Farriers make me nutty aka: Are you always home for the Farrier?

[SmartAlex]

Mom emails this morning: " Farrier appointment at noon. I’m going to go look at hay. If you can be here, then I won’t hurry back."

I email back: “Go ahead, I’ll take an early lunch and be there at 11:30”

Mom emails back at 10:30: “Never mind, I was on my way out the driveway and he just pulled in. I’ll go look at hay another day.”

And hour and a half early? Farriers really don’t understand how most of America schedules their day. If I kept my horse at home (instead of boarded at Mom’s cuz she’s retired) I would have to take a whole day off work. And that’s assuming he doesn’t call and cancel. Or worse, and this has happened too, if he stays home sick in bed and doesn’t call AT ALL. And it wasn’t like he was so sick he couldn’t call. His wife does that.

!!!:mad::mad::mad::mad::ambivalence::ambivalence:!!!

[Polydor]

Annoying ! And this is why I love farriers who are trust worthy and independant and go pull horses out of the paddock /stall so they can arrange their day how ever they want. Though in Oz, the farriers were scheduled for the entire day and would arrive at 8am and stay until done sometimes spending the night since we were an hour and half to 2 hour drive for them.

P.

[trubandloki]

My farrier is sometimes early and sometimes late. I figure he works in an industry where he can schedule but the humans and animals are very well known for messing with that.
The understanding we have is if he is early he is welcome to start working if he wants to. If he is early and I am not there no skin off my back or his.

[Diamontaire]

Perhaps an issue with the appointment before you, and he just decided to continue on with his day?

[BeeHoney]

IME the best farriers expect to work a full day each day. That does mean that if they get a cancellation at one of their visits for that day that they will probably show up early at their next appointment. IME most farriers also don’t want to spend their time driving back and forth with their gas guzzling truck any more than they have to. Therefore, if one appointment ends up having an extra horse that needs to be done (or a horse that needs shoes instead of a trim), they would rather get it done and be a little bit late to their next appointment than have to spend $$ in gas to get back there for one horse another day. The best way to get a farrier to show up on time is to be the first appointment in the morning.

[drawstraws]

I wouldn’t have a problem with the being early. It’s the lack of communication that would annoy me. I adore my farrier - if he’s going to be early or late, or wants to reschedule because of a change in plans, he calls or texts me. That way I can let him know if I can accommodate him or we’ll need to reschedule for an entirely different day.

[ChocoMare]

I’m a part-time trimmer and, if a client cancelled and I could be earlier to the next appointment, I’d call first to check. If not, I’d find a park and read for a while, so as to show up on time.

If I’m ever going to be late, I call then too.

Alas, white-collar business professionalism is usually severely lacking in the hoof biz.

[Mosey_2003]

I know everyone poo-poos it, but this is why I love texting. My farrier will text me whether he’s running early or late. So convenient! Sometimes I’m at work and I can’t answer my phone, but I can check the text real quick.

Unannounced hour and a half early with no heads up is rather rude…

[trubandloki]

[QUOTE=Mosey_2003;7763179]

Unannounced hour and a half early with no heads up is rather rude…[/QUOTE]

Before we had the arrangement that he can start any times he wants he would simply come by and wait in his truck.
I do not consider it rude. Might as well park in my driveway as anywhere else.

[Mosey_2003]

That’s different if you have an arrangement. The tone of the OP implied there was not one. I’m just sayin’, it’s a little rude to be that early and not give a heads up.

[S1969]

[QUOTE=Mosey_2003;7763212]
That’s different if you have an arrangement. The tone of the OP implied there was not one. I’m just sayin’, it’s a little rude to be that early and not give a heads up.[/QUOTE]

It is rude, and it is likely to result in a farrier sitting and waiting if the owner isn’t home (or isn’t ready).

I have no issue with the idea of the farrier calling or texting if an opportunity arises to show up early - maybe a great plan for the horse owner too. But just showing up and expecting owner to be there/be ready? Bad idea.

My farrier is great; he gives me a heads up if he’s going to be early or late, but would never expect me to be ready for him if he didn’t hear from me (and would probably get a snack, eat his lunch, or find an errand to run). Oh, and he would never let himself into my barn and start working on a horse - nor would I like that either.

[SmartAlex]

Mom says he thought the appointment was at 11:30. Which would have worked out OK, because if I was shooting at 11:30 as being early and I had been a little later than he would have been cheerfully waiting. But I reminded her that still made him an hour early. Without calling to check. Apparently he was rushing through his day with an eye on getting done and on the road to meet his wife who had left yesterday on their planned vacation. And also, according to Mom he was high on too much cinnamon and honey (got to love this guy).

