Posted by Rick Burten on July 15, 2003 at 09:24:08:
In Reply to: Re: income posted by Eric Wilt on July 14, 2003 at 23:48:18:
: : : : 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.
: :
: : 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.
I'm not sure how you figure this. You have to remove the shoes, trim the feet, clean up the shoes, nail and finish. And, while you don't have to make new shoes, that effort and the actual cost of the new shoes are the only things different. All the rest of your fixed costs remain the same. And, by keeping your prices the same for new shoes or a reset, you increase your bottom line(aka: your profit margin). And, for the record, I did not blast anyone's prices, I merely offered my opinion.
If Im in no hurry,I can reset a horse in 30-40 minutes,and the only overhead I got is in nails.
Nope. You have a whole bunch of other overhead. Salary, truck payment, insurance, retirement, clothing expense, fuel, equipment depreciation, equipment replacement(you're not still using the first rasp or knife you started in the business with are you?) education, vacation, sick days, personal days, retirement, etc, etc. Failure to recognize these things and others is rampant in the farrier industry. failure to plan and price accordingly is also rampant.
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.
Aroound here, that business practice will lose a person more customers, more quickly than almost anything else.
To some folks out in the country,to have horses and to be among them is a big part of their way of life.
Then they should be ready ,willing, and able to pay for that way of life. Champagne tastes on a beer budget never works. the sooner people realize that , the better off they and their livestock will be.
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.
Who is putting whom down? And what does being a CJF have to do with the discussion at hand?
Theres good apples and bad apples all the way up and down the ladder,and on both sides of the fence.
True, but how is this germane to this conversation?
: 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.
Well, as I said before, thats my opinion and it is one I have come to after 30 years of providing hoofcare to the equine industry.
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.
I never used the term "jip or jipped them". My comment was/is that shoeing more than seven horses/day on a regular basis, shortchanges either some or all of the horses. Maybe not in an overt way, but overall, the quality suffers, so in the end, the client(the horse) suffers. JMNTBCHO.
But 7 horses is an average days work to some.
Read, again, my comments. You will see that I am not in disagreement with this. It is when you start shoeing above this number of horses/day that I take issue.
That doesnt mean they do a lousy job. Eric Wilt
Again, re-read what I said.
Tell you what. If you want to come and trim and shoe horses for me, for $50.00 for trim and shoes and $20.00 for trims only, come right ahead. I'll pay you those exact numbers. But, you trim and/or shoe the way I dictate, you provide your own transportation, supplies, equipment, meals, lodging, clothing, whatever. I do all the billing and collecting.
Rick