Week Two-December 24th-30th 2008

After a somewhat hectic day on my day off and sleeping for 13 hours straight, I was up and at it at 6:50am at the barn. Direct TV was coming to install the dish between 8-1 and I had to be there for it. After many false starts with the installer, and the boss refusing to take any responsibility for setting anything up, she said she had no patience - hmmm, no surprise here. When cleaning up the manure in the paddocks, I noticed that the ornamental hedges and plants around the judges stand and main arena were growing into the paddocks surrounding them. They were poisonous plants, yews, azaleas, other things that probably should not be ingested by horses. I was cutting them with my metal shears. Boss lady said she didn't care if any of the horses ate them, and if they got sick oh well, they got sick! I finished up clearing out the debris.

The installer arrived, and when bosslady found out the installation charge would be $100 she suddenly decided that she didn't want the service. The boxes had already arrived, the account had already been set up, and now she didn't want any part of it. She had given me a check to buy myself something for Christmas, it was $100. That paid for the installation. It was not just for the basement and my TV which I brought from home, it was for their three that were upstairs. At that point I also turned over my new Stihl weedwacker as promised to bosslady for the 4 months of the air card for my laptop. Oh the lessons we learn.

Christmas Day, I fed and turned out the farm, cleaned stalls, then was going to church because I missed Christmas Eve service, but was asked to make dinner. BossLady doesn't clean, doesn't cook, hubby does, and he didn't want to cook. I fixed the turkey for her, made Hunting Loaf (a mix of oat flakes, onions, English Cheddar cheese Walnuts, and Marmite), and Yorkshire Pudding and all the steamed veggies and baked sweet potatoes. Thank goodness I was not expected to make dessert...........Never got to Church.

December 26th, the three Morgans got out of their pasture. I was blamed until someone else fessed up. there was a roll of wire fencing unrolled in one of the pastures, halters and lead ropes thrown everywhere, unsecured electric wire into a field where two horses were, and right about nose height, feed door not latched, no cat food, all stalls have 2 day old water.

December 27th, no supplements or feed for Dandy, fence left on with horses in at night. I longed Harry for 30 min. December 29th longed 30 min. Dec. 30th 30 mn. longe and fixed paddock. Hours for week two are now up to 67.

Week One-December 16th - 23rd, 2008

The day after my escape from the frozen North, I started work at 7am. With my usual efficiency, I arrived early, notebook and pen in hand, ready to take down notes of the horses I'd be caring for, what they ate, how much and what paddocks they were put in for the day and night.

The tubs of water in the paddocks needed to be changed, they were slimy and green. The hay was dusty and smelled rank. I plodded on, taking notes and trying not to make suggestions or give my opinion, although this was something that I was not only trained to do, but had years of experience and schooling to back it up. The feed buckets were everywhere, and filthy. They had not been cleaned in who knew how long. The old food was crusted on them, and of course, this is a great place for bacteria. The stalls were another matter. The wet sawdust was thrown in on top of pounds of manure and urine and smelled terrible. Instead of rubber mats in the stalls, the preferred covering was free heavy vinyl sheets or hemp from the local lumber mill. The vinyl was slippery, and the hemp just absorbed the water and urine making it all but impossible to breathe in the stall. I could not imagine how the horses did not have lung infections. The water buckets in the stalls were left in there for days without being changed, so the water was never really fresh.

There was one small spigot by the feed room that didn't freeze. There was a TWO GALLON water heater in the bathroom of the main barn. That was the only warm/hot water available, and it took 15 minutes between the first two small feed buckets full to heat the water again. The spigot by the main barn was at a 45 degree angle by the front door, and froze quickly. The spigot at the back door continuously hooked up to it, so that froze quickly as well as the hose(s). Each stall had a small 1 1/2' x 2' window with a fan in it that turned as soon as it was windy. There were no top doors for the open stalls. Three of the horses in my shed row barn had electric buckets which kept tripping the breaker. I was uneasy at night leaving them plugged in. I continued to give Harry warmed water from the bathroom.

It was never a consideration during the Winter to mix the feed for the horses with a bit of warm water, and since I had the morning feed for the three barns, I made sure everyone got warm feed at least. I made mountains out of the hay in their paddocks and fields mainly to get the dust out, and make sure there were no hidden critters in the flakes.

Did I mention that I also had to throw down 4-6 bales of hay from up top each morning and stack in the aisle? These bales weighed about 75 lbs. I had to lift and push them end over end to get them out the door, and then strain to lift them into place in the aisle where I cut the strings and took flakes to all the paddocks and fields.

I got 8 bales of shavings from the owner and was told if I wanted any more I'd have to pay for it myself. I was already providing my feed and hay, and thought, this is a lot of hours of work that I'm not being compensated for. I used 2 bales for the old horses stall that was in at night with Harry.

