The best farriers strive for excellence even when nobody else may recognize it.

Farriers perform a valuable service for people who care about their horses. It’s important to be trustworthy and do the job correctly. Part of being your own boss means that you must take responsibility to recognize and fix mistakes. No one else will be your overseer. This can be a two-edged sword. Unfortunately, some farriers may take advantage of their clients’ ignorance. However, the best farriers take this responsibility seriously and strive for excellence even when nobody else may know it. They work to such a high standard that they will not be happy until it is right.

Let me share a true story. A stone mason was laying very large stones for the walls of a large church building. One of the stones had a crack on the very inside of the stone. The foreman, a master mason, came by and looked at it and said, “There’s a crack in that stone.” The mason said, “I know it, but it’s on the inside. It’ll be covered up with plaster, and no one will ever see it. No one will ever know it’s there.” The master craftsman said, “Take it out. There are already three people that know it’s there.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you know it, and I know it, and the Lord knows it. That’s who we‘re building this building for. Take it out.”

I’ve thought about that a lot. Sometimes when you’re working on a horse and you make a mistake, you see it and nobody else does. It still needs to be fixed.

When I was working for a man who trained some national champion Saddlebred horses, one time I received the nicest compliment, I think, I was ever given by anyone. He said he would be back in a little while, and I asked him if he didn’t want to stay and watch me to make sure I was doing it right. He said, “No, I don’t worry about you because I know you can’t do it wrong. You can’t leave here if it’s wrong because you’ll have to fix it because you won’t be satisfied with it.”

I think that was one of the nicest compliments I ever got.

If your standard is high enough, when you please yourself, you’ll please everyone else.