If you go to http://www.farrier-reg.gov.uk/find-a-farrier/ you can search for farriers within a certain distance from you. I have 78 farriers within a 30 mile radius and I live in a rural area. If you search for Oxford, you get 194 farriers within 30 miles of you. Interestingly, if you search for Swindon, which is just down the road from Oxford, you get 172 farriers, a bunch of whom don't show up on the Oxford search, I also know some farriers within 30 miles of me that don't show up in the search of my area, so these figures can be considered conservative. Don't forget, Britiain is a densely populated island and at its narrowest point you can drive from one side of the country to the other in a couple of hours. The furthest you can get from the sea in Britain is a mere 70 miles and the area of Britain is not much more that that of New York state but is home to a population of 65 million. We are on top of each other here...
I guess I had no idea how things were over there. Why in the world do they keep churning out so many farriers under those conditions? When I was thinking about going into the trade, I did some market research before making the decision. I came up with about 1200 horses within a 60 mile radius, and 3 full time farriers, two of which were nearing retirement. It seemed like I could make a go of it. If I had been over where you guys are, I probably would have gone into truck driving, or started a pub. Regards
I'm also surprised at the number of farriers in England. We've now got some English duds working over here. We're not that populated with farriers, but I feel it coming. And like many other places, horse numbers, I've noticed are on the way down. People got money, but they're more cautious how they use it. Also they are more critical on the quality of horses they spend their money on.
Rick those are your figures not mine , some farriers are grateful to be shoeing 2/3 a day around here , some dont even do that
David, I believe i understand what your saying, but i don t think that it is too much to respect other peoples time and or situations and i m not well organized at all! I have found that if you don t ask for improvement you probably won t get any improvement. Regards ray
I'm still busy Ray, being a horse owner is not a pre requisite for A being a nice person or B being bright. I have remained busy by continually educating myself and trying to to do a good job, on top of that I try and be personable, in my my area you have to have at least two of those three and all three will keep your books full. Being organised myself helps to prevent to many down hours and that isn't hard. Some days I laugh all the way to the bank.
Gary got one down the road with 25k in a van , new 4x4 , income doesnt even cover repayments WTF , mummy and daddy tell everybody how well business is going whilst paying all bills and subsidising their lifestyle
hope your going to make an effort at the weekend , dont want to be associated with a bloody pikey lol
I had two unbreakable rules, never shoe alone, and never tie a horse to a fence when there is another horse in the corral it is tied to. Sept 2012 I broke both of those rules because I was 'in a hurry' and 'thought it would be ok'. Well the horse inside the corral left the horse I was doing alone for the first two feet. When I was relaxed and forgot about the other horse, while having the hind foot on my knee dressing the wall, the other horse lunged at the horse I was working on. The resulting kick/flinch from the horse bent my knee completely backwards. Sent me to the ground and even alarmed my dog enough he jumped out of the truck and started licking my face as i was dragging myself out from under the horse. All alone, NO CEL signal and not a soul for miles. By the grace of the good one another boarder pulled in within about three minutes and helped me. I was down for three weeks and I still have a tough time doing yoga.
Tejun good that your ok.. luckily for me, i learned not to shoe alone via anothers experience, i also don t put nails in my mouth, stopped back in around 1984,did for along time, till a friend of mine called to let know that he was screening his own shit/feces because he swallowed 4 ,4.5 race nails when a mare jerked her hind hard and unexpectedly, when i talked to him 3 had shown up. Next day # 4 arrived. Regards Ray
