People continue to astound me!

[Dances with Hooves]

I do this job primarily because I love horses and I must say that those horses who would rather not cooperate with the farrier have inspired me to become a much better horseman. I have put my own horses thru parelli levels 1 and 2 and in my farrier practice use techniques that I have learned from pat, clinton anderson, frank bell and monty roberts to have "discussions" with the uncooperative horses. Generally they become cooperative. I feel at this point that I understand horses pretty darn well although horsemanship like farriery is a life long journey and mastery of it perhaps can never be attained as there is always more to learn.

"Peoplemanship" is another story. While most of my customers are nice folks, got lots of xmas tips, and in general feel appreciated the exceptions sure make me feel that I will never understand humans and their behavior. (hats of to any psychologists that may be on this board you have an unbelieveably difficult field of study)

I got a call 3 weeks ago from a person who wanted winter shoes put on 2 horses explained that the earliest I could get there was 12/26 due to a backlog was that OK. They said sure only looking to get shoes on by the end of the month. Booked the appointment and we ageed that they would call with directions once they noted some street names. I run my practice like a dentists office and make reminder calls etc. I have MCI neighborhood so I can make unlimited calls at a fixed price. I placed several calls to remind them of the appt. and request directions reaching the machine each time. Night before last night I reached the husband. He acted uncomfortable on the phone and said his wife would call. I concluded she got the work done by someone with a less busy schedule as she did not call back.

Now I would prefer to not work on sunday and really don't care if the horses got done already but it is beyond my compreshension that someone would ask a tradesman to schedule a service and if that service was no longer required not call and cancel the service. Can you imagine someone failing to cancel with an electrician, plumber, carpenter, or other tradesman?

People sure make me wonder sometimes.

George

[Mike Ferrara]

Well George in 30 years of working I've seen people do countless things that I could never figure out. As soon as I think I've seen it all some one pulls a new one.

Horses are easy. Their not all that smart and calculated bad intentions are rarely part of the equation. People on the other hand are often not all that smart either but also have the capacity to calculate evil things to do to you.

Do the best you can do, teach them if you can and ignore them if you have to. I think Solomon would recommend not worrying too much about it.

[Dave Purves]

Hey Goerge, you're just too darn nice! First of all, a brand new client is not going to get a sunday away from me, much less the day after X-Mas. I know we all want to help as many people and horses as we can, but first we have to help ourselves and our families. My very first priority is to feed and cloth my family and spend as much time as I can with my two little ones. This generally means no weekend appointments unless it's an emergency. If I were you I would call them, and tell them that you need there address so you can send them the bill for the cancelation fee. Even if they don't pay it, at least they'll get the hint and maybe not do that to someone else. Try to do something nice for someone around X-Mas time and see what happens.

Dave Purves CF :)

[Dave Purves]

One more thing, if you're that backed up, raise your prices. Loose 10% of your business and make 10% more money.
Dave :D

[Ronald Aalders]

Or as the Book says "A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too I see, is from the hand of God" (Ecc. 2:24 niv)



Ronald Aalders

[Bill Adams]

My favorite was the time I trimed a bunch of long over due horses for the first time with a stern warning that they had to be done again in six weeks. Twelve weeks later I got the call to come back. I gracefully declined stating I was too booked etc. Well a couple of days later I got another call from her realy begging me to come out as I was so good and wonderful and all, and I'm a sucker for the least bit of flatery, but I held my ground for some strange reason. At that point she got surley and informed me that she had already set a date with another Farrier. I guess she wanted to hire me back to fire me.
She started to hint at having me back a couple of years later through one of my regulars but she must have heard how I laughed and gave up.
What I do now is only take new ones from old ones that I like.

Ron,
I put this one at the bottom of my invoice:
"A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast" Proverbs 12:10.

