One bitterly cold afternoon in the winter of 1999, I received a phone call from the U.S. Census Bureau. The staffer asked, “How many horseshoers are there in the United States?”

I’d always felt that if anyone knew how many people there were in any occupation it would be the U.S. Census Bureau. Instead, she told me that wasn’t the case with many lesser-known and highly-specialized occupations, such as horseshoeing.

So I tossed her our “best guess” at the time of 27,500 full-time and part-time farriers in the U.S. 

The U.S. Census Bureau ended up doing an article in their magazine on the number of horseshoers — quoting American Farriers Journal (AFJ) as the official source.

Wide Range of Shoer Estimates

Much of the following material is based on an AFJ article we did more than 25 years ago.

Other phone calls from readers asking about U.S. farrier numbers actually sparked the idea for this column. But before we give you our “best guess” as to farrier numbers here in the States, we want to share a few unsubstantiated “numbers” we’ve heard over the years:

• 10,000 full- and part-time farriers.
• 12,000 full-time farriers.
• 20,000 farriers.
• The Internal Revenue Service has a “secret” list of 34,000 farriers.
• 40,000 farriers.
• 70,000 farriers.

How We Arrived at Our “Best Guess”

Before I offer what was our staff’s “best guess” in 1999, let me tell you how we arrived at our figure. It all started 7 years earlier.

Five weeks after we purchased the AFJ in 1992, I attended a Farrier Industry Association dinner during the American Farrier’s Association convention in Daytona Beach, Fla. At the dinner table, I sat next to Walt Garner, who was still active with GE Forge & Tool at Grover Beach, Calif.

When I asked Garner how many farriers there were in the U.S., he told me he’d spent 3 years looking at different sources to come up with an answer. Based on what information he had gathered, Garner came up with an estimated 26,500 full-time and part-time shoers in the U.S. back in the early 1990s.

Over the years, we’ve asked others in the industry the same question. Nobody has come up with a better guess.

Starting with Garner’s estimate and adjusting for changing horse numbers, the AFJ staff in 1999 estimated there were 27,500 full- and part-time farriers in the U.S.

Validating the Numbers

A year earlier in 1998, AFJ had published an item that stated the typical full-time British farrier handles 270 horses in a year’s time. That was based on shoeing six horses a day, working 5 days a week and revisiting a horse every 8 weeks.

Taking the 270 horses per full-time farrier and dividing it against the estimated 6.9 million U.S. horse population, our calculations indicated the U.S. needed 25,555 full-time farriers. However, that figure didn’t take into consideration part-time farriers, people who leave their horses barefoot or those who shoe their own horses.

So for 8 years, AFJ staffers pegged farrier numbers at 27,500 full- and part-time shoers. While that figure is certainly not carved in stone, we haven’t seen anyone come up with a better documented figure.

How Many U.S. Horseshoers in 2026?

There are approximately 7 million horses in the United States, according to 2023 data from the American Horse Council. While the horse population has seen a slight decline over the past few decades, the U.S. still boasts one of the largest horse populations in the world. 

If we average data from a number of the recent AFJ Benchmark surveys, it appears that full-time farriers work with around 300 horses each year. Then you have to add in part-time shoers, barefoot trimmers, veterinarians and cowboys/owners who do their own horses. 

Once I looked at all this data, I’m sticking with my years-ago guess of around 27,500 men and women doing hoof-care work in the United States.

Part 2 of this exclusive 3-part American Farriers Journal series will look at membership numbers for a half dozen national farrier organizations.