There were a group of original founders of the Guild who wanted to start an apprenticeship program. The AFA also tried this. The problems with apprenticeship are as follows:
Not many fully established farriers have a business that can afford to take on an apprentice. An apprentice costs you time and money for at least the first year, possibly two. Just about the time you've got an apprentice to the point they are turning a profit, they jump ship and start their own business. So any farrier taking on an apprentice is taking on a financial risk. If you add customers in order to increase income, then your apprentice leaves, you wind up with a bunch of horses you can't service, and then your customers start to complain.
There is also a risk to the apprentice that they will not be allowed to progress, rather they will be assigned chores and menial tasks without any quality instruction time with the master. 'Nuther words they will be used, abused, and then washed out.
Apprenticeship makes a lot of sense for someone who is young and inexperienced. However, the demographics of the farrier industry do not show many young people choosing to start out their lives with a life-long commitment to being a farrier. Usually they try something else first, because in our current society, young people are bombarded with lot of information and very little direction and leadership. In addition, the short duration of the farrier schools in the U.S. does not provide ANY life skills, business skills, communication skills, or decision making skills. All you're going to learn is how to use the tools. You aren't going to have enough time to develop any serious skill or efficiency. So an apprentice that graduates from a farrier school might be more knowledgeable and provide some usefullness to a master over taking on an apprentice with no education at all, but you still arent going to be taking on another 4 horses a day . . . not without risking your reputation.
Everything is handed to todays young people. They grow up with an attitude of entitlement.
Take away the television, cell phone, and video games and what have you got?
Show me a teenager who is humble and understands the value of hard work and perseverence and I will show a truely rare gem. Show me a teenager who is passionate about what they want to be when they grow up! Show me a youngster with a dream! Yes there are a few. Among those few, how many of them are going to choose farriery as their career of choice? When they see horse owners treating farriers like laborers instead of highly skilled and knowledgeable professionals, what young person would develop a desire to work so hard for so little? When faced with the prospect of 4 years of college or 4 years of apprenticeship there is a huge difference in options for a smart, hard working young person. Four years of college in an engineering or science degree opens many doors for many different jobs. Four years of apprenticeship closes all other doors. For someone fresh out of high school, 4 years represents more than 20% of their lifetime. That is a huge closed ended commitment. College is an open ended commitment.
The majority of new farriers entering into the business are NOT youngsters fresh out of high school. They are mostly adults who are entering into their second, third, or fourth career. Many of them already have figured out that they don't want to endure the daily grind of an ordinary job. They are looking for something to do for a living that will stimulate their minds and bodies. They are looking for freedom from the trappings of the corporate lifestyle and the guilt that fills their souls when they look at their lives and realize that they are nothing more than a statistic. Farriery is a job you can put your heart into and get more back from it than you put into it. Every horse walking off the mats sound is an immediate feel good reward.
The new generation of second career farriers presents a problem for the idea of apprenticeship. The second career farrier has a mortgage and a family to feed. They have to generate a living wage ASAP. So the options are, start out part time riding with an established farrier and build into full time, or start out full time and hope you get some skill before you get a bad reputation.
Todays second career farrier gets their experience and education from networking with other established farriers and attending clinics. The great thing about the farrier industry in the US is that just about every farrier that is worthy of the term "professional" is willing to allow a rookie to ride along with them. I know this for a fact, because everybody I have ever asked has without hesitation or reservation allowed me to ride shotgun. The new apprenticeship is not with one farrier, it is with EVERY farrier who believes in the value of knowledge and skill shareing.
A virtual plethora of farrier education opportunities exist in this country. In addition, the AFA has a testing program what allows aspiring farriers to have their skills and knowledge evaluated against a standard. The cool thing about that is you can decide where you're going to get your education and experience and how you're going to get it. We farriers are rugged individualists.
Guild farriers represent the broadest range of professionals from within the profession. We have race platers like Tom Halpenny, natural barefoot "podiatrists" like KC LaPierre, natural balance (Gene O' himself), long footed specialists, traditionalists, and forging competition champions.
I think that one of the misunderstandings about The Guild is that people think we ought to be laying out a roadmap for aspiring farriers to follow in order to establish themselves as professionals. As an organization of rugged individualists, we have left that up to the individal to figure out for themselves.