---
title: "Farrier"
description: "A skilled tradesperson who trims horses' hooves and forges, shapes and fits horseshoes, often working with veterinarians on lameness and therapeutic…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/farrier"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Farrier

**Category:** Personal Care and Service · **SOC code:** 39-2021 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 39-2021.00

A skilled tradesperson who trims horses' hooves and forges, shapes and fits horseshoes, often working with veterinarians on lameness and therapeutic shoeing.

Also advertised as: Horseshoer; Certified Farrier; Certified Journeyman Farrier; Equine Hoof Care Specialist; Race Plater.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $35,360 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $17.00/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $27,250 to $50,060, with the middle half between $29,820 and $40,050
- **Total US employment:** 266,910
- **Typical entry education:** High school
- **Preparation required:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +12.1% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 62,800 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 56/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 266,910 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $27,250 |
| 25th | $29,820 |
| 50th (median) | $35,360 |
| 75th | $40,050 |
| 90th | $50,060 |
| Mean (average) | $37,300 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| DC | $44,210 | $40,227 | 460 |
| WA | $40,570 | $37,911 | 6,620 |
| HI | $40,130 | $36,498 | 570 |
| MA | $39,650 | $37,492 | 6,900 |
| CA | $38,700 | $34,953 | 25,710 |
| AZ | $38,180 | $37,923 | 6,330 |
| NY | $37,840 | $35,063 | 12,470 |
| CO | $37,430 | $36,321 | 6,290 |
| CT | $37,310 | $36,010 | 3,000 |
| ME | $37,230 | $38,362 | 1,430 |
| RI | $37,120 | $36,293 | 1,020 |
| MD | $36,780 | $35,042 | 5,570 |
| AK | $36,640 | $35,796 | 550 |
| OR | $36,580 | $35,391 | 3,470 |
| MN | $36,430 | $36,939 | 4,250 |

38 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 53 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/farrier/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/farrier.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 365,300 in the 2025–2035 base year to 409,400 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 44,100 jobs, or +12.1%. Much faster than average: 12.1% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 62,800 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** High school diploma or equivalent (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Short-term on-the-job training.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 63.6% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 13.6% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 13.4% |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 9.5% |

## What the work involves

- Assess hoof balance, conformation and gait
- Remove old shoes and trim and balance hooves
- Forge, shape and fit horseshoes
- Make therapeutic shoes on veterinary recommendation
- Nail or glue shoes and finish hoof walls
- Advise owners on hoof care and shoeing schedules
- Manage appointments, routes and business accounts

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Monitoring — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 2.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Coordination — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 2.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Analysis — importance 2.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administrative — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Psychology — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Information Ordering — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Static Strength — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Realistic (R), Social (S), Investigative (I).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| R — Realistic | 6.17 |
| S — Social | 3.75 |
| I — Investigative | 3.60 |
| C — Conventional | 3.25 |
| E — Enterprising | 2.55 |
| A — Artistic | 1.63 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ISTJ | 79.5 |
| ISFJ | 71.7 |
| ISTP | 69.8 |
| ESTJ | 68.8 |
| ESTP | 59.0 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Animal Caretaker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/animal-caretaker) — median $35,360
- [Veterinary Assistant and Laboratory Animal Caretaker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/veterinary-assistant-and-laboratory-animal-caretaker) — median $38,150
- [Animal Trainer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/animal-trainer) — median $39,990
- [Animal Breeder](https://nuecareer.com/careers/animal-breeder) — median $51,130
- [Veterinary Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/veterinary-technician) — median $47,380
- [Animal Control Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/animal-control-worker) — median $45,660
- [Farmworker, Farm, Ranch, and Aquacultural Animal](https://nuecareer.com/careers/farmworker-farm-ranch-and-aquacultural-animal) — median $36,670
- [Personal Care Aide](https://nuecareer.com/careers/personal-care-aide) — median $35,800
- [Childcare Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/childcare-worker) — median $34,980
- [Home Health Aide](https://nuecareer.com/careers/home-health-aide) — median $35,800

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/farrier