So I am considering training to become a farrier and have been looking into the Kentucky Horseshoeing School outside Lexington. The course curriculum seems top notch and the instructors are certified with the AFA, but I don’t know anyone with personal experience in dealing with this school and/or farriers who have been trained there. Any Kentuckians out there who have personal experience or might have overheard anything about the school’s reputation at their barn?
My husband thinks it is a very good school, gives the student a good education, learning the shoes, forge work.
When daughter was looking at choosing a Farrier School, they visited Kentucky and Heartland Horseshoeing School in Missouri as the final choices. She chose Heartland as being less expensive with a shorter, intense program and having students working on live horses much faster than Kentucky. Here is a link:
http://heartlandhorseshoeing.com/
The people were nice, good teachers at both schools, but Heartland had boarding facilities right there, along with a shorter course time which was a cost saver to her in paying her way thru school. She did complete the courses, was there almost six months, with a break over July to come home. She shod a LOT of horses, made a lot of shoes and types of shoes, since students are tested on their progress right along.
There were a number of washouts, people who did not make it thru. Some only lasted a day or week, maybe a month. Lots of homesickness, or it was a lot harder than they expected. Those leaving were both male and female. DD had other girls in her class, they worked together to get things done, completed the course work quite well too.
We sent “care packages” of food, tools husband made up for her, when hers were not working as expected. Specialized size nippers of special steel for “girl hands” not the heavier, regular stuff from suppliers. Lighter tongs with skinny handles for forge work. He enjoyed making up the tools for her, they talked about how well it worked or did not. Sent ANOTHER item after they discussed good and bad points. She got a number of items, is still using them. One was a better design and weight of hammer for working steel on the anvil and a different driving hammer for shoeing. Those got borrowed a lot by the other women! She liked getting the stuff, he enjoyed talking with her about things she was learning, problems she ran into working, handling ill-trained horses.
Homesickness is the worst, she had never been gone that long, but the breaks helped when she could come home. All the students had problems with that. She made some very good friends in her class, still in touch after 4 years. They also are still Farriers. Lots attend, graduate, then fail in the real world of daily work and expenses. Farrier school graduates have a high drop out rate from working as Farriers as time goes along. This is even with no injuries to the person, they get other jobs.
You can’t learn everything at a School, need to meet and ride with other Farriers after you graduate to learn how others do things. DD did this, get exposed to various other kinds of horses, learning how to work with other Farriers as a team. The local Farriers were very helpful to her, allowing her to ride, work and learn on their daily rounds. She also rode and worked with husband, who showed her a lot of methods that will allow faster shoeing, making of shoes, for higher, faster completion of the job. She learned other kinds of shoes needed for his clients, not the same kind or uses of horses they did in Missouri. How to run her business LIKE a business, time is money for a Farrier. You deduct for the Gov’t., Insurances, pay your expenses and have to pay yourself a living wage to survive above subsistence life. Own a trustworthy vehicle to get around. Presentation of yourself to customers is important, to give a competent appearance.
Being a Farrier is a full-circle business. Everything is on you, to be a success or not make it. Pricing yourself cheap is bad business, along with cutting deals. It takes you the same amount of time to do each horse, price cut means YOU get less at the end of the day. You CAN NOT afford to subsidize your customers, whine though they might on how poor they are. If they can’t afford the rates, they should not own the horse. Walk away from the crazy horses, ask for sedation if needed. Some you STILL can’t do with sedation, so give up on it. If you get hurt, you have NO income. We advised her NOT to tie any horse legs up as we had learned “back in the day”. She doesn’t want to be doing those kinds of horses anyway, not worth the chance of injury to her or horse.
Good luck to you on your horse shoeing career if you do pursue it. Girls can be quite good as Farriers, just don’t try to muscle things to be “equal” to the men. Finesse it, sweet talk the horses, save your body. Work smarter, not harder!
[QUOTE=goodhors;8596948]
My husband thinks it is a very good school, gives the student a good education, learning the shoes, forge work.
