Hey Gillette (Sheridan: rental, insurance, how much)

[yahudasman]

I'm from sheridan [about 100 miles away] and about to graduate from horseshoeing school in montana. I'm trying to decide where to set up my practice. I'm considering staying in sheridan and serving a circle on the map about like casper,gillette,lovell/powell, and buffalo. ORRR i was thinking about moving to gillette and serving a 100 mile radius that would include SD. Anybody have any clue about local farriers[horseshoers], or if there is a demand for one?THANKS

[sunsprit]

While I don't know the sheridan or the gillette area demand for farriers ...

I do know the market in SE Wyoming. Over the last 10 years, I haven't seen one farrier able to make a living from this, even when they didn't charge trip fees ... and, later, when they did to offset the travel expenses ($20 trip service charge) ... still couldn't make a living at it.

With the exception of perhaps one or two old timers in the biz with large established clientele, I don't know farriers around here that have been able to quit their day job. I've seen several come into the area in the last couple of years, with lots of advertising and handing out business cards and working the right circles to get connected, graduates of good schools and their work seemed OK.

All of them have left the business, and several left the area to get "real" jobs somewhere else. Some just picked up and left, some missed their appointments without notice and had their voice mail advising that they no longer were doing farrier work ... and asked that they not be contacted again for it.

The absolutely best farrier I saw in the area, who was also by far and away the fastest ... was a tall lanky fellow who was raised here and had a great following. He couldn't make a living at it, and started doing a bunch of trips out of the area (like to certain racing tracks in season, or to a couple of ranches with a couple hundred head to be trimmed/shod) without notifying his routine appointments that he had to reschedule. Having destroyed his local business, he's left the area and is now an insurance adjuster doing a little farrier work on the side. I understand that he's got back problems from doing the horse work for years.

I think you need to do a direct-to-equine owner market survey as to how much activity you can expect in the areas you're interested in. Perhaps visiting with the vets in the areas would give you another indicator of how much demand their is for your services in the markets, and possibly a referral.

Good luck with your venture.

[jody_wy]

The are a couple you might get to show up. Seem they are always busy but not sure with what job. There two outfits here that use tables, they shoe for the horse rental outfits that, rent to outfitters, hunters and packtrips. They do 50 to 60 head aday on the table a crew of 3 or 4 guys and they charge about $30 less the the shoer that shows up at the ranch.

[ElkHunter]

Sheridan and Gillette areas you would starve to death if you don't have something else to do. In Sheridan, it's because most horse owners do their own work. We do.

But, in the Sheridan area we starting to get a larger influx of horse owners that live in town and board their horses.

I have to friends that do horses. The first one is also a Lion Hunter and he does odd jobs on the side. The second one works at a coal mine and only does horses on the side.