Okay, you know me. I have to talk shit to death before I’m happy, so here goes.
I’ve been horribly sick all this week, and frankly, most of the winter. The fibromyalgia is eating my immune system. They’ve tested me for everything that can damage one’s immune system and I turn up negative for all of it so they are blaming the fibro.
Anyway, because of this, I haven’t been out to see my horse as much as I’d like.
So the weather is starting to be a little kinder and with the exception of this rancid cold I have now, I’ve been on the upswing.
I was sitting here yesterday, minding my own business, buried in coffee and my misery of ear pressure, a sinus headache, body aches, a 102 degree fever, and a nasty cough, and my phone rings.
It is the barn owner’s daughter. Barn owner died. Like two weeks ago died. (thanks for telling me so i could go to the funeral)
She first rips my ass because I don’t read the paper and had no clue he had passed, then she chews my ass because I haven’t been out to see gracie in a while. then she tells me I have 10 (ten) days to GTFO of her barn.
Wait what? Never mind. If you’re going to be a cunt, you don’t have to ask me twice.
I start making calls and within a couple hours, I find somewhere to move my pretty little attack mare. I also get a call telling me that my refund check is ready.
Well fuck. That means I have to drive to manhattan to deposit it because (A) that is where our joint account is, (B) the bank in salina won’t accept my power of attorney to cash the check and (C) the power of attorney is a pain in the ass, even at the bank in manhattan.
So I wait for the bus to pick up erin, go get the refund check, drive to the pilot and put gas in the car, then take my sick, feverish, fat ass to manhattan to deposit the check.
I called the daughter on my way out of manhattan and told her that I had found a new barn and gracie would be moved tomorrow (now today), and I would be at her barn in about an hour to get my shit.
She reminded me of my truck. The dakota has been parked there for a few months because it isn’t running and we didn’t have the money to fix it. She told me I had 3 days to move it or she was going to file for an abandoned vehicle title on it.
I told her the truck would be gone before the horse was.
She blew a gasket that I had managed to find a place for gracie so fast and that I was moving my truck. She told me I was “being rude about the whole situation” and I asked if “being rude” meant not crying like a little bitch because she told me to GTFO.
I went on to tell her that I was on to her little game. She wanted me to abandon the horse so she could sell her for a profit (because she’s registered and would make a good broodmare..her conformation is impeccable and her coloring…wow), and same for the truck. I told her I wasn’t being rude, I was doing business. She told me to leave, and I wasn’t in any mood to beg, plead, whine, cry, or put up with any more of her mistreatment.
She demanded to know what I meant by that. I told her that as long as I’ve known her she has been condescending and constantly lecturing me on things that are not, and never have been, her business. In my books, that is mistreatment. I am an adult, I act like an adult, and if you can’t treat me as such, we are through. “Just because you have children my age does not mean you are allowed to mother me to death.“
I told her I was saddened to hear that her father died because I thought the world of him and would have literally done anything for him. I thanked her for the almost 3 years of wonderful care my mare had at that barn, but she had told me to leave, so I was. Gracie will be gone by 7pm tomorrow (now today) and you don’t have to worry about me or my bad habits again.
I fumed all the way back home, and got out to the barn. I settled the remaing amount of money I owed them for farrier and board, and went to get my stuff.
The daughter wasn’t there, her father’s care-taker was. He was polite enough, and I told him that I thought the world of him and what he had done for the barn owner, and this wasn’t anything personal, I wasn’t taking it personally, but I was leaving quickly. I also told him NOT to pro-rate february’s board, just freaking keep it and buy Irish (the 38 year old gelding – no lie) some extra feed with it. He said he would give me the remaining money, and we bickered.
I finally told him that I just wanted to be out from under the daugher’s thumb and if that cost me $57 then so be it. You can feed Irish for 3 months on $57. Givethe lady that does the stall cleanings and feedings every day a fatter check for her new grandbaby. Keep it. Use it as fucking toilet paper. I don’t care, and I don’t want it.
He kinda laughed at me and understood my frustration. Anyway, I went to get my tack and supplies.