When daughter was looking at choosing a Farrier School, they visited Kentucky and Heartland Horseshoeing School in Missouri as the final choices. She chose Heartland as being less expensive with a shorter, intense program and having students working on live horses much faster than Kentucky. Here is a link:
http://heartlandhorseshoeing.com/
The people were nice, good teachers at both schools, but Heartland had boarding facilities right there, along with a shorter course time which was a cost saver to her in paying her way thru school. She did complete the courses, was there almost six months, with a break over July to come home. She shod a LOT of horses, made a lot of shoes and types of shoes, since students are tested on their progress right along.
There were a number of washouts, people who did not make it thru. Some only lasted a day or week, maybe a month. Lots of homesickness, or it was a lot harder than they expected. Those leaving were both male and female. DD had other girls in her class, they worked together to get things done, completed the course work quite well too.
We sent “care packages” of food, tools husband made up for her, when hers were not working as expected. Specialized size nippers of special steel for “girl hands” not the heavier, regular stuff from suppliers. Lighter tongs with skinny handles for forge work. He enjoyed making up the tools for her, they talked about how well it worked or did not. Sent ANOTHER item after they discussed good and bad points. She got a number of items, is still using them. One was a better design and weight of hammer for working steel on the anvil and a different driving hammer for shoeing. Those got borrowed a lot by the other women! She liked getting the stuff, he enjoyed talking with her about things she was learning, problems she ran into working, handling ill-trained horses.
Homesickness is the worst, she had never been gone that long, but the breaks helped when she could come home. All the students had problems with that. She made some very good friends in her class, still in touch after 4 years. They also are still Farriers. Lots attend, graduate, then fail in the real world of daily work and expenses. Farrier school has a high drop out rate as time goes along. This even with no injuries to the person, they get other jobs.
You can’t learn everything at a School, need to meet and ride with other Farriers after you graduate to learn how others do things. DD did this, get exposed to various other kinds of horses, learning how to work with other Farriers as a team. The local Farriers were very helpful to her, allowing her to ride, work and learn on their daily rounds. She also rode and worked with husband, who showed her a lot of methods that will allow faster shoeing, making of shoes, for higher, faster completion of the job. She learned other kinds of shoes needed for his clients, not the same kind or uses of horses they did in Missouri. How to run her business LIKE a business, time is money for a Farrier. You deduct for the Gov’t., Insurances, pay your expenses and have to pay yourself a living wage to survive above subsistence life. Own a trustworthy vehicle to get around. Presentation of yourself to customers is important, to give a competent appearance.
Being a Farrier is a full-circle business. Everything is on you, to be a success or not make it. Pricing yourself cheap is bad business, along with cutting deals. It takes you the same amount of time to do each horse, price cut means YOU get less at the end of the day. You CAN NOT afford to subsidize your customers, whine though they might on how poor they are. If they can’t afford the rates, they should not own the horse. Walk away from the crazy horses, ask for sedation if needed. Some you STILL can’t do with sedation, so give up on it. If you get hurt, you have NO income. We advised her NOT to tie any horse legs up as we had learned “back in the day”. She doesn’t want to be doing those kinds of horses anyway, not worth the chance of injury to her or horse.
Good luck to you on your horse shoeing career if you do pursue it. Girls can be quite good as Farriers, just don’t try to muscle things to be “equal” to the men. Finesse it, sweet talk the horses, save your body. Work smarter, not harder![/QUOTE]
Very good information there.
I would add, if you have not yet, beforehand, do ride with a farrier as much as you can.
Hold horses, do whatever asked to do, probably that won’t be working on client’s horses, but maybe a few will be amenable to that, all that before going to school.
Having previous knowledge of the craft will help get out so much more out of farrier school.
My brother went to the Kentucky Horseshoeing School- I want to say he graduated about 5 years ago. He’s done quite well since- apprenticed with a journeyman farrier when he got back for a couple of years and now has his own thriving business.
