Worked setups · Farriers
Yard visits by the half-day, a vet-first rule the agent enforces unprompted, and two horses on one booking.
Worked example: Tanner & Vale Farriery. A fictional two-farrier partnership in Wells, Somerset, working livery and private yards across the Mendips: shoeing, trims, foal trims and remedial shoeing with the vet. Every visit happens at the customer's yard, and every customer has more than one horse.
Proven in a full run on the live system on 4 September 2026. The businesses on these pages are fictional — worked configurations we built to run BLAM8 end to end on the live system, not customers. Every step described happened in the run it cites.
1 · The diary
A visit is one of a short menu of jobs of known length, so the diary runs per service. Two farriers usually work separate yards, so two visits can run at once (capacity 2), with a 30-minute drive between yards, 48 hours' notice and three months' horizon; Saturday is a morning only. The setup assistant proposed all of it from three questions, and told the customer a morning or an afternoon for every job at the yard — the owner manages the running order.
morning or afternoon
£95.
morning or afternoon
£70.
morning or afternoon
£35, or £30 each when three or more horses are trimmed at one yard on the same day.
morning or afternoon
£25. Under-twos are trimmed, never shod.
exact time
Every new client starts here: feet and conformation of every horse before any shoeing. The one exact-time visit.
morning or afternoon
From £140, quoted once the vet's notes are in — never booked without them.
Timing is what the customer is offered: an exact time for an appointment they come to; morning or afternoon for work at their address where you manage the hour; a whole day for a day-long job. The diary reserves the real length either way, so it can never double-book.
2 · Before a booking is made
Fourteen details, nine of them recommended by the setup assistant in the trade's own words and scoped per job — a vet question is only asked for remedial work, a horse history only on the first visit — plus the owner's own: current shoeing, handling notes, who holds the horse, and the passport as a document for the assessment only.
| Detail | Needed | How it's gathered | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Horse name | Required | Asked in the reply, or reused if already known | One per horse: each is its own record on the owner's card, named on the booking. |
| Yard name and address | Required | Asked in the reply, or reused if already known | Where the horses are kept — remembered on the customer record. |
| Contact number | Required | Asked in the reply, or reused if already known | |
| Is the horse currently lame? | Required | Asked in the reply, or reused if already known | The assistant's own idea: a yes triggers the vet-first rule. |
| Current shoeing | Required | Asked in the reply, or reused if already known | Shod all round, fronts only, or barefoot. |
| Horse age, breed and any known hoof or lameness history | Optional | Asked in the reply, or reused if already known | Only asked for a new-client assessment. |
| Vet name and practice | Required | Asked in the reply, or reused if already known | Only asked for remedial shoeing — remembered. |
| Has the vet been consulted about this shoeing? | Required | Asked in the reply, or reused if already known | Only for remedial shoeing; answered by the attached report. |
| Passport and vaccination record | Optional | As an attachment — a photo or scan | Only for the assessment, as an attachment — satisfied by a photo in the reply. |
| Temperament and handling notes | Optional | Asked in the reply, or reused if already known | Kicks, funny about the back feet, needs holding — remembered. |
| Who will hold the horse and yard access | Optional | Asked in the reply, or reused if already known | Gate codes, loose dogs, who's there. |
| Last shod or trimmed date | Optional | Asked in the reply, or reused if already known | Drives the six-to-eight-week cycle. |
The agent asks only for what is genuinely missing, never re-asks something already in the thread or on the customer's record, and refuses to book until every required detail is present. Documents are requested as attachments and their contents are never claimed as checked — a human reviews them.
3 · The CRM that fills itself
Plus Won and Lost. A contact quiet for 21 days is flagged for a nudge.
Yard address
Where the horses live — reused for every visit.
Horses kept
Each horse's name, age, type and whether it is shod.
Temperament notes
So the farrier knows before the horse does.
Vet practice
Remedial work goes through them first.
Extracted from the emails as they arrive, plus the contact's phone number. A returning customer is never asked for any of it again — by email or on the portal.
4 · What the agent knows
Eight notes. In the run the agent applied the assessment-first process and the vet-first rule without being asked, quoted the prices rather than deferring them, and one price note was reworded from the draft itself when it invented a 'regular customers' condition.
