I’m just wondering what the average equine podiatrist or high-end farrier would make in a year and also what schooling they have gone through whether it be vet school or just a farrier program. Thanks!
In my experience an equine podiatrist is a far cry from a high end farrier.
High and farriers for sport horses can make very very good money if they have top clients. Many spend the season at wef.
I have known equine podiatrissts…their clientele tends to be quite different and the salary might be good per client, but they tend not to have that many clients, and very few performance horses.
Semantics aside, I use a well trained natural barefoot trimmer. The subject of his gross annual income came up in conversation the other day and I about fainted when he told me what he earns. Let’s just say, I’m definitely in the wrong business!!! He clears more than the majority of vets I know!
To me, an equine podiatrist is a vet who specializes in the feet. My horse goes to one (The man is one of only 13 people to have been voted into the Vet. Hall of Fame.)
He works with a top farrier; the 2 of them confer on every horse. After the first session (which is ungodly expensive), the podiatrist gets $100 and the farrier gets $280.
It seems unfair that the farrier gets almost 3x as much — but after the first session the podiatrist only confers at the very beginning of the shoeing – and then the farrier takes over.
In many senses, that is correct. Many vets who specialize in hooves do refer to themselves as podiatrists.
But there is also a movement of “barefoot specialists” who refer to themselves as podiatrists, which I believe is the type LadyJ is referencing.
It’s a term one has to be careful with when searching for a hoof care professional. I’m not quite sure which the OP meant.
Thanks, just to clarify I was interested in the folks who work at some of the top hospitals such as Rood and Riddle where they have a team of podiatrists who have both consulted my horses and actively done the farrier work on them.
The farriers and podiatrists who work at top hospitals are generally salaried through the hospital.
Exactly, Texarkana! There are weekend schools and video programs that certify these people in “equine podiatry”, they are not vets.
Specialist veterinarians are absolutely not who I am talking about.
Being a farrier can be pretty hard on the body. As can the occasional rank blow-up from a horse. Something to consider if you aren’t an employee and need to carry your own disability costs.
Basically, a good rule of thumb is: the cheaper or shorter or easier the training, basically the lower the barrier to entry to a field, the less likely it is you will make a good, full-time living out of it. Because everyone else will be training for it too.
Actually, anyone can set themselves up as a trimmer, a farrier, or an alternative practitioner of some variety, without training, or with minimal training. But IME, the good farriers and trimmers have done actual lengthy training programs (there is one locally through a community college).
Anyhow, vets have the longest, most extensive, training of anyone in the horse health care world, and they can have the highest incomes. Note that I don’t say salary. A salary means that you are paid a set annual amount, by your employer, as opposed to an hourly wage for actual hours worked. But most vets are running their own small practices, so they get neither a salary nor a wage, unless they are working for a larger institution or company.
Likewise farriers. They don’t get paid a salary or an hourly wage. They are independent tradesmen, who bill by the job, and then pay their own expenses, etc., themselves (like a plumber). If you want to calculate their income, figure: how much do local farriers charge to shoe a horse? How many horses can you shoe in a day? And then, what would you be deducting for the cost of nails, gas, truck insurance, etc?
I actually don’t know what an equine podiatrist would be, if not a vet specialization. I would say, if the person is not a vet and not a farrier, I can’t quite see where they would be getting much work from.
[QUOTE=ottbcomeback;8979262]
Thanks, just to clarify I was interested in the folks who work at some of the top hospitals such as Rood and Riddle where they have a team of podiatrists who have both consulted my horses and actively done the farrier work on them.[/QUOTE]
I think the money put into the education is quite different as the Equine Podiatrist has a DVM and PhD. Even if the person paid for the DVM but not the PhD, that schooling would be more expensive than the best farrier program in the US.
Last time I asked someone about his, more than 10 years ago, the answer for a high-end farrier was about $250-300K per year. I don’t know if you could make more than that as a DVM (at least) member of Rood and Riddle.
