The Tool of all Tools: Communication for Equine Care Pros
Businesses that communicate well make more money, build more loyalty, and fix small problems before they become expensive problems. Noble Farriery COO Sarah Caples-Noble explains what it takes.
If there’s one thing horse people love more than horses, it’s independence. This is why so many of them run their own businesses, work as freelancers, or otherwise construct lives where no one can tell them what to do.
And yet, paradoxically, the horse world is also built on an endless web of interdependence. Horses themselves evolved this way in the wild, and so did we primates, but in our modern age it gets even more technical — from the specialized care of vets and farriers, to the structure and activity set by barn managers and trainers.
This is where things get tricky. Because while the horse industry is full of wildly capable, independent, and competent people, it is also full of people who would rather muck stalls than sit down for a structured conversation about workplace culture or the differences in their way of doing things across disciplines.
For equine care businesses with employees, getting past this tendency is critical. Without good communication, your business isn’t just at risk of becoming dysfunctional—it’s at risk of becoming a bigger mess than those stalls you’d rather be mucking.
The Myth of “Just Do Your Job”
Many horse professionals believe in the fantasy that if everyone would just “do their job,” there wouldn’t be any problems. This is adorable. Because, as it turns out, people are not robots. They come with expectations, misunderstandings, bad moods, personal histories, and—most crucially—varying levels of motivation and ability to handle conflict.
There’s not much one can do with someone who simply has no work ethic or passion for what they do. That’s not something you can teach, and the sooner you recognize which employees have which mindset, the better. What’s at work there is a lack of grit and empathy, and no amount of modeling that work ethic will make a difference until they see it is in their self-interest to develop that part of themselves. Unfortunately, you can’t get them there. We each have different levels of self indulgence we are willing to entertain, as well as different reasons to be disciplined. As a boss or manager, you can’t control this aspect of a person’s character. You can only hire slow to asses a good hire, and fire fast once you learn that a bad hire won’t change just because you asked them to. If you get caught up in the idea that you can teach or demand this part of a persons character, you will waste a lot of time and money, while feeling demoralized along the way.
“No matter how skilled someone is at their actual job, if an employee can’t handle conflict productively, they will be a liability to your business. ”
We can, however, model and teach healthy conflict resolution, just like we model and teach good horsemanship. It’s the human equivalent, and it is important to catch early on when an employee is lacking in either attribute.
No matter how skilled someone is at their actual job, if an employee can’t handle conflict productively, they will be a liability to your business. There is no faster way to tank morale, alienate good employees, and watch your bottom line suffer than allowing unresolved conflict to fester. Some will be willing to learn conflict-resolution skills, and others need to mosey along. To properly determine who is who, we need to be strong in our own ability to see conflict as inevitable but solvable — sometimes advantageous.
Why Conflict Is Not the Enemy
People fear conflict for the same reason they fear quicksand: they assume that once they step in it, they’ll never get out. But healthy conflict—the kind that moves a team forward instead of grinding it to a halt—is not just necessary, it’s a competitive advantage for any business, but especially in equine care, which is so physically and emotionally demanding that people tend to tolerate bad behavior and attitude more than they should. Clients and other members of an equine care team take note when they work with a company whose employees know better.
Conflict, when handled well, forces growth. It clarifies expectations. It strengthens relationships. It ensures that your best people stay instead of quitting in frustration because no one is willing to address the obvious problems.
We always say at Noble Farriery that there is no such thing as a bad horse. There are only horses who have been frightened, confused, or made to feel unsafe. A horse does not wake up one morning and decide to be “difficult.” They respond to the world they are given. And when they respond in ways we don’t like—rearing, bolting, refusing—it is always because something in their environment, their training, or their past experiences has told them that their only option is to resist.
Horses, in short, are the perfect mirror for humans. Because when good employees start to “act out,” it is usually for the exact same reason. They feel unheard. Unsafe. Uncertain. And just like with horses, the answer is never more control. The answer is usually better communication.
How to Build a Work Culture That Doesn’t Implode
Good communication in the horse industry does not mean holding hands and singing campfire songs. It means establishing clear expectations, holding people accountable, and making sure that problems get solved before they unravel into full-blown disasters.
