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Why are horsey professionals SO bad at communication?

Off Course
#21

Horse professionals have often been life-long horse people… meaning many have always been able to make their own schedule and change it last minute. Even if they’ve worked for someone else and worked all day every day they still had much more freedom to organize their day as they wish than someone with a more traditional job.

The horse world also has somehow accepted “no response is a response” to an extreme level. That drives me insane. It’s one thing to not call back a new customer if you’re okay losing the business but it’s really never appropriate with someone you have an ongoing relationship with.

2 Likes
#22

It’s not just horse people. Case in point, try selling something on FB Marketplace or Craigslist.

Our communication skills have gone to shyte.

Having said that, I’ve found when I’m really wanting to schedule with anyone, I’ll say something like “I need to hear from you by X date if any of these dates or times work for you. If I don’t I’ll assume you’re booked for the foreseeable future.” Then I give several dates/ times that are free for me. If I hear back great, if not, then I know they’re not interested in pursuing it further. AND I can then use those openings for other things going on.

It makes me crazy too, but if you don’t give parameters by which you need to hear from someone, then you can’t be too upset not to hear back…

… as I sit here having wasted a day waiting on a painter who said he’d be here after he finished his morning job :wink:
Pffft! TOTALLY my bad for not saying “Hey, Joe. If your’e not here by 10 a.m., then we’ll do it another day.”

1 Like
#23

Oh my gosh! I have been thinking the same thing for a while! I have been riding/showing for 16 years and I have often noticed how unprofessional people working in the equine industry can be. I have ridden under a few trainers, and many trainers I meet often talk about how little money they make in the industry, how they can’t sell this horse, etc. but then I watch those SAME TRAINERS continuously decide to purge all their boarders, not make an actual effort to sell the horse beyond word of mouth or one poor ad here or there, and can’t hold unto new students to save their lives (constantly cancel lessons, won’t follow up, poor communication in general).

I took some time off from lessons (about 8 months) while I was working on graduating college and finding a job. Once I found a decent paying job, I was SO excited to take lessons again. First, I texted my previous trainer before (who knew I was taking a hiatus from riding to graduate). Crickets. Which whatever, I knew that would happen.

Took a few lessons with another trainer and rode maybe 3 times in 2 months due to constant cancelling of lessons for various reasons, to the point where I was so fed up with how poor communication was, and just found another trainer.

I used to feel so bad, but then I realize, you have to do what is best for you, even if it means dropping someone.

1 Like
#24

This. ^^^^

By my math, with the proper facility and market, a horse trainer/instructor who is active and has a good market for clients should be able to make a decent living. The arrangement for the facility, and the local market, are key. If higher-value horses are bought & sold they have the potential to do quite well. If those things are in place, the money could be pretty good – IF they do it in a businesslike and professional way.

Seems that is a big “IF”. Many horse professionals don’t have other business experience, learn the horse business from other people who aren’t that business-like about it, and just don’t get it right.

That’s been my experience as well having been behind the scenes a bit with several lifelong pro trainers. Communications and scheduling are the things they seem to struggle with the most, and too many don’t even recognize that those things are their biggest issues. But those are things that are critical components in almost every business, so the horse industry is not unique.

#25

Agreed OverandOnward! It seems like a lot of trainers are good at the horse aspect of the job, but not the business side of it. At the end of the day, the equine industry is a customer based industry, and I see so many trainers who lack the communication, people skills, and business skills to thrive the way they should be!

#26

Totally get the frustration, but agree that unresponsive contractors are either

  1. not looking for new business at this time, or
  2. disorganized / incompetent and not a contractor you want to hitch your wagon to

When you <general You> send multiple unanswered requests, it’s not the contractor who’s wasting your time. Entirely up to us to put a value on our own time and behave accordingly.

2 Likes
#27

I’ve been on both sides and have seen a variety of reasons for poor business practices from horse service providers -”‹”‹”‹

  • No experience with non-horse professional settings, literally don’t realize that what they’re doing wouldn’t fly elsewhere
  • Complete disinterest in (or even dread of) numbers, math, budgeting, billing, but no one else to take care of it
  • Never enough time in their day so business stuff is perceived as less important than getting another horse ridden/shod/whatever
  • Lots of people in the industry, pro or customer, are flaky, so efforts to act professionally don’t matter (so so many people fail to show up)
  • Little cash to support staff, or modern billing software, or online payments (may very well pay for themselves but gotta invest up front)

It’s a hard business and I respect that everyone does what they think works for them. But I agree that it’s crazy-making sometimes!

3 Likes
#28

It has taken me forever to figure this one out, but I have come to the conclusion that “what starts out bad, ends bad.” People that don’t respond or are sketchy at the beginning, stay that way. If you are chasing them now, things will not get better down the road and they will magically see the error of their ways and start getting back to you. Move on. I realize that she might be good, but no one works miracles. What she does, someone else does as well. You will only drive yourself crazy trying to get this person out to see your horse and even if she starts treatment, what are the chances that she will follow up if need be and you will complete a course of treatment without incident?
It has taken me a long time to come to this conclusion and stop trying to make a situation work out that isn’t going to. If possible, it can even get worse after the other party has your money. Now they really don’t have any incentive to return your calls.

