« On se fait mal un peu tous les jours » , l'effet travailleur sain chez les maréchaux-ferrants

This article explores the health issue of self-employed people. Statistics show that their health seems to be better than that of employees, all things being equal. This relative advantage is interpreted here as the result of a selection process related to the healthy worker effect. This hypothesis is successfully tested on the particular case of farriers, by mobilizing techniques of semi-directive interviews, participant observation, as well as by using some data from a survey by questionnaires from 356 individuals in training. Stating the result of large surveys with a qualitative approach, the author identifies some social processes that amplify or attenuate the healthy worker effect. At each stage of the farriers? career, health selection takes different forms involving professional ethos, the distribution of strenuousness, the lifestyle and the ability to retrain. The healthy worker effect is, however, mitigated by the existence of an informal working group.