Farriers! But not what you might think

Gosh I wish I got £80 an hour. I am a teacher so I have two degrees which took 5 years between them then another year teacher training on top. I earn about £4.30 an hour after deductions. Still, I suppose it allows me to pay my vets bills which my pony is racking up for fun these days :rolleyes:.
 
One of the farriers I've seen on the yard says he works a 4 day week. Not surprised He charges £90 a set. My OH's close friend is a farrier in Herefordshire. He's in his late 30s with a decent country house. He deserves it as he's done that himself with his own efforts but he's not a lower earning professional by any means! OH's cousin is a carpenter and earns less than the farrier and has huge overheads too. I don't shoe mine so don't really bother with their charges but do see some liveries and think they are being overcharged
 
Great to see a positive post:D Shadowboy yes you rarely see a "poor" farrier but consider this ... As a farriers daughter I've watched dad do a 6 day week for the last 30 odd years. Now that he doesn't do racehorses anymore (too many bad payers :rolleyes:) he gets a lay in and doesn't leave until 7 it was 5.30 before. He doesn't take a lunch break grabbing a butty or bar of choc and eating whilst driving. He'll finish about 4 pm in winter about 6pm in summer - if there are no emergency call outs for him to pop back out too. But before he can come in for dinner he'll spend between 30 mins to an hour getting everything ready for the next day or so making up any special shoes etc. then when he comes in there are clients to confirm back to so it's usually 7pm earliest that he's done.
Then clients will call at anytime upto 10pm, and the calls start first thing in the morning too ( my particular faves are the 6am Sunday callers with an emergency...:eek:).
He takes a max of one week off a year and struggles to do that because customers seem to panic if they think he's going to be unavailable. He takes off christmas and Boxing Day but has been known to disappear Chrimbo pm to put a shoe on because someone wants to hunt and they've turned out in a quagmire and wonder why they've lost a shoe.... That hourly rates not looking so good now is it?
 
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