He’s a good farrier and happy go lucky (probably necessary for dealing with crazy horse lady clients all day) but I can not imagine having to try to schedule my work life around these guys. My office is about 10 minutes from the barn and I always try to be present for farrier and vet appointments. I know both farriers and vet’s days are very easily torn to shreds by emergencies and other clients but sometimes it seems impossible to hold down the job necessary to be able to afford their services!

[Eleanor]

I miss my last farrier, He would book for every 6 weeks and then email me a few days out that he would be in the area on this day. I would leave him a check in the feed room. He would get my guy from the field bring him in do his feet put him back out and clean up after. Then he would leave me a card with the next appointment date. Email me if there was anything that he needed to talk to me about.

This way I was not waiting around for him and he could just stop in and do my guy when he was in the area. It made it easy and he really like my guy.

I have only used my new farrier once now and not sure how it is going to go, but we will see.

[PNWjumper]

I have zero issues with my farrier coming early. He’s willing to pull out a horse and get started whether I’m there or not (usually the trims or one of the easy horses - he saves the tougher cases for me so that we can talk them through). The only way it would annoy me would be if he showed up early and then left because I wasn’t there. In fact, I WISH he would show up early more often since my guy is almost always late!

But with that being said, it doesn’t annoy me much when he’s late either. I know that there’s no way to account for all of the minor issues that pop up each day (lost shoes and other emergency calls). And I’ve been that emergency call enough times to have empathy for those who need him at my regularly scheduled call’s expense. As long as I get a text or a call of some sort I’m a happy camper. So in your case, I would definitely be annoyed by the no-shows with no communication. But timing? Just the way the business goes sometimes.

I just chalk it up to the rigors of a horse-dependent career…no different than my vet who is also always “on time” (meaning the appointment time plus or minus, and usually plus, 2 hours).

[2DogsFarm]

I prefer early over late.

Since my horses are seldom stalled, I like to leave getting them in until about 1/2h out from scheduled appt for vet or shoer.
That way I have time to make them presentable - knock off mud, pick feet, etc - so pros don’t have to deal with dirty horses.
Both my shoer & vet call if they are running late.

If they showed up that early w/o calling they would probably have to either wait or help me get horses in.

[LauraKY]

Mine always calls me when he’s 1/2 hour out. Since I’m down to 1 horse and way out of his way, I’m here when he tells me it will work for him. I LOVE my farrier.

[Lady_Eboshi]

Want your farrier to put your name at the top of his list? PAY the man. You’d be completely amazed how many people just DON’T. The “campfire tales” I heard this morning in the time it took to nail on one pair of front shoes just blew my mind. Barns with 20 or 30 schoolies, getting into these poor guys to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars.

You give cash on the barrelhead when the work is done, you will stand head and shoulders above the Dirt Bags of America who take egregious advantage of these hardworking professionals. :mad:

[Wellspotted]

Who said the OP’s mom (and anyone else on this thread) WASN’T paying the man?

[JoZ]

If my farrier comes early, and she has done so on occasion, she has to expect that the horses are not in from pasture. It isn’t really a good use of her time, unless she’s okay with returning phone calls or reading or playing on her phone. I try very hard not to be pushing the limits, in case the horses are way at the back of the pasture, or something goes wrong with logistically.

Today for example, my yearling decided he was feral. I had to usher him out the gate of his pasture with his buddy, move them in a controlled fashion down the alley between pastures, and trap him in a smaller area up near the barn in order to get a halter on him. Ah, yearlings. I made a note in my calendar to bring him in for remedial manners in a couple of weeks. But he was still ready before my farrier got here. I didn’t get to make the Starbucks run I was planning on, oh well! Anyway, if she had come early, she may have assisted. Or watched the procession. She’s pretty good about texting if she’s going to be late.

One hot day mid-summer, I was already up before I wanted to be (I work nights) due to the farrier’s request for an early start time. Understandably, she doesn’t want to be working in the midday heat if she can avoid it. So I was bumbling around, the horses were misbehaving, it’s still an hour before the appointment, and suddenly she’s there. She made the mistake of laughing at me. I was not happy! I cleared up any confusion about early mornings and my liking for them.

[AKB]

I think feeding my farrier helps. I always make him a sandwich and made from scratch cookies or brownies. If he changes his schedule at the last minute, there are no snacks because I make them just before he comes. He always texts me if he is early or late.