DANG I JUST PREVIEWED THIS AND IT LOOKS LIKE I WROTE A NOVEL.

Read it if you care to. ... I partially agree and partially disagree, lol

. First, in my mind a "big" barn is one that takes more than one long hard day for one fellow to get 'em done on his own. I don't know what everyone else considers a big barn, so maybe we are all talking in circles. What Travis says about the backyarder rings true the further out in the sticks you get, but the closer to an urban area, the rates seem to increase. I live in the sticks but commute most days, to an area where more people seem to have discretionary money. No one gets rich working for poor people. If I gave the impression that I condone the idea of trailer park shoeing, that wasn't the point. But, like Red said, you can nearly always tell from a voicemail what sort of owner you are dealing with. "Trailer park" accounts lead to more "trailer park" accounts, as that is the way word of mouth works, and these are the people they will talk to. But you do not have to shoe "big" barns to shoe at nice barns with good horses and good owners. Good owners socialize with good owners. Every one of my stops is not equal. Somedays I can manage to make in half a day without breaking a sweat the same amount that I work my rear off for all day at another stop. My business definitely needs to be analyzed and revamped, because I am all over the board. But my trend has been gravitating more towards the easy money. The mindset of shoe less and make more per horse. I have some 3 horse accounts who pay almost twice what I get for some of my other 3 horse stops, thats not bad. I can rest my back driving to the next stop and I get to stop at taco bell on the way. Last time I went through my records, I figured that my owners average 6 horses each. Travis said that many backyarders want to shoe or trim every 10 weeks, and with many of them this is true (or longer!). I can say that all of my accounts that I care about adhere to a 6 week schedule, but the ones I don't care much about are "fillers" or "gravy" accounts to me, I stick them in where I can when I can, and if they all did adhere to a 6 week schedule then I could not take care of as many of them as I do, if they are happy, then I am happy for them. Some of them I encourage to wait as long as possible, because as long as they are content, its one less person I have to worry about calling back and fitting in. Maybe their procrastination or priorities may frustrate some farriers, but it actually helps me out, and since its not my horse(s), I really don't care if they do them twice a year or once in a lifetime. I let their inconsistency work to my advantage, like I said they are insignificant gravy. The accounts that really pay the bills are kept on schedule and serviced with priority, the fillers are a dime a dozen. I think that a fellow can be successful and make a pretty good living doing average horses, and does not really need to shoe huge barns unless he has an inferiority complex, or just enjoys shoeing large barns. When I decided to move away from south Florida, I was shoeing 180 head, every horse with 4 shoes, no trims, no real corrective work, all on a 4 week schedule, but only for 13 owners (nice but also monotonous). The advantage was definitely that the phone did not ring every 15 minutes, and scheduling was like clockwork. In contrast, in Georgia I topped out in 2010 at almost 1500 horses divided between 277 horse owning clients , the majority of that number was definitely "fillers" with a few trims, a few of which I may have seen only twice in that year. In 2009, I really started to lose control, and get overwhelmed, I had started my business in Georgia with the mindset that God wasn't going to send me more than I could handle, and if he put it in someone's head to call, then maybe I should at least return their call. In 2010 I had to start to rethink that mindset, because I was like a zombie (not much better now actually). Too tired to give a flip, I started to learn the word no, and I started to hit the delete button on some of these 2 or 3 times a year people. I still am no where near having a reasonable workload, but I have cut the client list almost in half over the last 9 months. As hectic as this is, compared to Florida, I still prefer this type of business. In Florida a lost shoe was always replaced same day it was lost. Here my owners know that isn't practical, most here understand how thin I am stretched and know that I will do the best I can, but it may be a while. Here, I don't loose many shoes because the horses are typically not being worked as hard. Here most of my base clientel are fairly flexible and easy to deal with. Here, I have mainly recreational equestrians rather than professionals, and there is not the same degree of pressure and stress. Here, I get to see and work on more interesting problems that you typically do not see with top level horses, (and I really enjoy that sort of thing). Here I have carte blanche with nearly every owner, and I enjoy the freedom I have and the trust they have in me to do whatever I like. Here, I like the feeling that my business is secure and I am on the right side of the supply versus demand equation. The downside of shoeing for the recreational owner with 1-8 horses is yes, sometimes your going to end up in a crummy situation, when you throw a wide net, your gonna get some keepers and some that you need to throw back, but there will be some keepers. Hopefully when your building a business, those keepers communicate and socialize with other keepers. Both sorts of businesses have their advantages and disadvantages it just depends on your personal preference I guess. I just know that I make more now then I did then, I prefer smaller accounts (3-5 with shoes, or 10-20 trims) where I can make good money and not wreck my back (maybe I'm just worn out), and I like to deal with good people who are interested and appreciative. In Florida, I had to shoe 7 horses every day of the week to stay on schedule, here my average day is more like shoe 2 or 3 all around, shoe 2-5 front footers and do a pile of trims. Trimming to me is easy money and I don't have an aversion to it as some farriers seem to want to talk every owner into shoes for some reason. My focus for the future of my business, is far from shoeing "big" barns, but is to continue to narrow down to only the nicest (low stress) owners with good horses who can afford what I am content charging. BUT, admitedly I am reluctant sometimes to get rid of all those who don't quite fit that ideal criteria because I know that in a few years I am going to have some teenage boys who I could hand over these accounts to and they would then be making pretty good money if they are inclined. So to each his own, but point being you can be prosperous and content without "big" barns, so if you are starting out in the business and dreaming about shoeing exclusively top level horses for big operations, thats cool and thats a good goal, but also consider that its not the right fit for everyone, and if you are at all like me then contentment may be derived more from focusing and working with cooperative easy going owners rather than those who think that you should be grateful they are using you and you could be replaced because surely every farrier wants their fancy 30-40 horses in shoes account (sounds like a back ache and a migraine to me). (Add in as many of those filler gravy stops as you are willing to put up with. Though some are not ideal, their money spends the same and putting up with a little B S builds character, lol)

If you took the time to read all this, I apologize, lmao.