When I started out I wasn't expecting to get paid I was just along because I was wanting to learn something more than just trimming. I was surprised that one day after less than a week he gave me some cash before I got out of the truck.

At the time I was training horses and was able to work with him until early afternoon and still get my training work done in the eve. Although I rarely got done before about 9 in the eve I was happy to do it even without the pay.

I tend to work slow, or at least I seem to take a lot of short breaks throughout the day that make me seem slow, so I have trouble taking time to train an apprentice.

I think the next time I'm going to try someone out I'll just take them to my mothers and shoe 2-3 to shake them down before trying to take them somewhere I am trying to actually make some money. LOL

MPLdyCop wrote:
SACRAFICE...if you want something bad enough you will sacrafice for it....sometimes its not money you need to pay another farrier for help.....batter..offer to help ease his work load in exchange for learn and run over clients...and many more ways....when someone wants something they find a way to make it happen..

Travis Reed wrote:
Travis,
If I had it to do over I'd have gone over to England or Ireland to train.

Thomas R&D has said on here and elsewhere that there is plenty of room for apprentices over there and as I understand it foreigners are eligible for the same funding as their citizens.

When I mention to folks that the best training in the world is available to them for little to no cost just by looking beyond their own self-imposed limitations of not wanting to travel, you'd be surprised at how they never run out of excuses not to.
George

That sounds like that would be the ticket George....I deff would have done many things diff if I could do it over....even to this day I still would like to go do some time one on one with someone doing nothing but forgeing...

First, I gotta say that I got into this profession completely azz backwards. I went to a school that just turns out guys every couple of weeks. I rode with the owner on weekends for extra learning for a year or so. I got a break after that when a gal who was pregnant needed someone to cover for her while out for having a kid. Two years and I had a full book and no business being a farrier. I never did anything resembling an apprenticeship. I've had to find people to learn from all the while running a full time business and family. I've been lucky and dam presistent just to stay in this for as long as I have. As I've said many times, this site has always been a great help. You can do it the hard way but it ain't no fun and he!! will be full of horses waiting for you.

I've been lucky to have some good helpers. One young man named Drew who got me into the AFA cert. stuff and always drove me to get better. Then I had our own Kimmy the Irish wonder. She worked hard and talked so much about shoeing and trimming I couldn't help but learn. I had another friend help for a couple years who you couldn't wear out and learned real fast.

Now I have another young man who comes from a ranching background and understands horses. He attended the same school I did, started out thinking he was going to set the world on fire and ended up giving up for the most part. He decided to take someones advice and ride with someone for a while. His luck, good or bad, brought him to me.

He has the work ethic to go from sun up to sun down. He listens and learns fast. He does things the way I want and doesn't question it until we get in the truck and I explain the why's. He sets up, tears down, is always on time, pays attention, and isn't in it for immediate money or fame. I pay him ten bucks a horse for each one he works on unless we have a short day. If we do less than four horses I give him forty buck for the day cause he has a 25 mile drive to my house, and he's never late. He also is a single dad with a five year old daughter and I ain't going to let a man work that hard and not make something. He lives on a ranch and has no rent or bills for the most part so money isn't his biggest concern. He just wants to learn to do this right. After I teach him what I can, we will move him on to someone who knows more if he wants.

Sometimes ya just get lucky and find the right person.

Travis Reed wrote:
That's what I'm doing. I'm going to the forging gathering in Auburn again at the end of the month. I've called a few people who said I could do a few days here and there with them when I can arrange for it.

I can't do more than that now. It's not like I can just abandon the kids and take off. That's what I meant by a perfect world. I have no problem living bare bones. My parents were poor but we lived in the country and I loved my life.

I'm not sure why you think I have more to sacrifice than I have. It's really hard with two little ones, but I'm still making the effort.

Kim I don't mean you need to do more...just saying in general people need to sacrafice and with 2 small ones it would be foolish to put them aside...I think you do very well just don't loose focus and keep your eye on the prize...I promise it will be worth it......after awhile people loose the get up and go because it takes a long but keep your head down and keep plugging away....my qoute was not at you or to say your not doing what you can just in general one must be ready to do more....

Thanks Travis

This site is definately a blessing for me given my circumstances.

