My wife is a horse person, which by definition means she is a bit nuts. But she tempers her insanity around people / things that are not close family or the bank account because she also happens to work in the industry. The horse community is even more reputation and credibility oriented than the testing one so she needs to handle all situation with (outer) calm and grace and professionalism regardless of how much someone doesn’t deserve it.

This year she got a horse (Willy) off the track at the end of the season and sent him off to a trainer we had used in the past to get him into taking English queues (instead of racing ones). So anyways they were at the trainer’s barn around dinner last night and she had a friend of hers ride the horse for an opinion on how he was coming along. This person is not a trainer, just someone whose opinion she trusts.

The trainer was using a bungee to keep the Willy’s head down but he didn’t seem to want/need it so her friend took it off. Well, the trainer took offense to this and exploded, grabbing the bungee out of my wife’s hands, storming into the barn from the arena kicking water buckets and swearing. She then got into her truck and left. Apparently they were insulting her l33t training skillz by removing her training implement. Anyways, they put Willy back in his stall and came home — only to return with a trailer later to take him to a new barn where he is now settled in nicely.

I don’t care if her feelings were hurt, or that she might have been offended somehow. She is marketing herself as a professional and should act like one. Always. (Even accounting for the horse-people-are-crazy fact.)

And so should you.

Your first job is landed primarily through your schooling with a dash of who-you-know. All other jobs from there have a large degree of reputation involved. It is safe to say that the trainer’s hard won credibility is in tatters at most of the major barns in the area and it has only been 24 hours. Credibility is sneaky like that; hard to earn but easy to destroy.