It occurred to me a long time ago that no matter how diligent you are in your work, no matter how much energy you put into improving your skills and enlarging your knowledge of the trade, 6 weeks after you put down the last foot with one of your shoes on it, there will no longer be any physical sign of what you did for a career. 

Dave Farley, a farrier based in Wellington, Fla., started a practice decades ago to improve farrier-client communication and understanding. In the 1980s, he began sending his clients a yearly newsletter in early January. The contents of this newsletter could include product usage changes, tips for properly cleaning hoofs or life/business updates, but uniquely, the newsletter also included the price changes Farley was going to enact for the coming year for his services.

A farrier gets a call. The voice on the others end of the line asks how much to shoe a horse. He is told. That voice then says he needs his horse Dobbin shod by tomorrow late afternoon. The prospective client gives an address and signs off, “See you then.” 

Last year, a younger farrier rode in Tom Trosin’s shoeing truck. While chatting between stops, the junior horseshoer identified one aspect of farriery that the Oklahoma farrier excels at — and it has nothing to do with trimming and shoeing.

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