Many thanks to Stef George for sending in this lighthearted look at the best ways to communicate with the barn managers in our lives. As the barn manager of White Fox Equestrian Center in western Pennsylvania, we imagine Stef speaks from years of unread emails experience. Go barn managers!
From Stef:
Enjoy these good rules of thumb for contacting your barn manager. Listed in preference from most to least preferred:
1. Regular, old-fashioned phone calls — Usually gets the message delivered the best and in the briefest time frame, however don’t call before 8 a.m. or after 10 p.m. unless something is dead/dying/bleeding profusely/on fire/flooded. Unless the message is one simple instruction, then refer to #2.
2. Text messages — Very good for sending simple instructions, like: “Please put Mr. Neigh Neigh’s bell boots on before he goes out today because there is a full moon tonight and he likes to kick off his loose shoes under the pale moon light on alternating Tuesdays.” Not good for full-blown conversations. Texting is tiresome and not easy to accomplish while wrestling Mr. Neigh Neigh and his friends, filling water buckets or mucking stalls. So if you know the conversation is going to have a lot of back and forth, then refer back to #1.
And also remember that those of us who own/manage large, furry, four-legged creatures tend to have the cell phones on at all times, so please don’t text before 8 a.m. or after 10 p.m. unless something is dead/dying/bleeding profusely/on fire/flooded.
3. Post-it note — If you’re anti-technology or a pesky water bucket ate your phone, you can always leave a post-it. We luv post-its. Post-its with smiley faces are a bonus!
4. E-mail — We tend to be running around all day, so parking in front of a computer to check e-mails is a rare occurrence and maybe something we only have time to do on our days off (Ha! Like THAT happens!). So if you email something to us, it is best to let us know that you have so we check it. (You can send one of those text messages for this purpose.) Otherwise, you would have better luck reaching us by carrier pigeon.
