How does a farrier charge for services when flying to other states or countries? Is it typical/expected for tools to be furnished at the destination?
thats a date for my diary , i will start working on it , be good to visit again , met some great folk
Makes me think of Jack Miller that flew to so many places. I just wondered if he told his clients what tools to order and they always supplied inventory and maybe he just showed up and was paid for all his expenses... I also wonder if your flying to other locations. You have what you charge, flight, meals, time lost traveling that you could be working locally, rental car, etc. Is all of this figured up and paid before hand or after services are rendered?
Cody it boils down to your client , if they are good and want your services they will see you right , i would not fly to anybody who i did not know to work unless they are willing to pay all expenses plus my normal shoeing rates
I would suggest a day rate plus expenses, with a maximum # of horses to be worked on in a period of time. Tools can be worked out, if yours, customer pays expense of getting them to the place of work and getting them back in a timely or agreed upon arrangement. Ray
When I've been flown across the country, the client paid all expenses. just to cover out of pocket etc. With a couple of days on each side of the work day I lost that potential income. That was fine with me and had the client known that I would have probably paid them to let me fly across the country to shoe their horse, I made out fine, and now I'll always be able to say I've been flown. On that trip, circumstances worked out where I spent a week with Jaye, and we shod my horses off his truck, I helped him with his. One of my fondest memories and most intense learning experiences.
I used to fly to FL 4 times over the winter to service clients.They bought the tickets, a complete set of tools and all the inventory.All I packed was changes of clothes. I charged the prevailing fees ($300 to $350 at the end). Then 9-11 happened and flying became more of a pain/more time consuming. After doing these trips regularly for about 15 yrs, one day, my accountant asked if I was taking more time off/working only 4 days a week every 6 weeks or so. I said no, nothing has changed, why do you ask? Well she had noticed that 4 times over the winter, my weekly deposits were down by 20-25%, so she assumed I was intentionally cutting back. Flying to shoe, is a nice ego stroke but if you're not careful, you'll be paying for the privilege of being the "flying farrier". A couple of yrs ago the owner that started the FL trips got cancer, her daughters grew out of horses, then the trainer got MS and it was easy for me to bow out of the situation with no hard feelings. side note: with all the sand colics, parasite issues, dermatitis and having to fence the alligators out of your turnouts; maybe it's natures way of telling you, horses don't belong in FL?
Hey Brian, how did you handle the occasional shoe loss or other problems? Is it back on the plane or what? Also, did you just tell the client what tools were needed and what inventory to carry?
Never got any call backs, I guess somebody local took care of any lost shoes. The client told me to order whatever I needed and have it shipped to their place in Naples; they had a shoeing shop added to their barn. The reason I started flying for them, was that every winter when in FL, every shoer they used, wouldn't reset my work and was always "Fixing" their horses. Now it could be a coincidence, but for the 8 months these warmbloods were "Up North" competing without issues but within 90 days(2 shoeings) these same horses required Legend injections, multiple joint injections, saddle fittings and chiropractic adjustments. In the spring, on their return to Michigan they would stop at my farm for layover and reshoeing. What I would find is undersized alum on the fronts, walls dressed to the unaltered set back shoe and the hinds got unshaped Workmans on dubbed off toes. These were 1400lb 17h horses, some German some Dutch. Well they all got steel, went back on #3s,4s, and 5s and in a couple of shoeings were gathered back up nicely. A few yrs later, after 9-11, while talking to the husband on my trip to the airport, I sort of apologized for the expense of flying me in. He told me he didn't mind for 2 reasons; the first was that I kept the women in his life happy and that alone was worth it and the second reason was my services were saving him $10k to $12k in Vet bills, because all he pays for now was a re-vaccinate for west nile virus and health papers to come home. Win Win
Made two trips to Gitmo for the Navy to shoe the hack horses they have there.. wasn't real good money but I wanted to go to Cuba to see the base so it was cool..
I think that's the most bizarre place I have ever heard of anyone going to shoe horses Gary. Who cares about the $ that would be worth doing for free to see the place. I assume this was pre torture camp?
It was in 82 and I wouldn't call it a torture camp except to the personal stationed there...40 sq miles of base with the airport on one side of the bay from the main base area..it has golf courses , schools and is like a small town actually..
