01/08/2024
Lessons learned long and hard in the horse business as a barn owner..
1. It's easy to fall in love with your customers. They become a family who you spend a lot of time with. However, in the end they will do what's best for themselves. And, for you and them, those paths may not be the same. Prepare to get your heart broken. Keep business and personal relationships separate.
2. People will not always trust in your experience and will second guess you. They will think they know better because they read it in a book, or saw it online. Don't try to be all things to all people. Do what you are good at. Run your barn in a way that you can sleep at night knowing that you did right in your mind by them and their horses. The clients opinion of that may be different than your beliefs, but you have to live with choices that leave you at peace. That may mean confrontation, hard conversations and even asking people to move on for your own peace.
3. Horses are easy 99% of the time. It's the people who come with them that make things complicated.
4. Remember that horses need to be horses.
5. People will always judge you, and have opinions. The better you are, the more haters will have opinions.
6. Success isn't measured by ribbons and show placings. It's measured in happy animals and the quality of their lives.
7. There is always an exception or quirk that doesn't " follow the rules" in horse care. Do what works, not what the books say works.
8. When you get annoyed by seeing somebody's car pull in to the barn, it's time to let that person move on. Your barn should be a happy place. It literally only takes one bad sour apple to ruin the whole atmosphere and dynamic in a barn.
9. Let it go.... if someone moves on don't be upset by it. Ignore what they say. Don't take it personally. Every barn is not a good fit for every person.
10. This is a business. If a person or horse isn't working for you, or the compensation isn't offsetting your cost, it's time for them to go.