04/01/2022
This!
I recently saw a video posted by For Farriers By Farriers with a really cool story attached. I'm not sure how true it is, but I'll paraphrase it here.
Pablo Picasso was having a drink at a cafe one day when a woman recognized him. She approached him and asked if he was really the famous artist Picasso; when he nodded that yes, he was, she handed him a pencil and napkin and insisted he do a quick sketch for her.
After a few minutes of drawing, he handed the napkin back to her, asking for a large sum of money for the sketch. The woman was shocked, and asked him how he could charge so much for something that took him 5 minutes.
Picasso replied, "My dear, you're wrong. It took me 40 years to be able to do this in 5 minutes. If it was simply a matter of a pencil, a napkin, and 5 minutes, you would have done the sketch yourself."
With recent talks of hoofcare pricing, I think the conversation needs to shift away from simply a matter of time, tools, and materials. We need to consider the years of work, perspective, and experience it takes to get to that point. Often, 10% of what you pay is for what is removed from the hoof, and the other 90% of what you pay is for the experience and knowledge of recognizing what to leave where, and why.
