founder and three burros today. All trims, but not too bad for an old man. They ain't easy. The owner pays in cash and adds a tip.
20 feet would equal 5 head and if not a lot needed to be trimmed off , 5 an hour isn't impossible..shoot I know some guys that trim broodmare bands for 20 ahead and only used nippers, no rasping at all..
I used to shoe for a guy that had about 200 head, mostly brood mares and colts. Every spring we would make a day of trimming and cutting the stud colts. I only used nippers on them. We had a pretty good system, hit them with drugs, they step out of the chute and laid em down. While one guy was castrating I would be trimming. About the time we got done with one they would have another one laid down. We done a BUNCH in a day like that.
