Fun fact: Our house is 20 minutes from Taylor Sheridan’s ranch. If you don’t know, that’s the dude who created Yellowstone, Lioness and several other rad shows.
Between watching Yellowstone and going out to his ranch (where he hosts cutting horse competitions), I’ve been amazed at the physical abilities of some of these horses.
I’ve got a buddy who’s big into horses, and I was asking him the other day about the different “specialties.”
He got to explaining the general difference between the folks who do “Reining” and those who do “Roping.”
Now the Ropers are just what they sound like – you ride a horse to rope a calf or steer.
Reiners are different. If you’ve watched Yellowstone, you’ve seen the scenes where someone is “sliding” a horse, or they’re doing really fast spins on the horse. This is called Reining. And best I can tell, it’s basically a show-off competition. (And looks quite impressive)
What’s interesting is the different personalities that each specialty attracts.
(Obviously there are exceptions to what I’m about to say, so don’t take offense if you’re in the horse game and fall into one of these camps. This is based on my Cowboy friend – who is a roper btw – extensive experience in the industry)
The Ropers and Reiners are apparently quite different, according to my buddy. And while I can’t some of the stories I was told, one difference that’s helpful to YOU is understanding the way they perceive value.
He was telling me how folks who specialize in horse care – farriers, dentists, vets, etc – tend to have different experiences between Ropers and Reiners.
For example, a Roper will call you once a year when their horse finally has a big issue going on, then they’ll gripe about the price to get it fixed. Almost like playing defense, and being reactive.
The Reiners on the other hand, don’t gripe about price. They have one priority – take care of my horse. “Im happy to pay a pro to make sure my horse is always good to go.” That’s the mentality. Playing offense, proactive.
One is cost-focused. The other is value-focused.
One is concerned with what they have to put into the investment (cost). The other is focused on what they get out of the investment (value).
One is focused only on the here and now. The other is focused on long-term benefits.
So on that note, 2 points to ponder for you today:
1. What type of patients are you trying to court?
Reiners (value-focused, recognize quality) or Ropers (cost-focused, see you as a commodity).
I assume you want more Reiners. Cool – next step is to figure out what are you doing (and what you NEED to do) to showcase value + premium patient experience and ATTRACT that kind of patient.
2. What kinda cowboy are YOU?
Do you operate in life as a Reiner or Roper?
Are you making value-driven decisions? Are you investing in yourself, your team? Are you playing offense?
OR do you have more of a scarcity outlook? Cost-focused? Reactive? Playing defense?
You may say, “Troy, there are some areas / decisions where I’m all Reiner. And others where I take more of a Roper approach.”
That’s not necessarily all bad, but it could mean you’re missing opportunities. Be aware of that, and make sure you aren’t ropin’ when you should be reinin’.
So there ya go – a couple questions of self-reflection for you today. And as a lil bonus, here’s a link to a helluva reining horse run on YouTube. Really quite fascinating. Enjoy!
– Troy “Let it rein” Cole
PS – If you resonate with what I’m saying here, but you’re not sure where to start… and you’d like someone to take the guesswork out of all this…
you know where to find me. 💪🏻