Becoming a farrier's apprentice?

[jes_nibley]

What exactly does it involve?

Obviously it's long hours, but how long?

The pay is not much, but how much is not much?

Do you need any qualifications before you can become one?

Do you need to supply your own pair of chaps thingies or tools?

What else is involved that I haven't thought of?

 

[pnap]

Funnily enough I've been doing a little bit of research on this myself recently. From what I can gather you first of all have to find an approved training farrier willing to take you on, it's a 4 year apprenticeship with about 6 months of college attendance as well. The pay whilst your an apprentice is about £8.5k - this is the bit which stopped me in my tracks as I couldn't physically live off this amount with everything I have to pay out and I doubt the hours would allow you to do anything else part time. So unless someone is willing to give me - oh say about £100k - for me to pay off everything and then be at their beck and call as a farrier in 4 years time then it's pretty much a non-starter for me just now.

 

[Bounty]

My OH gets paid £140 per week.... which usually involves 12-14 hours on a weekday, and then doesn't get paid at all for saturdays, of which he usually does 3 a month

To get onto the college course you need to have found someone that will take you on (the hardest bit!) and have passed your forging certificate, which you can either prepare for with your ATF and then just take the exam, or you can do intensive tuition courses with the exam at the end.

All tools and chaps you need to finance yourself, though most of them you will need to buy through your ATF/a farrier as they are mostly only available this way. Pure smithing tools are probably available through other routes though.

My advice would be make sure you have some decent savings in the bank before you start (!!) and prepare to relocate and put your life on hold while you do it.

Sounds appealing, huh?!

 

[LCobby]

http://www.farrierytraining.co.uk/

all the info

 

[jes_nibley]

Thank you!
Yeah that's what I was worried I might hear. I couldn't afford to live on that amount either.
Not too fussed about long hours as do 14 hrs most days now.

Will have a look at the link in the morning and have another think.
Thanks again.