How Would You Handle These Ethical Concerns About Footcare?
On day 1 of your footcare business — as an apprentice or out on your own — you will face tough challenge that you must resolve using your code of ethics. Some of these challenges will be simple to overcome, while others will present potential outcomes that will be difficult for you to answer without negative consequences for one party.
Each year, we ask farriers via an exclusive survey to comment on ethical dilemmas that they might face in their hoof-care work. These scenarios were pulled from the dozens of responses submitted by farriers in the previous year’s confidential ethics survey. There are many other dilemmas that could affect your practice.
In this year’s survey, hoof-care professionals shared how they would deal with each of these entirely different ethical situations. We focused on a problem owner and unprofessional farrier because these scenarios are something you could face as a new shoer.
Farrier Takeaways
- You must resolve ethical dilemmas by your own code of ethics.
- Most farriers prefer to resolve issues with clients through educating them.
- Much like your ethical code, your work speaks volumes to the people you work with.
Each of these ethical dilemmas is described in detail here along with a summary on how these farriers indicated they would deal with these troublesome situations. As you will see from the survey results, there are no easy answers for or 100% agreement from farriers on these three ethical predicaments.
Looking through each scenario, how would you have voted on these situations?
Ethical Dilemmas At Work
In your daily life, there are times when you are presented with dilemmas that you must answer by the personal code of ethics that guides you. In your farrier practice, you may encounter tough situations with clients, trainers, veterinarians and horses that you must resolve by applying your own personal code of ethics. Two examples include being asked to work with an unruly horse by yourself or being asked to trim/shoe a show horse in a way the trainer would like, but isn’t good for the horse. How often do ethical dilemmas happen to you in your practice?
General Thoughts From Farriers On Business Ethics
- If what is being asked of me is not good for the horse, then I will not work on the horse. The horse is what matters the most — the horse is the actual client.
- When I have been told how to shoe by a trainer, I simply told them I shoe the way I shoe and if they don’t like the way I shoe, they could get someone else. They never did.
- The skill of a good horseman is lost. If it doesn’t work, it’s always the shoer’s fault in the minds of many owners. So I will not do anything unless I believe in it. If it goes good or bad, it is on me.
- I’m learning to be firm in my reasoning and methods unless actual facts change the situation.
- I think it’s important to make sure you work for people who care about your safety. When it comes to working with trainers, it’s our job to let them know we hear their input. Most of the time, I find even if you don’t do what they want, you can keep them happy by not being confrontational.
Owner Isn’t Helping The Horse
You get a call from a potential client who has three horses to trim and doesn’t question your rate. You don’t know this farm, and none of your farrier friends recognize it. You show up to trim the horses and see three obese horses in the pasture. Before the owner fetches the first horse, you ask about the horses’ feed. Besides the pasture grass, hay and grain, the owner notes she also likes to give the horses bread as a treat.
You politely tell her that the horses are unhealthy and overweight. You give a quick explanation of how this negatively affects the hoof and overall horse health. The owner says she knows they are obese, but she can’t help herself — she says the trio are her “babies” and loves to spoil them.
What do you do?
Advice From Farriers
- would trim the horses, but explain to her that she is not showing love to her horses. Instead, she is being abusive.
- Remember what your job is to trim/shoe and educate, not to be judgmental or an enforcer.
- Ask who her vet is and bring the issue to that practitioner’s attention.
- If clients do not follow our advice, it is a losing battle — we cannot help the horse in these situations.
- As long as the horses were behaved, I would continue to keep them on a schedule. Sometimes hearing encouragement for their effort will help the owner to do what is best for the horse’s health. Even if they don’t listen and hoof problems arise, being the regular farrier would allow me to help the horse as best I can.
- I would keep doing the horses and bring a weight tape to document their excessive weight and would be aggressively insistent that she change their diet.
Bad-Mouthing Your Work
A longtime client with five horses just moved to a huge boarding barn, where there are two other farriers who work with the other horses. You are friends with one of the farriers, but don’t know the second farrier, other than his reputation for being a braggart about his work. You are never at the barn at the same time as the other farriers.
While at the local supply shop picking up your order, you run into your farrier friend from the boarding barn. He mentions that when he went to the barn to nail on a lost shoe, he overheard the other farrier talking to the trainer, knocking your work. You know your friend to be an honest person. The trainer holds a lot of influence with the owners in the barn. So far, she hasn’t mentioned it to your client.
What would your preferred
action be?
Advice From Farriers
- It is not worth the fight.
- Better to not bad-mouth others — do your work to the best of your ability and mind your own business.
- I would make sure the clients understand my approach. If they have any concerns or questions, my clients can always contact me. Remind them you are a professional.
- I let my work speak for itself. However, I would look for an opportunity to confront the farrier to clear the air.
- I find that good farriers tend to let their work speak for itself. If the bad-mouthing farrier ends up taking over my clients, I probably don’t want them anyway.
- Never bad-mouth someone else’s work. Just say what you have done differently on a horse. The horse is the only one that knows what good work is. The customer just tries to relay it as well as they can depending on their knowledge.
- If he is talking about me, that farrier is obviously jealous of my work.