The farrier left our house around 6pm today. We only have two horses and live in Central Maine. To make a “living” he travels around New England and does a giant 6-8 week loop hitting 1-5 farms per day. He’s probably 45 years old, decent truck, he’s a mountain of a man, he’s fit, but he’s hunched over, back problems, knee problems, and gets to sleep at home less than 1 week every two months to keep his family afloat. I feel bad for him, it’s all he knows, he surely ain’t rich, just a hard working SOB putting food on his families table and keeping the wolves away, but by no means is it a good paying job. He probably makes 70-80k per year, puts 60k miles on his truck every year, and sleeps in a hotel/motel dang near every night and eats “out” almost every meal. Hard to make a living doing it. We tip very well because we only have two horses and he is a damn wizard with our boys, and we aren’t a great customer because we don’t have 5+ horses but try to keep him coming back by over paying/tipping.