Sometimes the smallest change makes the biggest difference in your own business. That’s what Steve Wiberg, a Hayward, Calif.,-based farrier discovered when he made the switch from leather impact horseshoe pads to plastic pads. 

“I can buy plastic pads for $1.89 less a pair than the regular leather pads, and for $4.30 less than heavy leather pads. I average about five pairs of pads a day, which comes to around 1,560 pairs of pads each year,” says Wiberg. “By using the plastic pads instead of the regular leather ones, I can save more than $2,900 every year. If I switched away from heavy leather pads, that’s a savings of about $6,850. That’s a lot of money, and that’s just on pads.” 

Wiberg notes that while leather pads are still effective under the right circumstances, it was a personal preference to start using mainly plastic pads in his practice. He says it’s all about inventory management, no matter what products you use.

This is where those small adjustments begin to stack up. Wiberg states that his savings go deeper than just the pads.

“I find these thinner pads are less likely to break your drill bits as you are trying to fit them to the shoe and hoof,” says Wiberg. “I don’t have to buy extra drill bits, which is small, but another savings.”

The second concept Wiberg illustrates is that since plastic pads are easier to manipulate, he does not have to spend as much time or money drilling or…