Travis Reed wrote:
Imagine some violins playing sadly while I tell my little tale of sacrifice. LOL. When I showed up for shoeing school I had scraped and saved every dime to pay the tuition. I might of had 50 dollars to my name first day of class. Not very well thought out, but enthusiasm trumps intelligence at that age and I figured I would find a way to eat. And I did. I trained a couple horses, cleaned stalls, cut grass, groomed horses, and took it upon myself to do everything I could to be an asset around the shoeing school. In return my instructor kept me from starving to death, lol. When my 12 weeks were done, I still had no money, but I got invited to stay another 12 weeks for free and keep on doing like we had been doing. So I did. When I started out on my own, I was renting a 1968 single wide trailer in a cow pasture near Loachapoka Alabama and I had a 3 legged couch a foot locker and a bed and that was it. I was doing ok until my truck broke down and i couldn't afford to get it fixed, so I had to take a job in town cooking chicken to save up money to fix my truck, and I had to walk the railroad tracks 2 hours to get to work. Lost most of my clients. Was surviving on rationed out dry cheerios because I didnt want to carry a jug of milk all those miles on foot. I couldn't afford more propane when my tank ran out so I lived with no heat, just a sleeping bag and my dog (felt sorry for my blue heeler in the cold and tried to zip him up in the sleeping bag with me one night and he freaked out and neither one of us could get out. It was like trying to sandpaper a bobcat's butt in a phone booth). Took cold showers for 2 months thinking I had a gas hot water heater, till one day I turned on the hot water and waited patiently for the first time and to my surprise and forever embarassment I did have an electric hot water heater, lol. Had a pipe bust in the bathroom and had no money to fix it and was too embarassed to let anyone see how rough I was living so I ended up shutting the water off and only turning the well on when I really needed it. Kept 2 5 gallon buckets of water in the bathroom to flush the toilet. Finally saved enough money to get going again, but I was down and out the better part of a winter. When I went back to shoeing school to help out as an instructor I lived in a portable shed on a cot. I bought a gas heater at a yard sale and hooked it up to a propane cylinder and I was pretty comfortable though I had to crack the window for oxygen. I also rented a laundry room in a barn to live in when I started shoeing in Florida. The grooms would come in as they pleased to wash the saddle pads and wraps, and the washing machine drained water all over the floor, often soaking my pile of clean clothes. It was quite a musty smelling place to live. The shower broke once and I had to bathe with a garden hose in a horse stall for a week or 2. Rented a room in Michigan in a boarding house that wasn't much bigger than a closet. Single bed and a suitcase and room leftover to stand up. I then bought an airsteam that nothing worked in, lol. really it was more like an airstream shell. Had to use the community showers at the trailer park. My soon to be wife nearly left me over that living arrangement. Our first night in the airstream that had no air no heat no water no toilet, our bed collapsed, lol. We were pretty miserable. BUT, we traded up. Got a little camper that had a screened in sunroom attached, problem was that the sewage treatment was right next to it and breathing that nasty air in kept us sick. Eventually things got better, lol, they had to. Bought a nice trailer, then later bought a old farmhouse, little did we know it was entirely infested with termites and was about to fall off of its foundation. That was a tough year chopping wood for the fireplaces and trying to keep a sickly baby from dying in the cold. A lot of people would have quit with some of the junk we have been through, but its the hard times that make you appreciate the good times. I think everyone needs to hit rock bottom and be flat broke once in their life, with no one to help and no idea what to do next. It is a great foundation for success, because you get such a fire in your gut to get out of that situation, that fire stays with you throughout your life. Its called work ethic. And it makes you tough. I have had helpers that act like they are going to die if I don't stop to go get lunch, and I think that I often don't think to stop, because all of those years all my brain thought of was work work work, save save save, and eating wasn't a priority. Sacrifice like Travis said. It pays off. I am very thankful that these days I do not have any of the worries that I once had. This post is not directed at Kim, just a soapbox on how nothing worth having comes easy, and if someone else sponsors you thats great, but the ones who pull themselves up by their bootstraps will appreciate it more and build more character in the process. It takes a while to continually re-invest in a business, while providing for dependents but if you want it bad enough anyone can do it. "If it is to be it is up to me" kinda rings in your ear every morning.

there is good help out there. I am working for tim phillips 10 to 12 hours a day and then help him with the hay fields for only 75 a day. Some people might think Im an ***** but I am learning alot. I also love doing draifts

gchotshod wrote:
so how many hours a day are you doing
and what are you learning

How to balance a foot properly, nail placement, fitting the shoe better
than how I was, when to use pads and equi pak, fitting and using the proper shoes, etc oh yeah and filling the water bucket.