[QUOTE=mvp;8983581]
I think the money put into the education is quite different as the Equine Podiatrist has a DVM and PhD. Even if the person paid for the DVM but not the PhD, that schooling would be more expensive than the best farrier program in the US.
Last time I asked someone about his, more than 10 years ago, the answer for a high-end farrier was about $250-300K per year. I don’t know if you could make more than that as a DVM (at least) member of Rood and Riddle.[/QUOTE]
Right, although a podiatrist does not necessarily need to have a PhD in addition to their professional degree. I personally know none with a PhD in podiatry, however I know several who have become certified journeymen farriers.
The university I worked for did not have any doctors who coined themselves as “podiatrists” at the time I worked there, but we did have surgeons who specialized in hooves and non-vet skilled staff farriers. They were salaried; so when a client paid $300+ per shoeing session, the doctors and farriers did not pocket that money, it went to the hospital. Their salary was under $200k; top independent farriers could easily earn more. However, they had luxuries such as hospital hours and benefits packages. The farrier might only have to see one or two horses a day, and in his own shop, as opposed to having to travel and maintain a full schedule.
Compare apples to apples. Most “employees” have benefits such as health insurance, paid sick and vacation time, and a retirement plan. So a farrier may “make” a certain amount of money a year, but that farrier is also not getting pto, health insurance, workers compensation, etc. A vet that gets kicked and can’t work gets all his or her medical bills paid plus still gets paid while disabled. A farrier that gets kicked hope he or she still has clients when he or she is able to return to work.
[QUOTE=Texarkana;8983635]
Right, although a podiatrist does not necessarily need to have a PhD in addition to their professional degree. I personally know none with a PhD in podiatry, however I know several who have become certified journeymen farriers.
The university I worked for did not have any doctors who coined themselves as “podiatrists” at the time I worked there, but we did have surgeons who specialized in hooves and non-vet skilled staff farriers. They were salaried; so when a client paid $300+ per shoeing session, the doctors and farriers did not pocket that money, it went to the hospital. Their salary was under $200k; top independent farriers could easily earn more. However, they had luxuries such as hospital hours and benefits packages. The farrier might only have to see one or two horses a day, and in his own shop, as opposed to having to travel and maintain a full schedule.[/QUOTE]
I think I am understanding the term, “podiatrist” wrong then.
My experience is limited to Cornell thinking about replacing (and dicking over, mind you) their world-class on-staff farrier because credentials is his world didn’t match up well with the way credentials, tenure and money get doled out in academia. An observing private practice vet who had done their DVM there, said that Cornell’s Vet School could better replace the farrier with an Equine Podiatrist due to it’s hard-ass bureaucratic requirements. And I took that to mean someone with a DVM and PhD. Oh, and if they want to get tenure, they’ll need to win grants.
Truly, it’s can be hard to recognize and compensate Greatness in fields where the rules of evaluating quality don’t match up terribly well. But eye-witnesses to the work that vets and farriers do absolutely recognize the unique skill and experience that a sophisticated farrier brings to the table.
If I had a horse who didn’t have a problem yet and I had to choose between a high-end performance vet and a high-end farrier, I’d choose the latter. The stuff farriers can do over time to prevent injuries or to delay the onset of arthritis is remarkable and, IMO, too often overlooked.
mvp- If you are thinking of the same world class farrier at Cornell that I am-he’s long gone from the halls of academe.
And I hope making a whole lot more money.
[QUOTE=merrygoround;8984291]
mvp- If you are thinking of the same world class farrier at Cornell that I am-he’s long gone from the halls of academe.
And I hope making a whole lot more money.[/QUOTE]
We are thinking of the same guy. I was there when that all went down. Cornell had its head way, way, way up its a$$. Way up there. JMHO. But CU was the last American university to have a farrier in a professorship and that was back and the beginning of the century.
I hope the guy is finally getting paid what he deserves, too.
Although, the man had (and still does) quite the international career. I think for a while way back when, he was flown around to shoe horses on various continents. By the time I knew him, he was just giving lectures internationally. He probably still does. Good for him!