He followed me. He let me drive the car right up to the barn (after he unlocked the gates that have supposedly been locked to keep the barn owners drunk ass idiot son from taking any horses or trailers) BUT he followed me through the tack room and through the barn as I got all my stuff.
Nice.
He was obviously operating under the daughter’s instruction. Just because SHE is a little theiving bitch doesn’t mean *I* am. YOU know me. YOU know I won’t even think about touching it if it doesn’t belong to me. You know you can hand me a $100 bill and tell me to hang on to it for you, and ask for it a year later and get the *EXACT* bill back that you gave me.
The lady that cleans the stalls trusts me. She knows I have no use for any of the tack in that barn but what belongs to me and my horse. Not only because I’m the only english rider at the barn, but also because 99% of the tack there won’t fit my horse…never mind the fact that it isn’t mine. She told me that if there was one person at that barn she knew wouldn’t steal so much as a piece of chalk, it was me. She also didn’t know why the daughter was being such a twat.
I got my grooming supplies out of my drawer in the tack room. I had a small bucket of brushes and rubber bands, two bottles of showsheen, shampoo, conditioner, two bags of treats, and fly spray (yes, gracie is very spoiled). I also had my lunge line, a cattle whip (that I only use as an extension of my arm, it has never touched gracie in anger), my saddle, 2 girths, 3 saddle pads, my bridle, and my riding helmet.
The caretaker asked me about the lunge line and cattle whip. I showed him gracies name, WRITTEN IN SHARPIE, on both. I asked if he wanted to see the rest of my stuff to make sure her name was on it.
I learned within 2 months of having her there, that everything that was mine needed her name on it. Even then it got stolen and “borrowed” without my permission. I’ve had to replace all my brushes TWICE. Don’t talk to me about lead ropes.
Anyway. I had bought her a bucket the first spring she was there. She’s a water hog, and I can’t say as I blame her for what she’s been through. She needed a second bucket. I bought it, wrote her name on it, and left it in her stall. Guess what? Since I bought it with my money, I’m taking it with me.
Back in December I had gotten a call from the daughter(again). She was having a fit that heated buckets had been stolen, including the one that had been given to me by someone who had sold their horse and didn’t need the bucket anymore, and could I please go get another?
I spent $45 on a new heated bucket. I colored on it in sharpie and put gracie’s name on it. I informed the caretaker that I would be taking her heated bucket as well.
I had to look for about 20 minutes for her first bucket. He had a cow when I started digging through the buckets. I told him I had bought it, written her name on it, it was mine. I was taking it. He looked at me like O_O but helped me go through the buckets.
I went to make sure my rope halter was still there. It was, but my (third) blue cotton lead rope wasn’t. I told him I would NOT be buying another. He had until the time I got out there to take her away to either FIND mine or go buy me another BLUE one.
About two hours later, I get a phone call. The daughter, again. She told me that they had found my lead rope and it was now clipped to my rope halter on Gracie’s stall. She told me that I had “been rude again” when talking to the caretaker and it “wasn’t appreciated”.
I told her that having to spend over $400 replacing halters, lead ropes, and brushes that people in “her” barn had stolen or “misplaced” for me was more rude. I just wanted what was rightfully mine, and didn’t want to have to spend more money replacing shit I shouldn’t have had to replace in the first case. However, they found my leadrope and had put it on her stall so it was now a moot point and i didn’t appreciate the harrassing phone calls.
Then I got a call from the lady that cleaned the stalls, apologizing for the daughter. I told her not to apologize for actions she wasn’t guilty of committing. I asked her to keep gracie in today, and told her when I’d be out to get her. we chatted for a while (because I really like her) and she will meet me out at the barn to unlock the gates for when I go to get gracie.
I went out this morning to get the dakota. The caretaker was waiting to unlock the gates and had tried to follow me around again. I finally turned and asked him if he had a problem. He said no. I asked if he wanted one. He looked at me like O_O and I suggested that he may want to leave me alone while I got the rest of my property.
I’m supposed to be at the new barn at 5 to store my feed and tack then we will go get gracie. I’m interested to see who is going to be there to unlock the gates for me.
To be continued…
