Jess Adrian Farrier Service

09/06/2024

Ready to run to Casey's for me! Such a help. 😄😍

08/29/2024

Another perfect evening.

08/27/2024

This is not my child

08/24/2024

See you there tonight!!!

08/23/2024

Listening to open mic night at Winston's old bank from my fire pit. Y'all are good tonight! 😲

08/21/2024

This little man lives a life of luxury. 🤣

08/19/2024

Just about a full moon. Soaking in these last summer nights.

07/30/2024

Super quiet small town Monday night.

11/17/2023

Told AI to make me a picture of a girl with a bun on top of her head in overalls in front of a barn with animals watching while she shoes a horse.

Yeah, AI, the internets.... No body knows what that means.

But hey, while a little perplexing, the pics are cute. I like to imagine this is what I look like while working.

08/18/2023

Still alive. 🤣 loving the mom life, still working. Learning how to schedule for what is now my small multi-farrier practice, did I say loving the mom life? 😄💜
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12/24/2022

Wut. It's barely sinking in.
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#2022

12/12/2022

Hello!
There are so many of you new to my page I wanted to introduce myself!
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My name is Jess and I’m a farrier in central Illinois. I’ve been shoeing since 2014, started my business in 2016 (6 years on my own, wow!) My dog and I live on the edge of a small farming community and my hubby stays with us. (Just kidding, married to the love of my life and we have a dog child together). Porter is the truck dog and goes with me EVERYWHERE. I love traveling, hiking, and adventuring and am proud to have built a life that allows quite a bit of that. I’m a huge advocate of a life in the trades and building your dream life in a vocation you love. Stick around on this page to see our adventures together!
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I also own a small business called Happy Healthy Hoof. It started off as just a hoof cleaner for getting rid of and protecting against thrush but I have several other products in the pipeline right now including a book to hopefully come out later this year with everything I wish my clients knew about horse feet!
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I love Instagram and being able to share my knowledge as a farrier with all of you but also to start good conversations in the comments on how others do things and hopefully, we all learn a little something. I’ve also met some really cool people via this platform so I just feel really grateful for all of you on here who follow along.
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So, cheers to all of you, the OGs and the newbies, thanks for following my journey!

-Jess

08/22/2022

07/15/2022

Do y'all stay hydrated?? Especially in the summer I take care to drink at LEAST a gallon of water a day and I always do 1-2 servings of electrolyte mixes. This has been the biggest thing I've done to boost energy and performance and keep me feeling lighter and stronger under horses.
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I've tried a lot of different mixes in packets and in bottles that work great but I'm glad to have one from in a powder! It is so much less expensive than buying individual servings!
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If y'all want to purchase yours use my code JBAK10 to save 10% off your purchase. There is a link in my bio that will take you straight to the electrolytes on their website!
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Thank you so much to all of you who have used my link in the past!
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Stay hydrated my friends!
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07/15/2022

How long does it take to become a farrier?
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The horse shoeing trade is unregulated in the united states so education and certification are completely voluntary. There are one or two groups that are recognized as being the industry standard for certification, namely the American Farriers Association, and many different routes to learn the trade. School and apprenticeships are the route I went. Six months of school and a year and a half in two separate apprenticeships and I was ready to go and started taking clients.
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Looking back I see just how inexperienced I still was after 2 years. I knew so little. Haha. Every year you learn new things, get better, faster, more efficient and hopefully get paid accordingly.
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I have a video on YouTube (link in my bio) on how I became a farrier and what I recommend. Who would be interested in a course on how I went full time in my farrier business in 6 months??
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07/11/2022

I guess it's national farrier week! Happy week to all my fellow farriers and those thinking about joining the trade! It's a fantastic career to be in and I'm so grateful I found it.
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02/23/2022

Steady hands, strong back... Things to have if you're going to do things like hold hot metal against an animal and take a knife to their hoof and cut within a quarter inch of blood and leave him more comfortable than you found him. There's not a lot of room for error in what we do as farriers but plenty of opportunity for it. And often I think the single most detrimental thing to the quality of my work is being distracted by my own pain, which these days I have very little of.
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There's two main ways I keep my body feeling happy and healthy. First is to take Tylenol with my breakfast every morning when I don't feel like implementing option two. Option two is to do things throughout the week to optimize my health.
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The top three things I do throughout the week to keep feeling fresh are as follows:
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One, work out and stretch at least 3 times a week. I have a fantastic stretching routine that makes a world of difference.
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Second, I have a good chiropractor that I see a couple times a month or as needed. I can tell throughout the month when things are starting to tighten or I'm just not feeling as spry, but it doesn't work to wait until you cant stand up to go to the chiropractor, that's not the point.
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Third, I keep a good diet and don't eat crap on the road. High protein helps your body heal fast (a collagen supplement makes a noticeable difference as well) which keeps your body strong. And in general, aside from protein, I really believe you are what you eat. Bad food makes you feel bad, good food makes you feel good.
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I don't do any of these perfectly consistently but when I do I feel fantastic!
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02/22/2022

How I decided to become a full time farrier. Most asked question!
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So I think the most commonly asked question I get in real life is how I decided to become a farrier. The most common question I get on IG is specifically how to become one. This is my story and how I decided this was for me!
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In 2011 I graduated from high school and started taking a few college classes. I worked at a boarding barn managing the daily operations in the barn, I rode with and worked with several trainers, and also worked at an ice cream shop but that didn't play into my decision much. However, yum.
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I slowly weeded out a boarding or training facility of my own being a good career choice for me, and realized how much people-training was really involved in horse training. Also not for me. I entertained dog training as an option but I figured it would be similar in that you really have to train people, which as young as I was then I knew would not be my strong suit.
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I started entertaining the idea of learning the basics of trimming just for the understanding and experience, not as a career idea. This materialized when I was halfway through my degree in college and 20 years old in the summer of 2014. I signed up for a 2 week trimming course and after the two weeks was up I was hooked. I decided to extend my stay and finish the full 5 month course. I dropped out of college, moved in across from the school, and the rest is history!
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So I graduated the school, got certified a month later, stayed at the school to help out with the next class and then apprenticed several hours away. During this time my family moved from Illinois to South Dakota where my dad was from and I intended to join them post apprenticeship. As my apprenticeship came to an end I had determined that I really didn't want to start my business up with ranch horses in the middle of nowhere so I decided to stay in Illinois to start my business. And here we are.
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So now I live in central Illinois, I'm living life with , work full time as a farrier, and am building and running this page in the rest of my time.
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Thanks for reading! Have a fantastic day!
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