Use The Right Tool

Today’s blog post is brought to you by two broken muck forks.

If you want to ruin a horse person’s day, break the muck fork.

For real, there isn’t much that’s worse than a broken muck fork.

And now I’ve got two. The first one lost a tine months ago, so I ordered a second one. Two days ago, the second one broke across the top. If I keep using it, it will be wobbly, and will likely just snap in half at the first stress in bumpy ground (which is pretty much all I’ve got).

Grab the one with the missing tine, and keep working.

Except I looked down and noticed it was missing a second tine! As if one wasn’t bad enough, now there’s TWO giant gaps in the fork.

sigh

I was muttering bad things under my breath as I tried to muck the shed (which has bumpy mats, likely how the second tine was broken anyway), and realized I should be using the grain shovel, not the muck fork.

The fork is fine when all the tines are there and it’s functioning correctly. But when it’s got holes in it, the shovel is much more efficient and doesn’t leave streaks of poo where you just scooped.

How many times do you keep using a tool that doesn’t work? Or keep trying a technique that isn’t effective?

How long will it take you to stop and check to see if you’ve got better tools available to you rather than continuing to use the same old broken tool?

This time it only took me five minutes, instead of days… that’s the good news, it does get faster. And when you remember, and switch to something more effective, you feel like a champ. Even if you do still have two broken muck forks.

So where are you still trying to use worn out tools and techniques with your pets that aren’t effective and aren’t getting you closer to your goals? Where are you doing this in your life?

Maybe it’s time to reach for a more effective tool.