Have you ever watched an amateur start to paint a barn? It goes like this:
1. Raise ladder into position on barn siding
2. Return to garage to get forgotten screwdriver to open paint can
3. Remove lid and return to garage to get rag to wipe spilled paint on
side of can
4. Climb up ladder with full can of paint and brush
5. Climb down ladder with almost full can of paint to find hook
to hang can on ladder
6. After climbing back up ladder and finding loose paint, back down
again to locate scraper and putty knife
You get the idea and perhaps have had the exact experience. Lack of tools for a job makes for a very long and unremarkable day at work.
Most likely you’ve watched people at work in various trades. They all carry their tools for the job in a tool belt or at finger tip reach. Electricians, roofers, and siding installers often work on ladders and learned it’s far easier to carry the common tools in a belt than make trip after trip down and back up a ladder for forgotten tools.
Your farrier probably carries a hoof knife in his apron and you can be sure his tools are positioned in a shoeing box less than an arm’s length away. When you’re bent over holding a heavy hoof in hand, happiness is efficiency to reduce wasted time and avoid unnecessary expenditure of energy.
Surprisingly, in jobs that aren’t skilled trades, I often see workers carrying only a few tools to help them through the day. Examples are: a construction laborer who operates a wheel barrow for eight hours in light rain without the benefit of a set of gloves or rain gear. Or an office worker who shows up for a meeting without a pen or notepad. Or a salesperson who never has a business card or a pen to write up a sale.
Employees in horse businesses are guilty of coming to work without their tool belts as frequently as any other industry. If a person works hands-on with horses daily, her tool belt may include: a pocket knife sharp enough to cut leather or a lead line in an emergency, pen, note pad, gloves, a watch or cell phone to know what time it is and always a belt to peel off quickly to wrap around the neck of a loose unhaltered horse.
Managers and business owners who try to navigate through their days without the benefit of their own personal tools within easy reach complain about their lack of productivity and blame everyone and every thing except themselves.
Their “tool belts” should include: planner (electronic or paper based) cell phone, pen and notepad, business cards and the forms and documents they need for the day.
I’m not suggesting they need to have these tools strapped on their bodies like a handyman, but it’s silly not to have them close by and easily accessible.
There is no need to make any more amateur trips up and down your occupational ladder. If you’re a professional horseman, show up for work each day with the tools to perform like one.