Merry Christmas All,
Bill

[Red Amor]

Gday George

Mate you seem like a desent bloke

Give the woman the Sorbent treatment and get over it old mate , chances are this is not the first time this has happened and I'll almost garrentee it wont be the last
It seems to be that people are becomming more discurtious and inconsiderate as time goes by , and dont deserve a good fella like yourself

happy times to you n yours cobber

[Phil Armitage]

George, take a lesson from other buisnesses, for example it took me two years to get on my Hay providers good list. I had to prove to them that they could trust me. They wanted to see if I was going to be loyal, pay on time and come out and pick up my hay when called, I don't blame them a bit, I think that is wise and I respect it. I am loyal, pay on time and I come out when called to pick up my hay. Now in return, I get the royal treatment, I am never out of hay and I recieve priority over other people. I don't want my horses to run out of hay and I make sure they do not. I run my buisness the same way, I only continue to do buisness with people that I trust. Only my trusted and loyal customers will recieve first class service, especially takeing time away from my family on a Sunday!!!!! If a horse owner can't get there act together and they burn there bridges and there horse don't get shod, they have nobody to blame but themselves. Continue to be a nice guy :), but save it for the people that deserve it. A new customer has to prove themselfes first. I think good people understand this and have no problem with it, I understand it when I am the customer.

[J.H. shoeing]

Phil

That was a good word.

Jeff

[Ronald Aalders]

Phil is right. And look at this from the point of view of a good customer:

On the one side your customer that messes things up and expect you to sort it all out on a sunday, on the other hand your customer who does respect you and thinks ahead. Those customers take the time and effort so you don't have to come out on a sunday. They'll work their way around it because they know you're a busy guy. Those guys pay in time, help out with unruly horses and all that stuff.

Wouldn't it just be a slap in their face if you were to go out and help out that customer that does nothing to help you out? I feel you'ld be offending the good customers by trying to do what you can to sort out the mess of those other customers.


Ronald Aalders

[Bill Adams]

Red,
I recived for Christmas a colection of beers from around the world and tonite
enjoyed a fine Cooper Pale Ale. So now that I know about Ausie Ale, I must know what the "Sorbent treatment" is.

Enquiring mind here,
Bill

[Red Amor]

Gday Sir William :)
glad you had a merry christmass old son

Im very fond of the Irish and English beers

My wife and I used to home brew Coopers real ale , lovely stuff

The Sorbent treatment

Sorbent is a brand of toilet paper down this way

If something/ones giving you the ****s then you give em/it the Sorbent treatment and wipe em like a dirty bum
to me this is always a last resort as I dont like giveing up on people ,things but Ive learnd not to agonise over it too much as sadly sometimes its very realy the best thing to do

[Bill Adams]

Hello Red,
I figured it was something like that. Since I was a litle kid we have used the expresion "dirty bum", in order to liken someone to an unwashed urban outdorsman. For instance; "You dirty bum, you get to do the easyest horse in the barn!" but now it will always have a new and special meaning for me.
Also, please don't call me Ron.

Hello Ron,
Was very disapointed in not reciveing even one beer from Holland in my gift pack, and thought I would pour out the whole lot but then thought it would be much worse to turn it all into pee.

Rainy day work today,
Bill

[Ronald Aalders]

Never figured you for a Dutch beer drinker Bill! We got up to 300 different brands in this little country. (In Belgium they got over a 1000 I was told....) Anyway sending a guy a beer is one thing but knowing what kind is another!


Ronald Aalders

[Bill Adams]

See Ron, this is great! I,ve told the wife that all this time on the web is for research and study and look what I've learned on this thread.
As I practiced and incorproated your onion shoe into my work, I will have to study the Duch Masters (brewers) too. Will start at A for ale.

Happy New Year,
Bill

[Red Amor]

Opps!! Sorry Sir William :)

[steuck92]

Hello all I am new to this site. I would like to comment about the people in this job. I have been shoeing for thirteen years now, and I have seen a lot. The best one yet was last year a guy that I worked at wanted some borium on his shoes, no problem wrong. I had told him that the borium forged shoes would cost more that slick shoes he said no problem, but when he got the bill for it he freaked. On top of that the forgeing of the borium is more time consuming than slick shoes, he was a lot further drive than normal clients. He didn't think that was right so he talked to his friend that I also do mules for and seen that the price was different and got mad. I told him the reason that the price was different was he was 30 miles further away, and had to put borium on 4 head of mules. Least to say I don't do their mules any more. If anybody can relate I won't feel alone. Win some lose some.