You will not get it right all the time. Horses do not expect you to be perfect. Employees do not expect you to be perfect. What they expect—and what they need—is consistency, fairness, and a willingness to recognize when something isn’t working.
Your job as a leader is the same as your job with a horse: create an environment where it is safe to try, safe to learn, and safe to make mistakes. Here’s how you do it:
Make Communication an Actual, Stated Priority : Assume nothing. Spell out what good communication looks like in your business. Do you expect text updates? Weekly check-ins? A rule that problems get brought up within 48 hours instead of stewing for six months? Whatever it is, put it in writing. If you don’t define the standard, no one will meet it.
Encourage (and Reward) Growth Mindsets: The best employees are not the ones who never make mistakes. They are the ones who own their mistakes, learn from them, and move forward. Companies like ours that grow primarily through apprenticeships understand this implicitly, but it’s true for other businesses, too. If your team is afraid to admit when they don’t know something, it’s because they don’t feel safe to be wrong. That’s a failure of leadership. Create a work culture where learning is celebrated, not punished.
Normalize Talking About Conflict Before It Becomes a Crisis : Implement a simple, structured way for people to reflect on challenges. A weekly “lessons learned” discussion, where everyone shares something they figured out the hard way, can work wonders. It reframes mistakes as learning opportunities and trains people to talk about problems without assigning blame. As a manager or boss, when you start a meeting by sharing your “lessons learned,” you pave the way by showing that being vulnerable, owning your part in something, and course-correcting is not a scary and shameful thing to avoid but a welcomed exercise in self-improvement.
Call Out Toxic Behavior—Immediately: Every workplace has had at least one person who thrives on drama, negativity, or passive-aggressive power plays. If you don’t deal with them, they will set the tone for the entire business. We have learned the hard way among both farriers and support staff. Address it directly, and if necessary, let them go. One bad attitude can undo the hard work of ten good employees.
Teach People How to Have Hard Conversations: No one is born knowing how to navigate professional conflict. If you don’t model and teach these skills, don’t be shocked when your team avoids necessary conversations or handles them poorly. Lead by example: stay calm, ask questions, listen more than you talk, and focus on solutions instead of assigning blame.
Mistakes will happen. You will forget to follow a communication plan. You will have employees who struggle with accountability. You will have moments where you wish you could avoid a hard conversation. Don’t.
An employee who constantly misses details, avoids tough conversations, or seems disengaged is also telling you something. Maybe they don’t feel valued. Maybe they’re unclear on expectations. Maybe they don’t feel safe admitting they don’t know something.
The question in all cases is: Are you paying attention? Or are you just reacting?
Communication as a Business Strategy
So how about that bottom line: Businesses that communicate well make more money. Period. Employees stay longer. Clients trust you more. Small problems get fixed before they become expensive problems. The horse world may be allergic to corporate nonsense, but communication is not corporate nonsense—it is survival.
“Communication is the tool of all tools. And if you don’t prioritize it, you are not running your business—you are surviving it.”
So, if you’re running a business and you find yourself constantly putting out fires, ask yourself: do I have a communication problem? Because if you do, no amount of talent, skill, or expertise is going to make up for it. Communication is the tool of all tools. And if you don’t prioritize it, you are not running your business—you are surviving it.
We in the horse world have the advantage of needing to acquire similar skills to do what we love with horses before we even get into the business of their care. Because again, good horsemanship is also good communication. It is clarity. It is patience. It is understanding that you are working with another being that has their own needs, their own history, and their own perspective on what is happening. A horse will tell you everything you need to know—if you are willing to listen.
Your employees? The same. The difference is that horses get to be themselves regardless of what we say or do, and employees who refuse to learn and grow and take accountability… well, they get to be themselves somewhere else.
If you want to run a successful horse-first business, just remember:It starts with you. How you communicate. How you handle conflict. How you show up in the messy moments.
The horses are watching. Your team is watching. And if you do it right, they will both reflect back to you something extraordinary: a workplace built on trust, clarity, and real partnership.