And if yes, what and/or how much do you tip?
I’ve always given mine cash and a baked good. Just seeing what other folks do. 
Yes, usually a $50 gift card.
We 2 warmbloods gave our farrier $100 cash for Christmas. The tip we would have given him would be for him not to be so grumpy, but he didn’t ask for any advice or tips, LOL.
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I send mine a Christmas card with a gas card.
I give a 50$ cash card.
my old barn we each put in some cash in an envelope (sort of what everyone felt comfortable with) and the BO would convert the cash to a Visa gift card. I’m going to suggest we do something similara at my current barn.
No cash, but he gets a good gift (last year a thermal shirt, this year a nice work vest). We’re pretty good friends, and I know he wouldn’t take the cash if I tried, so this way he has to take it!
We also give our farrier $100.00 cash and a tray of cookies and candy. Have to let him know how much we appreicate all his work in getting Willie’s feet back into shape after the two founder episodes. Not to mention his great care of our other three.
EG2, if our owner made treats for the farrier, we’d have to get a new farrier. However, we could pluck that $100 out of his cold dead hand. (Just kidding, he’s a good farrier and friends with our owner.)
Can you imagine if everyone just gave the farrier $10 or $20? The money would really add up and he could buy himself something he really wanted. The good treats are an added bonus.
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Yes. A handmade wreath and a tip.
The vets and the sawdust man get the same.
No. I make this great recipe for a sweet Chex/Crispix mix with cashews, m&m’s and coconut that is really killer. He asks for it every year. I give it to my vet and his staff, too, and they tell me that’s the reason I get such good service…so I’d better not stop dropping it off every year.
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No… I pay a crapload of money for him!! But I would get him a trinket or something if it caught my eye.
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Our vet service, it’s a big hospital with 24 or 25 employees total, usually gets chick fil la. Although with all the recent controversy, we’ve considered doing something else. But the Cathey family has bowed to pressure, they should accept everyone as equal if they are good Christians, so we will probably do again the 2 big platters of nuggets. They all say they can eat on that for a couple of days at work. And we send the platters early in December, on elective surgery day, so just about everyone is there except the night shift. Night shift gets leftovers. (We warmbloods elect not to have surgery unless we really need it. One of us spent a week there 6 yrs ago for a leg injury.)
We’d like to make them go vegan, but those humans are all carnivores!
It took me years of trial and error before I finally found a decent farrier. I’m a now a devout member of the Church of Farrier Butt-Kissing, and lavish upon him princely sums every Christmas. I consider it money well spent.
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Nope, at $250 a pop I give him enough of my money. Not to mention I never see him and talk to him about once a year. Maybe if I had more of a personal relationship with him I’d consider it.
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My farrier really likes the yellow vitamin water, so I get him a case of that every Chrismas.
No tip, per se, but I always send him something - Honeybaked Ham, a fruit basket, cookies, etc.
Last year I did gas cards along w/Mickey D cards for him & his (grown) son/assistant who comes along.
2 years ago I made saddleup’s Xmas Mix - I believe she referred to the recipe as “Christmas Crack”
O.M.G. :eek:
I believe I ate a good 25% of what I made from the double batch for vet & farrier.
Damn you, saddleup! :mad:
It was absolutely De-Vine!
[QUOTE=The Crone of Cottonmouth County;6695523]
It took me years of trial and error before I finally found a decent farrier. I’m a now a devout member of the Church of Farrier Butt-Kissing, and lavish upon him princely sums every Christmas. I consider it money well spent.[/QUOTE]
So true! Our owner has always had good farriers, but one of us warmbloods was owned by someone who had a very bad farrier. Ouch! We now let our owner worship in that church for us so that we can keep our good farrier, Mr. Grumpy.
I’m torn. Our excellent veteran farrier recently gave us to his former apprentice when he stopped doing many of the barns in our area. This new guy is quite young, been working for a few years, and gets $300 for 4 steel shoes. He’s actually charging me more for a trim than the other guy. We also don’t have much of a personal relationship. I think he just likes to come and do his thing without chatting with the owners.
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My farrier gets a big basket of baked goods or other nice stuff (coffee, hot chocolate mix, etc etc). He’s been shoeing my horses for 11 years, and we have a fantastic relationship, but I know he wouldn’t let me tip him if I tried.
He does more than alright, and I think he appreciates the company and the home made goodies more than my extra $50. (Considering he’s currently horse shopping with his wife in Europe maybe he would appreciate the money after all…haha)
However, he almost passed me off to his recently freed apprentice, and if that had happened I probably would have tipped him. The guy is my age, and would have been coming from a lot further away… So it definitely depends.
