22 August 2010
Supply Cost- Shoes
Every once in awhile, I'll have a phone conversation with someone that is about one thing, and it then turns into a business discussion. Such was the conversation I had with Mark Gough the other day. I don't know what Mark did before he was a farrier, but he has a good business mind and we did broach the subject of how much money a farrier actually takes home.
When I am given the opportunity to do so, I like to lecture about how farriers generally have a bad concept about the amount of money they make. Most farriers get in to a mode of what I call pocket rich, which is when they look in their pocket and, "Ta-Da!", there is money there, and if there's money there, it needs to be spent. But seriously, have you figured out lately what it costs you to shoe a horse? It's worth repeating, We each need to develop a formula to distinguish exactly how much money we take home. In this post, I want to begin to address supply cost and how much we as farriers invest in supplies. This dovetails into how sometimes we forget the little things that could eventually add up to be a considerable loss.
I'll begin with shoes. Now, keep in mind I am speaking of buying shoes by the pair and not in bulk. While I know that it is sometimes more advantageous to buy supplies in bulk, the farriers who would benefit most (farriers who are just starting out and don't have a foothold in their particular market) aren't necessarily in the financial position to do so, and one needs to be aware of how buying by the piece or pair affects their bottom line.
We'll start with the low end flat steel shoes for light horses (Warmblood on down), basic shoes with no toe weights, sliders or any other specialties. These shoes can cost anywhere from $3.85 to $4.05 a pair, $8.75 to $9.25 on the high end . If you're in a state with sales tax or if you have your supplies shipped to you, that needs to be calculated in your overall cost of the shoes as well. So, in my personal experience, on the lowest end of the shoe cost spectrum, I am going to buy 4 00 rim shoes at $3.85 a pair, and with tax the total amount for the shoes alone is $8.34. The most expensive shoe I'm going to buy is a 5 front with clips at $9.25 per pair. Hind shoes for such a horse are going to be around $8.75, so the total in shoes for this horse is going to be $19.75 (sales tax here is 9.75%). So at this point, before I buy nails or count wear and tear on my rasp, hand tools etc, or even drive to the horse, I am making a nearly $20.00 investment.
Now let's look at a performance horse. I'll use a reining horse for this example. On the low end, you might only need to spend the $3.85 a pair for the 00 rim shoes. Then again, depending on need, you may require an aluminum wedge or a Natural Balance shoe. The wedge shoe can cost between $8.00 and $12.00, depending on brand and vendor, with the NBS shoe costing as much as $18.00 retail . One inch sliding plates for this horse are going to be somewhere between $7.95 and $13.00, again depending on brand and vendor. So again, shoes alone, your investment in this type of horse is going to be between (less tax of course) $16.00 and $31.00.
The point here is that shoe cost, no matter where you live, is universal. The prices I quoted were derived from an average cost of 3 online vendors and what I pay at my local supply house. Through this process, I found that the prices for shoes were more or less much the same. Now I realize the cost of living varies dramatically throughout the country, but if a farrier is charging $80.00 to shoe the reining horse or the horse that wears the clipped 5's I mentioned, there is the chance that he or she is losing money by the time all is said and done.
I will be the first to admit that I understand that there is only so much a market will bear. You're not going to be able to charge what farriers in some metropolitan and boutique markets get in the rest of America, but that's not what I am saying. My point is that we as farriers need to be fair to ourselves. After all, shoeing horses is a business.
When I am given the opportunity to do so, I like to lecture about how farriers generally have a bad concept about the amount of money they make. Most farriers get in to a mode of what I call pocket rich, which is when they look in their pocket and, "Ta-Da!", there is money there, and if there's money there, it needs to be spent. But seriously, have you figured out lately what it costs you to shoe a horse? It's worth repeating, We each need to develop a formula to distinguish exactly how much money we take home. In this post, I want to begin to address supply cost and how much we as farriers invest in supplies. This dovetails into how sometimes we forget the little things that could eventually add up to be a considerable loss.
I'll begin with shoes. Now, keep in mind I am speaking of buying shoes by the pair and not in bulk. While I know that it is sometimes more advantageous to buy supplies in bulk, the farriers who would benefit most (farriers who are just starting out and don't have a foothold in their particular market) aren't necessarily in the financial position to do so, and one needs to be aware of how buying by the piece or pair affects their bottom line.
We'll start with the low end flat steel shoes for light horses (Warmblood on down), basic shoes with no toe weights, sliders or any other specialties. These shoes can cost anywhere from $3.85 to $4.05 a pair, $8.75 to $9.25 on the high end . If you're in a state with sales tax or if you have your supplies shipped to you, that needs to be calculated in your overall cost of the shoes as well. So, in my personal experience, on the lowest end of the shoe cost spectrum, I am going to buy 4 00 rim shoes at $3.85 a pair, and with tax the total amount for the shoes alone is $8.34. The most expensive shoe I'm going to buy is a 5 front with clips at $9.25 per pair. Hind shoes for such a horse are going to be around $8.75, so the total in shoes for this horse is going to be $19.75 (sales tax here is 9.75%). So at this point, before I buy nails or count wear and tear on my rasp, hand tools etc, or even drive to the horse, I am making a nearly $20.00 investment.
Now let's look at a performance horse. I'll use a reining horse for this example. On the low end, you might only need to spend the $3.85 a pair for the 00 rim shoes. Then again, depending on need, you may require an aluminum wedge or a Natural Balance shoe. The wedge shoe can cost between $8.00 and $12.00, depending on brand and vendor, with the NBS shoe costing as much as $18.00 retail . One inch sliding plates for this horse are going to be somewhere between $7.95 and $13.00, again depending on brand and vendor. So again, shoes alone, your investment in this type of horse is going to be between (less tax of course) $16.00 and $31.00.
The point here is that shoe cost, no matter where you live, is universal. The prices I quoted were derived from an average cost of 3 online vendors and what I pay at my local supply house. Through this process, I found that the prices for shoes were more or less much the same. Now I realize the cost of living varies dramatically throughout the country, but if a farrier is charging $80.00 to shoe the reining horse or the horse that wears the clipped 5's I mentioned, there is the chance that he or she is losing money by the time all is said and done.
I will be the first to admit that I understand that there is only so much a market will bear. You're not going to be able to charge what farriers in some metropolitan and boutique markets get in the rest of America, but that's not what I am saying. My point is that we as farriers need to be fair to ourselves. After all, shoeing horses is a business.
Labels: costs of shoeing a horse
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Great Blog!!!! I figure it cost me $60 just to get the Stonwell out the driveway every day..
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: August 22, 2010 at 3:25 PM
: August 22, 2010 at 3:25 PM Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
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