I'm relatively new to the area I'm working in.

Over the last 2 months the phone has been ringing off the hook with new clients wanting me to take them on. It's getting to the point where I could do 10 horses a day, six days a week if I wanted to (I don't).

I'd like to think it's the quality of my work, my pleasant demeanour, my handsome good looks... alas, my main competition in my area has taken to bagging me out to all and sundry, the net result being that there is whole new bunch of horse owners that are aware of me who never knew I existed before.

Net result - many of his clients want to switch from him to me. LOL

Proof of the adage in the title of this thread, his little gossip campaign has cost him business and given me more potential business than I could ever service.

I'm thinking of sending him and expensive bottle of Scotch for Christmas.

Anthony_Lawrence wrote:
If I promise to bad mouth you can I get the scotch??:D:D

Regards

We could have a contest. . . winner of the best degrading comment gets the scotch?

GregTrem wrote:
I used to work for one of the largest corporations on earth. Salary and benefits that most folks only dream about. Opportunity for corporate growth that would put me in the elite of wage earners. There was a serious downside. I noticed that few of my colleagues ever seemed to make it to retirement age. I was attending more funerals than weddings and a lot of those men were still in their forties and fifties. It was time for a serious change in my life.

If you've never worked at the upper echelon of a large corporation, you can't imagine how those people view "the rest of us". Whatever impression you may have of some of these corporate leaders, their behavior and their attitude towards the masses, I can personally assure you that the reality is far worse than anything you would readily believe. Many of them reach the point where they not only believe themselves to be "God like", they fully expect you to believe it too.

When I finally made the choice to leave the company and devote my work entirely to equine care, I shared that decision with my manager.

She knew nothing of horses and presumed that anyone involved with them did little more than clean stalls.

Her reaction to my departure was, "You're telling me that you will give up all of this to shovel horse manure?!".

Those working nearby stopped. A graveyard could not be quieter.

I stood and looked deep into her eyes; no hint of humor in my tone or demeanor, and replied....

"The nice thing about horse manure is that it makes no pretense of being anything other than what it is. You could learn a thing or two from that."

I walked out and have never looked back. That was five years ago.

Can I get a bottle of Kentucky bourbon instead of the scotch?

Cheers,
Mark

Mark_Gough wrote:
HA! That's frickin PRICELESS! Mark, if we get a chance to meet at convention or wherever, I will HAPPILY buy us a round of a nice KY Bourbon. I like mine neat, or maybe with a single ice cube if the weather's warm.

I was just thinking about publicity. . . and as I start collecting clients (you always get the castoffs when you're new) I love hearing prospective clients bag on the other farriers.

"Oh, XYZ. . . I hate him! He was rude to my horse, and only did half the job and refused to finish!"

translation? 'I'm crazy as a loon and my horse is a piece of @#$& that tries to kill the farrier'

Greg, I've made a good bit of business off those crazy azz type horses and people. Not that I search them out or like to work for those types but I get along with both those owners and horses for some reason. I work on horses that other guys won't come back and do a second time and don't have any problems. My wife tells people it's cause she thinks I'm part horse, she just wishes the part that was horse wasn't my mental state and more of a physical attribute.

I don't know if it's how I treat the horses or that I just don't try to dominate them or if it's the stand I use. I work on all four feet with a cradle so I don't pull up or out on the leg or shoulder or hip and try to keep the horse as comfortable as possible, not worrying more about my comfort. I get done quicker if the horse stands and cooperates then I can get comfortable. This seems to help with most that fight for other guys. It don't work on all of them but I've got a bunch that I still do from when I started 10+ years ago now that were listed as broncs and I've never had a problem.

Now the crazy owners, that's a whole nuther problem to learn to deal with. When Kim worked with me a bit she saw some of the people I have worked for for years and asked how I did it. We came to the conclusion "All horse people are crazy!" So it's a profession wide deal we all have to work with. You will get use to it.

Mark, I remember about 30 years ago talking to a 40 something year old University student. Not a top management type, but a 20 year cementer, local manager, with Dowell (the oilfield arm of Dow Chemical, now part of Schulumberger). He'd gotten caught by an oilfield recession and laid off. His words were "I was making $70,000/per (quite a salary back then) and living on Roll-aids. Two weeks after being laid off I could eat anything I wanted. Now I'm back to enjoying life."

BS-Horseshoeing wrote:
I'm glad I'd swallowed my coffee by the time I got to this line.


I figure all horse people are crazy indeed. Man tho, I had a HECK of a client yesterday (in the good way) First time, 4 trims and a front shoeing, and she talked non stop, but she's awesome. Talked for a good 10 minutes about how she thinks it's crazy to invite a farrier out if the horse won't stand for you to muck about with its feet for a good while. Advised me to give one a good swift elbow if he got antsy, and brought me a hot cup of coffee.

I spent the whole time thinking "Ok Greg. . . do NOT muck this one up!"

Greg, You screwed it up - I had to redo it today. Four trims, work in the garage where it was warm, she held all the horses, coffee while working, cookies afterward. Took about half again as long because I had trouble getting her to shut up and get another horse. Can't be two of those can there? Actually I've been working for this one about 15 years.

Anthony_Lawrence wrote:
I can't believe they haven't banned you from using nippers.
Crown Royal, thanks

J.H. shoeing wrote:
This is going to cost me a motza.

LOL

Ben. I started out the same way. There are a lot of horse shoers hear and all the good ? Horses were tied up one of the local ranches heard I was good with the bad ones and it snow balled from their. I was good with the ponies but had a lot to learn about shoeing (still do )but I was able to spend more time under them without a fight so I was able to do a little better job on them then the other guys. This made me look like a lot better hand then I was. I wound up with a reputation that I still have a hard time living up to But im still trying and caught a lot of ~~~~~out of other guys. Most of the worst have got better and now I get to pick and choose some but I still take the frisky ones. They make me look good. My wife says they just like me because I smell like a horse and act like the south bound end of one. She's probably rite.

ray tyron wrote:


I got that same reputation when I started out. I knew I was in trouble when I started answering the phone and the first thing out of people's mouths was "Is this Ben Sturman, I hear your good with bad horses!" I got this through that phase and now I get to chose who I work for and what horses I work on. Life is much easier and I'm not near as sore when I get home at night. My family thinks I smell like a horse most of the time to, I just tell them that's the smell of money that keeps you alive, deal with it!:cool:

I get a lot of requests to start a lot of young ones now and have yet to have a problem putting first shoes on any that I handle as babies. Its funny i've only ben hurt once by these supposed man killers and that was my falt but I get twisted up by ol dead head pretty regular. I tell my wife that smell keeps all her competition away.