Steve Kraus

“Hi, you’re a farrier, right? Can you come out here and shoe my horses?”

Every farrier takes a phone call like this. In an ideal and unrealistic world, clients come prescreened. Instead, it is necessary to ask questions and gain some knowledge about that horse and client before you say “yes.” Every farrier has certain questions to ask potential clients. Even if you are a veteran farrier, review Steve Kraus’ list as it may help you take on clients who best match your practice — or avoid those that don’t.

From his time as a farrier serving the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York, Kraus developed his own list to ask the right questions and gather the right information when a possible new client inquires for your services. He now shares this list as part of

Kraus has a few different levels of information that farriers should gather. First is the “need to know” information, which is absolutely essential to being able to get to the work site and get the job done.

The next tier of questions are “knowledge is power” questions that will provide information to help farriers be prepared for the job and know exactly what they are expected to do.

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