A Letter To My Clients...

Dear Clients,

I love taking care of horse’s hooves and seeing my clients have success with their barefoot horses in different venues. For years, I have stayed injury free and haven’t had any physical limitations to helping you with your horse’s hooves. However, I recently received a whiplash type injury that I have been very slow to recover from and with a full client load, I have been unable to set aside time to heal. I believe everything happens for a reason, and I think I have to cut back on my work load. I am really sorry, I love each of you dearly and I hate to do this, but I want to continue trimming for years, and I am afraid at my current workload, I will not be able to. Because of my injuries, I cannot trim more than six horses a day, no draft horses, and no miniature horses. I am sorry.
Ideally, I should cut back on the over all number of horses that I trim. I cannot decide who – I love you all - so I am letting you, the clients, decide. I am going to raise my prices starting June 1. The prices will be as follows:
Maintenance Trim (Under 6 weeks or longer with client trimming) - $70
Overdue Trim (7 week plus without client trimming) - $85
New horse initial trim - $100 – includes shoe removal and boot fitting
Thanks to the price of gas, I also need to charge a travel fee. The schedule is as follows:
Cool/Pilot Hill/Greenwood/Georgetown – No Charge!!
Cool Staging Area/ Cronin Ranch – No Charge!!
Coloma/Kelsey/Auburn Area - $10 per location
Placerville North of 50 - $15 per location
Placerville South of 50 - $25 per location
Loomis/Applegate - $25 per location\
These charges apply to horses in a specific location, so the more horses in one location, you can divide the travel charge up to lower the per horse charge. If I trim in a neighborhood where everyone is close, like Arrowbee or Luneman, then I will split the charge between neighbors. Also, feel free to trailer your horse to Cool or Cronin for me to trim there if you would like to avoid the trip charge and get a trail ride in as well.
I will be offering training clinics to help my clients learn how to trim in between my visits. Someone must trim every 3 to 4 weeks with a rasp – I can tell this the way a dentist can tell if you have flossed. That should empower to you learn more about your horse’s hooves while lowering the affect of my price increase on your budget. If you are interested in this, the pre-requisite reading is: Making Natural Hoof Care Work for You by Pete Ramey. Also, his DVD set is outstanding and can be purchased at www.hoofrehab.com . Totally worth the money if you are serious about maintaining your horse’s hooves. Please let me know if you are interested. For tools, purchase a new rasp with a rasp handle, a loop knife or hoof knife, gloves, and a hoof jack. You should not need nippers if you trim every 3 weeks or so.
The month of July will be a recuperating month for me, so please take this opportunity to practice trimming on your horse, or make other arrangements for hoof care. In July, I will not be trimming, but I will be riding the Pacific Crest Trail and the Tahoe Rim Trail. I am also in the Extreme Mustang Makeover and will be working with a wild horse. I am offering coaching sessions for horses and their owners and I am now taking in horses for starting and trail training.
I would love to be able to refer someone to you for trimming, but I cannot. You have quite a bit of knowledge yourself from listening to me trim, the reading you have done on your own, and the questions you ask, and I have faith that you will be able to care for your horses hooves in between my visits.
Warmest Regards,
Tracy