I have a female apprentice now, I went through 4 or five different guys before I hired her. My wife is the one that made me give her a chance, I didn't figure she would be able to hang with the work. So far so good, she has been the best help I have ever hired. She is not great under a horse, but is spot on getting things set up, clean up, pulling shoes and trims are improving, so it saves me time, and she is getting better under a horse.

Jason I found in the past the females would go over and beyond the call of duty..and make better help...they have no problems following directions..and they don't have a chip on they shoulder..and seem to be thankfull you would take the time to teach..

That is my experience so far with Nicki. Truthfully, I believe she will mostly trim in the future, (you never know) but after riding with me she will never be a bare-footer. We have shoes on two of her horses. LOL, apprentice perks.

Her son wants to shoe, so I have her talked into sending him to Chris's school. He is supposed to be attending the Journeyman course, starting in Feb and coming back to apprentice with me while he builds his practice. I just hope I can get him over being so star struck by Chris, so I can still have something to teach him. LOL That has been a problem in the past, Last kid that I hired cam back with his cert, got smarter than me, went out on his own, went out of business a few months ago and is now working for a "trainer". Good times!

Taking her on, has been good help, and might keep me lined up for an apprentice the next couple of years.

Donna I've had trouble finding an apprenticeship in the past. Its not so personal or gender-based in my experience, its just that not everyone is in a position to take on an apprentice all the time. Sometimes there is no window of opportunity there. I have asked and asked many, then seen in hind-sight that it would probably not have worked and that they (obviously because it didnt happen) weren't the right teacher for me. Although id still like to have some time under someone (to just focus on technical improvements), The silver lining is that in the mean-time I have ridden with and got to learn snippets from many different farriers.
Good luck with it though, keep on butting your head agaist the wall and eventually you will break through - if your head can stand it.

Donna-Ocasio wrote:
It kind of depends on the type of business you have. I rarely work at anybodies house and I have many clients that I never met or barely know. I go to a barn, shoe them all and mail out bills.

In any case, over the years I've had to work with lots of ladies and my wife has to work with men. That's not a problem and I don't know how you'd avoid it anyway.

But, I travel a lot to shoe horses and I'm usually on the road for several days at a time. I doubt I could pay a helper enough to rent their own room so we wouldn't just be working together, we'd be living together.

That's not the kind of situation I want to be in regardless of what my wife might say.

I don't really want help on a regular basis at all (I don't want to live with anybody) but, if I did, there's no way I'd hire a woman.

If my work was local and I was home every night, I wouldn't a problem hiring a woman and my wife wouldn't have a problem with it either.