Full set of shoes £95; fronts only £70; trim £35 (£30 each when three or more horses are trimmed at the same yard on the same day); remedial or therapeutic shoeing from £140, quoted once we have the vet's notes; foal trim £25. Travel included within 20 miles of Wells, £1 a mile beyond.
A lame horse sees the vet before the farrier. No remedial work is booked without the vet's notes or a referral.
New clients get a yard visit and assessment first: every horse, feet and conformation, before the first shoeing.
Shoes every six to eight weeks, trims every eight to ten; the next visit is booked before leaving the yard and a reminder goes a week before it's due.
Horses under two years old are trimmed, never shod.
Payment on the day by card or transfer; livery yards on account with one monthly invoice on 14-day terms.
A horse must be held by a competent adult; never tied up unattended, and the farrier will leave a yard where that isn't possible.
The Mendips — Wells, Shepton Mallet, Glastonbury, Frome and the villages between; not Bristol or Bath.
5 · The journey we proved
The run on the live system on 4 September 2026, in order.
Customer
Emails as a new client: two horses just moved to a livery yard near Wells — a twelve-year-old cob shod all round and due, and a six-year-old mare who is barefoot and needs a trim. Any afternoon this week or next. What are your prices and what do you need from us?
BLAM8
Explains the assessment-first rule unprompted, quotes £95 and £35 with travel included, checks the diary and asks only for what the checklist still lacks — a contact number and whether either horse is lame — plus a preferred afternoon. Both horses land on the record from the one email.
Owner
Flags one line — the £30 trim rate had grown a 'regular customers' condition the notes never said. The assistant finds the note, rewrites it in place from the chat, and the draft regenerates with three afternoon slots reserved.
Customer
Monday afternoon please — with a phone number, 'neither is lame, though Murphy's a bit funny about his back feet', the gate code, a loose collie, and the passports attached as a photo.
BLAM8
Books Monday on the first try with every detail keyed under the business's own labels, the passport satisfied by the attachment without claiming to have read it. The reply is the confirmation: 'You're booked in for Monday 7 September, afternoon'.
Customer
Adds: Murphy has been a bit short on his near fore — could you look at remedial shoes on the same visit?
BLAM8
Applies the vet-first rule: nothing remedial is booked, the vet is asked to see him first, the assessment stands.
Customer
Sends the vet's report from Mendip Equine — bar shoes on the fronts, can you book that in?
BLAM8
Offers three half-day windows for remedial shoeing with the vet practice keyed, the price 'from £140, confirmed once the notes are reviewed', and the report received rather than read.
Customer
Opens the portal with the reference from the email footer: anything still needed? Then picks Monday afternoon for the remedial work, and asks for both horses' next visit about six weeks on, any morning.
BLAM8
Answers from the promise ledger, books the remedial slot into the same afternoon as the assessment with a confirmation email, and books the October visit for both horses with no questions — everything was on file.
Owner
Sends a quote for the remedial shoeing with optional pads and a 25% deposit; the customer unticks the pads and accepts by typing their name.
BLAM8
Raises the 25% deposit invoice and emails it with the bank details within seconds. Money shows the balance still to invoice, net of the deposit.
What this run showed us we still owe this trade
Built since · 4 September 2026 — Dependants: you name what your bookings are about — horses — and what to know about each one: asked once, confirmed each time, or an expiry that can hold a booking back. Every horse is its own record on the owner's card, filled from their emails and chats; a booking names the horses it's for.
Built since · 4 September 2026 — Standing bookings repeat every six weeks or once a quarter as well.
Built since · 4 September 2026 — A short question finds the note that holds the words: 'trim price?' → £35, and £30 each for three or more at one yard.
Built since · 4 September 2026 — It reads like the quote page it follows: your header, the lines, the total, the due date, and the bank details with the reference in bold.
Built since · 4 September 2026 — Documents on the record: a file that comes with an email is kept on the owner's card, labelled as the checklist document it satisfies, pinned to the horse or the booking, open in a click.
Connect your mailbox and tell the setup assistant what you do. It proposes the diary, the services, the checklist and the pipeline for you to confirm — nothing is saved until you press Save. Free 14-day pilot, no card.
BLAM8 assistant