I lived in Central N. Carolina for a while and learned quickly that the animals usually don't stand well and the owners usually want it done for nothing. Low income area and in the mtns . That was years back and I believe it has gotten worse with the economy today. Now that was backyard horses. I have also done drafts of all sizes and diciplines as a specialty for many years. It has always been my bread and butter. I actually gave up all but a few, ( and for me a few means 5 or less) of doing riding horses. When the distance became to much, I lived in northern Vermont and just like Rick Sheperd and Dave Whitaker I contended with the large mtn ranges to either go over or go around to get to customers. I charged hard for gas mileage and made a substantial amount of income aloing with paying for my fuel by doing so.
With your being in north west Georgia, I wonder if your in Ralph Casey's area and near his school. Most horse shoeing schools will do horses for a penny on the dollar so they can supply enough horses for their students . If your near him and his son's school then your in a bit of a perdicament for sure. Owners will truck in their horses to schools because of the cost savings a school can provide and large farms will give schools their accounts because of the cost savings it is for them on their budget of running the farm or horse operation. Owners only care that their horses can be ridden ....period. The rarely give a tinkers damn if the job is pretty or clean or balanced. Ask the owner to describe the horses foot and what you did to the foot after the job is done. You will get a lot of hemming and hawing and guessing for answers. THEY DON'T PAY ATTENTION NOR DO THEY GIVE A DAMN until the animal can't be ridden. So horse shoeing schools have an endless number of customers that in the long run make it an undesireable place to shoe $around. Specialize in doing drafts. Travel and charge for it till it hurts the customer. Give them the very best work you can do and be reliable and in the long run you will have more work than you can handle. $55. to $65. is average for a trim $90. to 150. average for front shoe's $250. to ????? is average for 4 shoe's depending on the type of shoeing Pads, calks, traction/drill tech packing of any kind is all EXTRA.... (Not added into the price) Mileage can be anywhere from 47 cents a mile on up ( I actually got 95 cents a mile one way, when gas prices were crazy) I charged from my home to first customer and then from 1rst customer to the next and so forth. I always scheduled animals so i could travel from one to the next without wasting a lot of time or mileage between them. Eliminate customers who don't have well standing drafts. They need to have stocks to do them in, or they need to stand and give their legs willingly for you to keep them as customers. If you don't, in the long run you will get hurt and then your in physical trouble. Eliminate the draft to begin with and save yourself the head ache. Eliminate most customers who don't have a barn or a safe area for you to do the animal. NEVER, NEVER, NEVER CHASE ANY CUSTOMERS HORSES. They are either caught and being held for you or you leave them a note explaining and head to your next customer. This will only happen once and either the customer won't call again (in which case good riddence) or they will make sure the animal is caught from that time on and be very apologetic. This is how I ran my business in Vermont and the way I run it now here in Texas. Real draft horse shoers are a rarety. Other shoer's like Bill Adams mentioned, hates to see them go because he will be asked to pick up the slack. Most horse shoers want nothing to do with drafts...... Hope all this helps in some manner or form.
Owners only care that their horses can be ridden ....period. I'm still flabergated that this really IS the majority (and sad) of horse owners. $55. to $65. is average for a trim $90. to 150. average for front shoe's $250. to ????? is average for 4 shoe's depending on the type of shoeing I'm thinking you need to raise your prices, Bruce . . . Eliminate customers who don't have well standing drafts. They need to have stocks to do them in, or they need to stand and give their legs willingly for you to keep them as customers. If you don't, in the long run you will get hurt and then your in physical trouble. i seriously HATE stocks . . . if they can't train a draft to stand for a farrier, farrier should walk away. i've worked with the ones that only knew the stocks . . . . and they've ricocheted me off more than once off of a stall wall . . . . the bruises are amazing.
Where are y'all livin that ya get them prices? Here trims can be as low as $12 to 50.. shoeing school grads shoe cheap to build business..they start at $50 to $90. I am from $85 to $125 and trims are 40 to 50...go up any more and they bale, doesnt matter if ya handmake a shoe or not. ???
There's a guy about an hour south of me that does most of the drafts in the area. He gets $15 to trim a draft and $55 for a full set of shoes with driltek. Not even the Amish can compete with him.
I went to a local blacksmithing club this weekend, been wanting to go for awhile just finally got around to it. Kinda controversial with a farrier in the room. Some of the talk reminded me of handmades vs. kegs discussion. I asked a guy making a damascus billet if he had used the Iron MT flux, I got the whole our forfathers used borax and this is the way it's done and the rest of that snake oil flux doesn't work. I did get asked about making shoes and got the well can't you just buy what you need. One thing that suprised me was there were 37 people there, they said that is a normal monthly attendance. We had a hammer in a while back and there were 4 of us, 1 of them was the guy that organized it and 1 was in his own shop.
LOL I did 2 shoes today with pads and studs for $20.00. Long story, but she deserved it. That would normally be a $111.00 dollar holler! I hope word doesn't get around. Oh yeah, this is the interwebs, now everyone knows. Crap! Regards
I have asked every person I know around my area to come over and hammer out some shoes..notta one in interested?? As long as they can buy almost anything "they" need to get by it is a sorry state of affairs for sure.. I have made and applied two pairs of barshoes , a pair of wedged heel shoes and couple pair of sliders in the past few weeks...even tho the holidays sure make things S L O W around here...
True, there isn't much chance of running into somebody that undercut you by $20/head and took 30 horses from you last week just before your mortgage was due. LOL! S*** happens.
I know it is has a lot to do with the state of of your economy, but looking from the outside, it seems a lot of your problems are due to the preponderance of shoeing schools... everyone of them churning out "farriers" by the dozen each few weeks. I've seen it happen in every industry that finds there is a profit in teaching people a purported skill. You end up with an oversupplied of people cutting the guts out the market and/or just not enough work to go around. Thank God nobody has figured that one out in my corner of the world. The "trimmers" have done it, but not farriers.
Them guys were pecking around then they would go get another heat and then peck some more, then they'd get a jig out or a bender. I made a hold down for my anvil and I'm by no means fast but had it made pretty quick. One guy made the comment that when ever he worked around a farrier they are usually moving faster because they are trying to make money rather than a hobby. I think Tom hit the nail also.
I have to agree . . . with horse populations at an all time high, i have to believe that we will see the farrier numbers greatly reduced over the next 10-20 years. Maybe sooner . . . *sad* A lot will retire or worse, get hurt and the chances of most kids now days coming into the trade and actually do a physical job, for that kind of pay, are just about null & void, in my opinion . . .
Linda and Dana, How is this trade "imploding on itself" and what dose that even mean? Dana your post sounds like good news to me, more horses less Farriers. Think how it must have felt for our predecessors to go through the early 1900s. Autos replacing horses. I have read that in the US in 1850, a full shoeing was $5 average. In 1920 the price was $2.75 after 70 years of inflation. I have a friend who just retired last fall at 85 years old, after 62 years of shoeing. He started at $4 a head in 1950.
In NZ we get a lot of kids entering the trade as apps. Most don't make past their 2nd year out of their time and end up going into shepherding or some other low paying job Curious, because by NZ standards, this is a very high paying.... errrrr, profession. (Most are just poor money managers) Anyone here that does a half decent job and hangs around long enough to get known is inundated with work. I've been in this new area for only 6 months and already have 3/4 of a full book. Most experienced guys aren't taking new clients. But no shoeing schools..............................
