Just my thoughts, but no farrier in the Florissant area even comes close to making a decent living, they seem to be a dime a dozen here. Maybe he did hang at the rodeo's, and had them lining up, but here locally, most ranchers have sons or grandsons who are farriers to do their horses. No big dressage barns in the area either, a few trainers along the road to WP, but no big operations.
Starting salary for a flight instructor is $60,000 to $90,000 a year, imo, KB made way more money than him.
Barn is not high enough for an apartment, as you have the rafters right there, and with a 40 # snow load building code, they would probably be pretty close to each other. He probably lived in his old room, the one he had since he was 12. JMO