Tool Pilots Use to Save Lives Can Help You Run Your Horse Business

By: Doug Emerson, The Profitable Horseman

Good daily habits keep order in the potentially chaotic life of a horse business owner.  These are habits like arriving for work on time, experimenting with different ways to get things done, and remaining calm when communicating with upset customers.

You developed good habits in your childhood; some may have saved your life. Examples are: looking both ways before crossing a street, fastening your seat belt in a car, and wearing a life jacket in a small boat. While habits keep you in good form most of the time, as an instructor, distraction will often disrupt the routine of habit and consequently provide the opportunity for disaster.

You’ll probably agree that your mind, once interrupted, has a hard time picking up where it left off prior to the interruption. How many times have you or others said after an interruption of conversation, “Now what was I talking about before…?”

You may be surprised, but the aviation industry is responsible for a tool that can make all jobs, including that of professional horseman, easier and safer.

Here’s the story: In 1935, Boeing’s B-17 bomber aircraft was being demonstrated for a huge government purchase contract at an airport. Its four large engines roared as the plane climbed into the sky in front of the officials responsible for the government purchase decision.

Shortly after takeoff, the plane suddenly crashed killing three and injuring others. Investigation concluded the seasoned pilot had not released an elevator lock switch while on the runway. Pilot error by an experienced, capable aviator had almost certainly signaled the failure of the sale of the new bomber.

But, due to a group of forward thinking and problem solving pilots and engineers, the B-17 aircraft survived to be the most powerful weapon in the WWII air war. The production contract for thousands of B-17’s is a result of a tool developed following the first  B-17 crash to maximize safety. You know the tool as “The Pilot Checklist.”

Checklists are not exclusive to pilots; they’re now used in all industries everywhere. A surgeon, Atul Gawande, M.D., wrote a book titled The Checklist Manifesto about the power of checklists and how he pioneered using checklists in operating rooms.

Surgeons and support staff decreased errors significantly. While surgery includes many complex procedures, the simple stuff, like failing to count sponges before and after surgery, is often where trouble starts. Potential problems are easily avoided with a checklist.

Gawande believes checklists are appropriate for everything. Me too.

Here are some ideas for checklists you can create that will keep your business running smoothly:

• New riding student intake: contact information, present riding skill assessment, special health conditions, lesson goals
• New boarder: Contact information, horse health history, present weight and body score, vices, feeding history
• Training client: Owner’s goals for training and expectations, health information, weekly training plan for next 4 weeks
• Emergency checklists: Human injury, equine injury, fire, natural disaster
• Feeding checklist: Morning and evening feeding schedules for hay, grain and supplements, water check, restocking bins, clean-up
• Equine medical care: required medicines and wound treatment, leg wrap, bandage change, hand walk and exercise requirements
• Horse show: tack, medical kit, feed, water buckets, trailer hook up checklist, clothing, tools
• Barn daily open and close: doors and windows, lights, sweep up, stall check, water freeze protection, security system
• Manure handling: Empty wheel barrows, tools back to storage, broom clean aisle ways, manure spread or piled in designated area
• Bookkeeping: Daily lesson sales sheets recorded or posted on computer, cash and check payments collected and placed in secure spot, farm purchases invoices and packing lists collected and place in designated spot for data entry

It’s easy to overlook routine when distracted by situations that require immediate attention. Steps get skipped and problems result. Checklists will keep everyone reminded of the important items in a process.

Keep checklists short! They are not how-to manuals and, if over a page long, the effectiveness diminishes. Ideally, a checklist fits on 3” X 5” index card and serves as a shorthand note to avoid missing steps.

Granted, you’re not performing intricate brain surgery or flying a high tech fighter in your daily work. However, you’re in charge of the safety and well-being of your clients and the horses under your care, and that is a weighty responsibility. Additionally, you manage the operation of a business expected to deliver quality service and earn a reasonable profit. Checklists are the perfect tools for meeting those expectations.

Doug Emerson helps professional horsemen struggling with the business half of the horse business.

Visit his website:  www.ProfitableHorseman.com for more articles like this one and to subscribe to his free electronic newsletter about being profitable in the horse business.