In an ideal world, horse owners would be model clients with mounts that had perfect conformation and feet. Rather, it’s necessary to ask questions and gain some insight about the horse and client before saying “yes.”

When serving as a farrier in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York, Cornell University farrier Steve Kraus developed his own list of questions to gather the right information when a possible new client inquires about your services. This list may help you take clients who best match your practice or avoid those who don’t.

Kraus has different levels of information that farriers should gather. First is the “need to know” set, which is essential to being able to get the job done.

The next tier is “knowledge is power” questions that will provide information to help farriers prepare for the job and know exactly what’s expected of them.

The final set of questions is “client assessment” based and will give you an idea of the client’s reliability.

Kraus says asking the right questions early can save you headaches later.

“I learned to ask these questions through experience,” says Kraus, a 2016 International Horseshoeing Hall of Fame inductee. “There have been many times when I…