A few years ago, Ray Bach started his shoeing day the same way most farriers do. He climbed into his truck and started out on what was sometimes a 200-mile round trip to reach all the horses on his list. But unlike most farriers, Bach began thinking of a different way to run his business.

Now, every morning, he drives his Jeep the few miles from his house to his shoeing shop in Canyon, Texas, as he has since July of 2001 when he decided to make the frightening change to a shop-only shoeing business.

It was frightening, because while there may be places in the country where this practice is normal, it’s virtually unheard of in West Texas. “Believe me, it was nerve-wracking. I had a family to feed,” remembers Bach. Fortunately, the decision was a good one, and there haven’t been any regrets. “I’ve been really blessed that this has worked out so well.”

Advance Work

Bach began telling his customers of the upcoming change 1 1/2 years before it happened. “If I hadn’t been preparing my customers for so long, my transition wouldn’t have been so easy,” says Bach. He estimates that within 3 months he was shoeing 60 to 70 percent of his horses in the shop, and the rest soon followed. He was surprised at how little business he lost because of the change — only about 10 percent, he estimates.

The Ray Bach Horseshoeing Shop sits on 11 acres on the outskirts of Canyon…