Welcome to There Is No Crying In Horseshoeing. This BLOG will relate the experiences I had as an apprentice farrier, as well as what life is like daily in my business as a horseshoer. When I was a teenager I would go through the Western Horseman magazine and cut out ads for horseshoeing schools. I contacted a couple of the schools and was told that girls can’t shoe horses because they are not strong enough. Remember, this was before EEO laws and that much after Woodstock.

After college, I spent 25 years in the natural resources field. In my mid-forties I decided to quit a perfectly safe government job and go to shoeing school. The schools are happy to take your money, but many state on their application that if you are over 35 it will be difficult to get a business started because of the length of time it takes to become accomplished and the physical toll on your body.

A neighbor introduced me to a farrier who said he would take me on as an apprentice. It was all uphill from there. I was not willing to be away from home for too long, so I attended a four week school. After that, I apprenticed four days a week for two years. Two months into the apprenticeship I started building a customer list that consisted of trims. By the time I was finished with my apprenticeship I had a tidy customer list to build from.