So, What makes a 'Professional' then?

[somethingorother]

I find so many people become hung up about only taking advice from a 'professional' but what exactly is that? Many people are self proclaimed professionals, many do very well in their area of expertise but by dubious methods (in my opinion) and many are set in the ways of the old days but have over 40/50 years of experience.

How do you define a professional or expert in the horsey world? And how should people decide who to trust?

I find it hard to accept someone as a professional through recommendation without seeing for myself what they do so i can judge. Other people seem to follow along with anything from a 'professional' no matter how ineffective it turns out to be.

 

[*hic*]

In the horsey world there is scope to have advice from any of the three normal definitions of professional:

Some one who follows one of the "professions" ie doctor or lawyer.
Someone who is paid for what they do.
Someone who is an expert in their chosen field.

The problem with any of those definitions is working out who actually has any sensible advice to give, even in the small world of HHO one can daily see examples of "professionals" talking utter rubbish. My solution is usually that I undertake to find out as much as I can by varied reading - and I don't confine that to current knowledge - and observing or listening to advice given to others, as well as personal recommendation, then I will confirm my understanding of the issue with those who experience and knowledge I trust.

Again on here one can again daily see examples of "professionals" being blindly followed, or their word at least being taken as gospel even though it is wrong. I'm always particularly amused by those "experts in their chosen field" who pontificate on details outwith their expertise, however in my normal life the "professional lawyer" who has managed to wrongly advise us on so many things to do with my mother's death has become a nightmare to deal with. Sometimes one does wish blindly to follow expert advice, it's just that one doesn't expect that to result in the irretrievable loss of thousands of pounds due to wrong advice, nor to have to correct said "professional" on IHT, CGT and the status of family businesses which would potentially have cost us tens of thousands more. I am neither an accountant/tax professional nor a probate lawyer but I can damned well read and understand that which the professional should have known.

A definition of "expert": x is the unknown quantity, a spurt is a drip under pressure.

 

[Miss-rose]

I've always been led to understand that the term profesional is someone who takes payment for the service they offer. For this reason I hold no illusions when I see the line "profesionaly broken" & "profesionaly schooled" in ads or when someones telling me about a horse as in my mind this just means you paid someone to do it, it's no guarantee that it's been done well.

 

[Groom42]

IMO there are the "Professionals" - people who get paid for what they do, whether the standard of work or advice is adequate or not. Then there are people who approach what they do in a professional manner, ie efficient,effective, and of a consistently high, admirable standard. Some times an Amateur (who DOESN'T get paid to do it) is far more professional about the "job" than the so-called Professional, who does get paid. It is ironic that the term "amateur" becomes "amateurish" to denote a job poorly done, but some "Professionals" do far, far, worse jobs, and still expect to get paid!

 

[millitiger]

Professional means paid to provide a service imo.

it doesn't mean anything about competence or skills which is where a lot of people go wrong.