March 29, 2024

After Maytag, Foster launches second career as farrier

When Glen Foster lost his job at Maytag, he used it as an opportunity to explore another career path and is now the proud owner of Foster’s Farrier Service.

“I do farrier work. I work on horses feet,” Glen said. “I trim them up and put the shoes on them. I’ve been doing it six years this coming March. I like it. It’s fun, but sometimes it can be dangerous too. Sometimes horses act like misbehaved kids.”

Glen said he has been around horses for a long, long time and got the idea to start his business from a friend who use to trim his horses.

“I worked at Maytag for 23 years, and when they shut the doors down, I had a chance to go to school,” Glen said. “So I went up to Minnesota School of Horseshoeing, up in Ramsey, Minn. (It took) 10 weeks, but 10 weeks is never enough to learn what you need to learn.”

“I actually learned more since I’ve been out - not saying nothing bad about the school. The school is good,” he continued.

Being a former Maytag employee, Glen said he prided himself on being able to work quickly and efficiently, however, he found those same techniques didn’t apply to farrier work. He said he would get frustrated at times, but learned how to connect better with horses from a classmate who would take her time when dealing with the animals.

“I learned more from the horses than the instructors, not to make them sound bad,” Glen said. “Every horse is different, just like people. One size fits all (doesn’t apply). You can’t go ‘This is the way I do one’ and do them all that way. Everyone is an individual, and you have to treat them with a doctor patient type of thing.”

As he as gained experience over the last few years, Glen said he has gotten better at developing a rapport with the horses, which makes his job easier. He said he loves what he is doing, but admitted there are still challenges.

“Some days it’s really good, and there’s other days it’s not so good,” Glen said. “I been kicked and stepped on.”

Foster’s Farrier Service travels as far west as Des Moines, as far south as Knoxville, as far north as Marshalltown and as far east as Gilman. Glen may be contacted at (515) 669-7628.