Clinic Overview

Farrier Business 101 is an in-person, four-hour workshop on the decisions that determine whether hoof-care and shoeing work produces a durable livelihood. Attendees work through a route-level cost example, compare pricing and travel scenarios, draft service terms, and leave with a short action plan for their own practice.

Delivery: instructor presentation, guided calculation, scenario discussion, and individual worksheets. No horses, shoeing demonstrations, product sales, or sponsor presentations are included in the requested instructional time. The host will provide a safe, connection via Zoom.

Course Synopsis

Many farriers know the work performed under the horse, but lack a consistent method for measuring the time and cost behind each appointment. This clinic applies basic business management directly to a farrier’s service day: setting up a legitimate operation; selecting appropriate professional support; tracking supplies, vehicle and equipment costs; estimating service and travel costs; setting prices and farm-call fees; planning routes; documenting work; invoicing and collecting payment; handling cancellations; and evaluating client relationships and workload.

Participants calculate the difference between receipts, direct costs, overhead, compensation, and net operating income in a sample six-horse route. They then compare the effect of travel, missed appointments, and service mix on route profitability. The closing exercise asks each attendee to draft a practical pricing, scheduling, or policy change with a measure to revisit after the clinic.

The instruction develops decision skills relevant to practicing farriers and apprentices who manage their own schedules, clients, tools, and vehicles. Legal structure, tax treatment, bookkeeping methods, and coverage decisions are discussed as considerations only; attendees should seek advice from qualified legal, tax, accounting, and insurance professionals for their specific circumstances.

Instructor Biography and Qualifications

Joshua J. Speer, APF-I, is the lead hoof-care specialist at Rocking Speer Ranch, LLP. He began trimming and shoeing his own horses in 2021, attended farrier school in 2022, and has since built and managed a working hoof-care practice serving routine, performance, and therapeutic cases. His work includes route scheduling, service pricing, cancellation policies, client communication, haul-in operations, and coordination with veterinarians.

Speer holds the IAPF Accredited Professional Farrier with Foundation Credential (APF-I) designation and a Master of Agriculture in Integrated Resource Management from Colorado State University. He has approximately 21 years of teaching and instructional experience across his prior career and equine education work. He has taught hoof-care courses and moderated two farrier roundtables at the 2026 International Hoof-Care Summit. These qualifications support practical instruction in operating a farrier service business; he is not presented as a CPA, attorney, tax adviser, or insurance professional.

Learning Objectives

By the end of four hours of instruction, attendees will be able to:

• Identify common setup, record, insurance, and professional communication decisions that affect a farrier practice.

• Calculate a sample route’s revenue, direct operating costs, allocated overhead, owner compensation, net operating income, hourly production, cost per horse, and route profitability.

• Compare prices and farm-call fees against service time, supply use, travel, equipment, vehicle expenses, and a target workload.

• Evaluate a route or client account using travel time, collected revenue, cancellation risk, and capacity constraints.

• Develop a written scheduling, cancellation, invoicing, and payment framework suitable for review by their own advisers.

• Apply a simple workload and retention review to identify one change that protects both client service and long-term capacity.