Apprenticeship

Well, this was an interesting night. The long and short is I am now learning to be a farrier.

For those not in the know, a farrier trims a horses feet and, if necessary, puts on horseshoes. We have nearly twenty horses here and we are responsible for the cost of shoeing over half of them. Figure a minimum of $30 per month per horse and you have quite a hefty monthly bill.

Well, as it turns out, our farrier has too much business because there is a shortage of good farriers in our area. So, to ease the cost to us, reduce the pressure on her, and just because she is a nice person, Julie has offered to apprentice me in the time I can spare. We started tonight with trimming and I successfully trimmed my first pony. I am jazzed!

No, I am not going to give up my day job. Particularly as Julie says it will be 4 years or more before I really have it down. But it sure will be nice just to be able to do our own horses. And when I get good, maybe I will do some shoeing part time to earn some "mad money". We'll see, I'll let you know how it goes.

Well, off to bed.