So you’ve had the new exercise book for 48 hours, written your horse’s name on the cover, attached a spanking new biro to it and placed it neatly on your desk. Unfortunately your horse has not improved at all and you are considering surfing the net to find a better blog!
Building a great equine partner is not unlike building a small business and requires many different ingredients to make it successful; your notebook being the first one of these, of course.
Michael E. Gerber’s E-Myth (Entrepreneur-Myth) model of what makes or breaks a small (or a large) business is equally applicable to building a great horse – safe, dependable, quiet, attentive, reliable, educated, sensible and above all a pleasure to be around.
Gerber’s model has 3 main ingredients 1) The Entrepreneur, 2) The Manager and 3) The Technician. You need to be all of these things to build your horse and each thing needs to be in balance. Buying the notebook is one of the roles of the manager.
The manager’s job is essential and keeps everything organised. Your notebook will keep track of all the exercises you do with your horse, the lessons you teach, the progress you make and also record how your horse learns – indicating what he finds easy, difficult, confusing and so on.
The manager, on his own, can’t build the business/horse. The Entrepreneur is required to provide direction, vision and goals. What do you want to do with your horse? What are you aiming for? Where do you see yourself with this horse in one month, six months and one year’s time. These are essential questions to ask yourself. The answers to these questions should be the first thing to go in your notebook.
The final ingredient is the technician. The technician is the worker – creating and carrying out the lessons that will take you and your horse to those goals you set.
I will talk more about the technician next time but in the meantime put your entrepreneur to work and start setting your goals and picturing you and your horse in the future. Awaken the manager within you to get these down on paper and, hey presto, you have a plan!
