Everytime I run into another Hoofcare Provider they ask me , "How many did you do today?" I reply, most likely one less than you.
Another thing about trimming horses fast. A couple years before I even thought of getting into this, we called a guy out to trim my girl's horse. I was behind the house working on some project and someone said that the Farrier was here. I thought that I'd like to see what this guy did, so I finished one little thing I was working on, just took a couple minutes. I went out front and he was gone, with a fair amount of my money. I thought at the time a fellow could get by doing that.
Saw an AD about "T Rex" clinchers a few years ago; "These new clinchers did 17 yesterday". Have seen so called "top" farriers in this country with "crews" blow into barns and do 25 and more. Did 14 sets on a Thanksgiving Day, almost 30 years ago at a Hack Line barn in North Georgia. Me and Palmer Wilson got under 28 at the Biltmore before an FEI selection Endurance Race in 2001 for the USA Team. Now, 5 is a good day
I really love what I get to do for a living but at the same time I don't feel it necessary to go out and do a totally exorbitant amount of horses on any given day. I do calculate finances and tend to pay more attention to how much I make rather than how many I work on. An average "good job" for my area is working in a lumber mill which pays about $135 per day before taxes. So today when I go out and work on the measly 5 full sets I have, which includes a show horse, a couple trail horses, and two foundered horses, the fact that I'll make the millworker's weekly wages in a day does make me feel better about only doing 5 head.
Yes, one of the hardest days on my own 36 most of them were sets the rest were fronts and dress hinds
Travis, remember that the US is a massive place compared to the UK, so things that seems to you outlandish are simple facts. A few years back I worked for a farrier in the UK who was employing 5 farriers + apprentices. Each farrier will do at least 5 sets a day or equivalent in trims (3trims for a set) plus whatever work the apprentices do. you do the maths!! By the way, 99% of the work was within a 20 miles radius. and just in case you asked how many farriers are around I checked the register's website and there is 88 farriers in this 20 miles .
the shoeing market in the UK is very competitive , i charge a little more than others and a six figure turnover for a lot of farriers is nothing unusual , probably we have more grunt in us over here
So that's 5 sets a day or 15 trims per man. Sounds just like what most of us are saying. I don't even have any customers within 20 miles of my house.
Chris I know a guy that works 12-14 hrs a day 6-7 days a week and has all his life. His children don't speak to him and he rarely sees his grandchildren, because he was never around. He's divorced and alone and will probably die that way. There's more to life than working all the time. It's pretty nice to be able to go out and make a decent living and enjoy life.
At 20 min a set thats 12 hrs. I could do that one day a week and not have to worry about working the rest of the week.
That is some day's work for a single man - I'm ashamed to say I'm only capable of a quarter of that...
Gary i remember it well the wife was in Spain on a holiday i went for one week and she and the kids stayed on for another week. i started at seven and finished my last horse at 10 30 i drove home and about 6 miles from my house i pulled in feeling tired when i woke up 4 hours had past. by the way the horses had to be shod most all were going away the next day
