Open roles / Sleepy Hollow Smithy
Farrier
Role description
Every horse in the valley needs shoeing, from Van Tassel's fine carriage-team to Van Ripper's sorry Gunpowder. You shoe them — at the forge and out on the farms.
The work
- Trim, fit, and set shoes at the smithy and on farm calls.
- Judge hoof ailments and say plainly what can and cannot be saved.
- Keep your own appointment book.
- Share forge time with the smith without holding up his queue.
Context
- Reports to the blacksmith.
- Hybrid by trade: forge work and farm calls, roughly half and half.
- Pay is £30–42 New York currency per annum (~$75–105 in silver dollars), piece-rate above the day-wage.
- Gunpowder will personally examine any claim of a gentle way with nervous animals.
Recorded in the parish register of Sleepy Hollow, autumn of 1799.
What they're looking for
- A gentle way with nervous animals — worth more than brute strength here.
- Sound judgment on hoof ailments.
- Has shod difficult horses without incident.
Not a fit if you would rather stay at the forge and never ride out to a farm.
Organization description
Forge and farriery at the bend in the road — the only smithy in the hollow, so every horse, hinge, and ploughshare in the valley comes through our doors.
Who we are
A master smith plus two at the anvils. The book is full weeks ahead and we turn away nothing with four legs or made of iron.
How we work
Piece-rate above the day-wage: good work is visible here, and rewarded. The queue is set at the forge, not by the customers, and no shortcuts are taken on wagon-tires — lives ride on them.
Who thrives here
Anyone who wants their work judged by what comes off the anvil, and who can keep a weeks-long waiting list moving without spoiling a job.
Recorded in the parish register of Sleepy Hollow, autumn of 1799.