Farrier income

[GusPeterson]

I am a farrier, up until a few months ago it was my full time job. Now it's a few days a week. My favorite reply is "do you know any rich old farriers" when someone says that I make all this money. I gotta tell you it's not worth it. Overhead is ridiculous, people are hard to get along with, your phone never stops, and when it's all said and done, at the ripe old age of 26 after you've shod about 5000 of them, things pop and creak at every joint of your body and your good clients that have now become your friends won't let you quit.

 

[Nesikep]

you gotta know the two duct tape tricks

This one, for the horse, I'm not sure if it really works
https://youtu.be/tf9L8e_qlEw



And this one I'm sure is the more effective one
https://youtu.be/_xEpGrgyyQY

 

[Rafter S]

Backbreaker and spoiled horses I imagine.

. . . . Aside from the labor intensive nature of the job and poorly behaved horses, the horse PEOPLE were tiresome. Horse people are notorious for not paying on time, being late, ect. I think eventually he just got sick of the BS. . .

That reminds me of decades ago when my father was managing a ranch near here. The fences were in bad shape when he took over, and he was buying a lot of cedar posts. When his post guy delivered some posts one time Dad said he had a neighbor that wanted some, so would he deliver them to the neighbor, and leave a bill, and the guy would send him a check. The post guy looked at him and asked "Is your neighbor a cattleman, or does he have horses?" Dad replied that he ran cattle. The post guy said "Okay, then I'll do that, but if he had horses he'd have to pay cash on delivery."

 

[SBMF 2015]

If I was 6" shorter I'd try my hand at being a Farrier. I do my own. I'm not fast, but I always show up when my horse's feet need work. My problem is that I like short quarter type horses. 45 minutes after I'm done trimming I'm still bent at a 90°.

 

[Silver]

45 minutes after I'm done trimming I'm still bent at a 90°.

We have that in common for sure.

 

[Nesikep]

Yep, I've never shod a horse, but trimming cow hooves gets old real fast, which is why I'm paying more attention to hoof structure.. I just have one cow with bad hind hooves now, and I think it's from an old injury/infection causing them to grow a bit weird