Since starting to do barefoot trimming professionally, I have come across many moments where my experiences with my own clients gave me confirmation that I and my herd were good clients to my previous farriers, which felt nice. But I have also come across moments where I have seriously questioned what kind of industry the farrier’s these days are leaving.
Now, before anyone tries to rip me a new one, please read the whole post and please know I am not talking about every single farrier to date. There are some really great ones out there. There are also some really not so great ones as well.
I have a client I very much enjoy working with. One because they are so knowledgeable (I always enjoy learning from my clients). Two because their horse’s are wonderful to work with. I had gone to trim for the client once and usually I have all my clients pay me in advance to reserve their spot on my calendar. It allows for things to go smoother, but more on that later.
This particular time, the clients weren’t able to pay in advance. No worries, we aren’t corporate tyrants over here after all. We are all humans and grace is warranted from time to time. Anyways, I mention that because this particular client made it a point to this time to pay me prior to trimming and said something along the lines of “I’m paying you regardless of what happens”.
I was a little taken aback and quite frankly worried. What was about to happen? Was I about to get fired? Did they hate my work? Oh my!
All they did was tell me that 3 days prior to my arrival for trim time; they trimmed. They indicated they were really worried about their horses and wanted to ensure they didn’t become lame as their horses have a tendency to get lame if their feet get too long. I can respect this. Was a little confused as to why we couldn’t wait three days. But in the grand scheme of things, I knew there would still be stuff for me to address on the hooves regardless. Plus I’ll never not tell my clients to not be vigilant about their horse’s.
What came next is what troubled me. After we chatted about their concerns, we made a game plan for the day and I started to get to work. My client, though, made a comment right about this time that shook me. This comment really made me start to question, what are we doing as farriers these days to warrant a good client to be worried like this to make this comment.
I’m sure you’re wondering what they said. After all, that what this post is about anyways. Well here it is:
“I was so worried. Thank you for being so understanding. I was worried you were going to cuss me out, yell at me and storm out of here. Most farriers would have been mad that I touched the feet. They would have claimed that if I couldn’t trust them to trim my horses then they didn’t want to do it.”
First of all, let’s unpack that for a bit. I do want my clients to trust me; but I will never ask them to not be critical of me. After all, I am human. I have bad days. Bad moments. If something doesn’t look correct on a day I come to trim, tell me. I do my best to be as focused on the horse in front of me as I can; to channel any needed information that comes through. To listen to what the horse is saying they need. But in the end I’m not perfect, accountability is a wonderful thing.
I will also never be mad if my client fusses with their horses feet in between trims. Ideally, in this situation, I would have liked to see the feet touched up 1-2 weeks before I came. However, you can literally do a trim on a horse EVERY SINGLE DAY and there will always be something to address.
I have actually shown clients what to do in between trims so that we could work as a team. I don’t need to do that with this client. For the clients that want to touch up the feet in between when I come to trim, all I ask is that they tell me. This way, when I assess the fee, I will be doing so with the appropriate lens and can track the progress of the feet appropriately.
Let’s talk about the part of the comment that really bothers me. “I was worried you were going to cuss me out.” What in the world are we doing as farrier’s and what kind of ego are we all walking around with that clients have to be worried we are going to cuss them out for being concerned about their horses.
Never should we or any professional EVER cuss a client out. Our egos are great to fuel our fire to become the best we can be. It’s great to push us to continue learning and want to be the best. HOWEVER, our ego should never be so big that it leads us to cursing at a client.
You know, I have learned almost more about hoofcare from my clients than from my previous mentor. If you listen closely to them, they will tell you what products work, which hoof boots are great for different things, and clues into the care of their horse’s that can help you help them.
I can only meet and tend to so many clients in my life. I can only influence so many. But I hope and pray that the few I do get to work with, that I can touch them and their horse’s lives in a deeply positive way so that they never have to worry about being cursed out by a horse professional again so long as they are my client.
I hope and pray that I can teach and impact other professionals so that we can increase this awareness and leave a better industry behind us than what we entered into.
That’s all for now. Aho.