2 Likes
#29

In my experience the pros who are best at communications, particularly with regard to things like scheduling lessons, cancellations, locking in times for vet and farrier appointments, etc. seem to have a dedicated “office person” who takes care of those functions (often a spouse!) while the trainer is busy outdoors teaching, training, doing the hands-on of running the barn. No different from plumbers and tree surgeons!

Many amateurs have “office-based” careers where everyone is expected to be “linked-in” and reachable 24/7; even to answering e-mails in the middle of the night, and it’s hard for them to understand that not everyone needs, or even wants, “constant connectivity.” Many lesson clients consider it seriously unacceptable for their lesson to be interrupted with anything less than full-on emergency phone calls; and it’s generally uncessary to take such. Unless the barn’s on fire, there are few text messages that can’t wait half an hour or 45 minutes; particularly when one is teaching, setting fences, or trying to lead a brace of horses up to the barn in a thunderstorm.

A lot of older trainers are not “tech” oriented at all, pick up e-mails once in 24 hours if you’re lucky unless they have “office help,” and have active resistance to ideas like constantly sending people pictures of their horse absent a serious problem.

Talk to your trainer and find out what their preferred way is to communicate and get a quick answer; then don’t abuse it.

#30

Excellent points.

At some point it isn’t about the other party. It is about the choices we ourselves are making. We have to accept accountability for creating some of our own problems.

#31

One of the biggest problems I have with people in the horse business who are excusing their poor business practices and their struggles to keep their business financially viable is the claim that “the horse business is different”.

No it isn’t, and that attitude is their biggest, most fundamental problem. The basics of good business practice have been in use literally throughout civilization, for thousands of years. It is because those basics not only make business easier, but they avoid the pitfalls that are the common lot of any business, from money to production to finding & keeping good customers & suppliers.

If we could go back to ancient communities as cities were forming and people were starting to exchange goods & services for other goods & services, we would find people dealing with the same basic issues and coming to the same general conclusions about what they need to do to make it sustainable and worthwhile. Think of business basics and best practices as the business version of Xenophon. :slight_smile:

1 Like
#32

My previous farrier has been with my horse for 3 years, love his work. When I bought her, I moved farms but was only down the street. The farrier was getting too busy but said he had no problem coming to me because I was on his way home. Well, middle of the winter, I got ghosted. I am use to not getting responses right away but after 2 weeks of trying, and my horse being over due, I had to use barn farrier who was meh.
I still respect his work and him, as a person. However, if you are too busy for a client, say something. Leaving my horse’s overdue, waiting for a response was so frustrating.
Anyways, the farm I bought her from, who this farrier stills works for, recommended another one for me. My current farrier is fabulous, gives me great updates and schedules appointments before I even realize its time.
I get being busy and if your client list is getting too big, but that is why communication is important. I would not be recommending my previous farrier, not for his work, but because he thought it was okay to ghost a client (Not that I would as I like to give positive recommendations).

#33

all the farriers we use(d) have a calendar book with them, we set the next appointment at the conclusion of the current visit… these are people who cover a lot of ground and need to coordinate visits in relationship to others

1 Like
#34

Yes which I think works great! My current one actually lives in a complete different area but has a consistent set of clients in my area that he is happy to drive for. This makes scheduling imperfect and sometimes notified the day before, but was always on time for when she needed her feet done. I am fortunate that he is willing to grab her or my barn will for no charge if I can’t make it in the short notice.

#35

Ugh yes! Unbelievable! Although I work in cardiac ultrasound and the number of people who don’t show up or are more than 15 minutes late for appointments is mind boggling to me as well (and yes they get charged for wasting our time, and they are well aware of this in advance).

My mom recently fired a new farrier for not showing up twice without letting her know, and trust me he needed the business, he’s new to the area.

I’ve had two instances where I even had to spend weeks hunting people down so I could pay them! One of them I eventually just did a rough estimate because she wouldn’t give me a bill. I knew she’d be at a show that I was going to so I found her, handed her cash, and said I’m done with this.
The other was a temporary farrier. Over a period of two months I called several times, emailed, and even sent a letter via snail mail. He never got back to me so I got a free shoeing (4 shoes and equipak).

#36

With horse people you can get

  1. Excellent horse skills
  2. Excellent people and business skills.
  3. Both horse and business skills in one package.
  4. Neither horse or business skills

The folks in #3 category go to the top of their profession. The folks in #4 fade out quickly.

I did make a conscious choice to stick with some horse pros who were off the charts in horse skills, but absolutely hopeless in business skills, and therefore available for a random budget re-rider. Their lack of business skills strands them in a fairly marginal position but I have learned so much. I haven’t regretted this yet. I recognized very early on that they couldn’t really change and I enjoy their many good points and work around the deficits.

I’d rather deal with a horse person who has strong horse skills but bad time management (probably due to multiple TBIs, not sure if we mentioned that yet) than a super efficient mediocre trainer or trimmer or body worker.

I’m at the lower end of nice horses in self board, very DIY, even learned to rasp hooves! If I was in a top dollar full service place I’d want more on the service end of things.

#37

apparently not as it appears many of the poster still use number 4

1 Like
#38

That’s true.

1 Like

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