Posted by Eric Wilt on July 14, 2003 at 23:48:18:
In Reply to: Re: income posted by Rick Burten on July 14, 2003 at 08:30:49:
: : : I was wanting to know ( a ball park figure) of how much a farrier, just out of school in May of 2003 might expect to earn in southern Ohio. Client base would have to be built up. No regular client base yet.
: : I do work in south central and southeast Ohio and a trim should bring at least 20-25$, resets 45-55$, and new shoes 65-75$. These are minimums that any decent barn will pay, but I will do horses for low income clients (and unfortunately there are a lot of them here in applachia) for less because I care about the horses.
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: Why charge less for a reset? Other than the cost of the shoes, you still have the same expenses. The amount of work is the same and your costs are the same. Charging less for resets is , to me, not a good or reasonable business practice. Especially charging $20.00+ less. I don't have much quarrel with $75.00 for shoeing. That can and does work out to a living wage. But charging less, especially for a qualified, journeyman level farrier, is, IMNTBCHO, insanity.
: As long as I am on this soapbox......, If you have to shoe more than 6 -7 horses/day to earn a living, then you are not charging enough. Especially if you are trimming 3 -4 additional horses/day. If you are shoeing more than 7 horses/day, then either the last several you work on are not getting the same quality of work as the first ones, or all of them are getting the same quality of work, which has , in my experience, shown to be, less than even average.(these observations and comments assume you are working alone, not with a helper/apprentice, etc, in which case you will either do more horses or are charging a higher rate to cover the increased expense of the additional hands).
: I give very few , if any, "breaks" because of financial circumstance. If folks can't afford horses and the attendant proper care, then they shouldn't have horses.
: Rick
Here we go again.Blasting everyones prices.I get less for a reset.Its nowhere near the same amount of work,or overhead as a new shoe job.If Im in no hurry,I can reset a horse in 30-40 minutes,and the only overhead I got is in nails.For 4 new steel,open heeled shoes with no pads Im looking at an hours worth of work,and the last time I figured it out,about 13% of my shoeing price was wrapped up in overhead.I reset any shoe that will last 30 days.(we shoe a horse every 3-4 weeks at the track)It saves me time and money,but if it doesnt save the customer any money-theyll want new shoes every time.
The way I see it,if a man wants to charge one guy more and another guy less thats his business.I dont charge everyone the same either.To some folks out in the country,to have horses and to be among them is a big part of their way of life.And I get sick and tired of a bunch of stuck-up CJF's putting down these horsemen,and the blacksmiths that work for them.Theres good apples and bad apples all the way up and down the ladder,and on both sides of the fence.
So if a man shoes more than 7 a day,he either jipped a few or jipped them all,eh? Thats a pretty broad statement too.It comes down to the individual.I feel that if a guy has it in him to jip one-then he has it in him to jip them all.But 7 horses is an average days work to some.That doesnt mean they do a lousy job. Eric Wilt