Looking for a job where you can't be replaced by a computer or a machine? Matthew Pederson has found it, and he's working to make it his full-time business.
A farrier, Pederson says the business is the perfect fit for him, although he would never have guessed it.
"I'm shocked at how everything has come together so nicely,'' Pederson said as he trimmed the hooves of his fiancée's horse, Little Buddy.
Pederson hung his shingle as the Minnesota River Area Farrier a little more than a year ago.
He has already built up a client list of more than 100.
He works full time at a Montevideo lumber yard, but devotes his evenings and weekends to farriering. He travels an hour or more in any direction from his farm place north of Watson to trim hooves and shoe horses.
"There's definitely room for me out there,'' said Pederson of how the business is growing.
He's working to make this his full-time occupation.
Other farriers in the area have welcomed him into the ranks and supported him, Pederson said. There's a need to attract new farriers into the ranks, says Pederson, who at 37 is younger than most of the farriers he knows in the region.