I worked 5 hours on Tuesday non stop, with another 2 in the afternoon.
I worked 5 hours on Wednesday, 5 on Thursday, 6 on Friday, and on Saturday I was left with the whole place to myself, and both am and pm feeds as the owners were spending the day away. The first thing that happened was the owners young Shire draft cross stuck his leg through the rotting paddock fence, getting stuck half way, and then got his shoe caught in woven wire on the ground. Their solution was to bring up a chain saw to remove the boards. I worked 8 1/2 hours that day. On Sunday I worked 5 hours taking 1 hour out for Church, for which I was admonished and threatened. Since I fed everyone and gave them hay and water before I left, and they weren't being turned out because of rain, they could survive for an hour while I went to church. I thought. Shouldn't think. All the hoses and spigots were frozen, and I had taken water from the bathroom for everyone. Monday I arrived at the barn to find my big Rubbermaid trolly had TWO split rims. I then had to use my muck tub on my carry all frame to clean all the stalls. TSC ordered two for me to replace the ones that were split, at no charge. Despite the comment from my slightly loopy 'boss', that the people at TSC were morons, I found them to be most helpful and pleasant. They are 40 miles away round trip. Nothing is easy. The laundromat is 30 miles round trip................One of the horses in barn 3 left on Monday to go to another facility.

The boss lady, a very unconcerned woman, who alternated between cackling and swearing loudly and telling me that a whip is the only way to keep horses in line, and telling me she wanted to dig a large hole and throw all the horses in, was becoming increasingly disturbing to me. Since I live in the basement, and it's right under their living quarters, and I have no privacy or a door that locks, I was serenaded by screeching birds and parrots and barking dogs well into the night. I was promised an air card for my laptop which is the ONLY promise I've seen actually happening. I was told there was cable tv, but when I got here, I found an antennae and one channel, and it sure wasn't Fox News or Lifetime.....

Tuesday, my day off, was spent at the laundromat in the town 15 miles away, in the company of the largest women I've ever seen. Next to Hogs Gone Wild BBQ, and across from the Lumber/Paper mill, I spent two hours waiting for a washing machine and spent most of it in my truck.


By the time I had finished my first week, I had worked 36.5 hours. Had I been in Southern Pines I would have taken home $365.00. I suddenly got this sick feeling that the hours I was working-oh it had to get easier, and I could go faster, but try as I might, I could not seem to get the work under 5 or 6 hours a day. The deal was 4 hours 5 or 6 days.

The Journey Begins

In September of last year, I found a job in Sanford, NC with a room for me and a stall and turnout for my horse. My dog Tutti was welcome as well. I was thrilled, because I'd be there from mid December until the first of May, missing, hopefully all the bad winter weather where we live. All the plans centered around this job.

The day after the election, the lady called and said the farm owners said they did not want her hiring any new people and possibly that she would have to lay off some of the present staff. I was very disappointed, but beyond the disappointment of not being near Southern Pines, NC, my sister and my boys being able to visit, I knew this was now not the time for looking for a new job and a place for Harry, Tutti, and me.

With my usual naivete, I started searching the jobs listings for grooms, stall cleaners, instructors, anything in the central NC area. This quickly became the SouthEastern US, and with just a few openings, I found a job in Virginia. I called to make an appointment for both jobs, one outside of DC - this would be colder, but closer to friends and family since I had owned a farm in MD for 12 years. I also found a job prospect in SE VA. I called this one and after spending time playing who do you know, and what training have you had, and what do you think about this or that re: dressage, she admitted my expertise would be better suited to help a friend of hers who had a rather large farm and needed help.

The marathon trip from Western NY to SE VA by way of DC and back was about 15 hours. Admittedly, I tried desperately to be fully aware and ask the right questions for each of the jobs. Ah, the best laid plans..................

I arrived at my first interview 5 min. early, found no one about, and spent about 10 minutes just looking at the facility. It was, to say the least, extravagant and over the top, although isolated. The young woman who ran the facility - her parents had spared no expense - was in a permanent tizzy. She ran through all the breeding of all the dispondent horses standing with their tails to the door, and ears pinned, over dressed in the heaviest of blankets. When asked to see the hay and feed rooms, it was apparent that she not only had no idea where the hay came from, she cared not about the quality of it, or the feed, which was improperly stored on the floor in bags. The job would be 7 days a week starting at 6am and ending at the nighttime check at 10 pm. I would have a few hours off in the afternoon...................I would be grooming, tacking up, bathing, cleaning stalls, feeding, turning out and bringing in, and any other job(s) she could think of for me to do all for the priveledge of being there and $200 a month pocket money. I could not think of a single reason for wanting to take this on, so amidst her scampering into the office and returning with a needle to Ace a horse who had arrived from Florida after a 12 hour drive just a mere 6 hours earlier. She had to start his 'training' she announced, and that, dear friends was the end of that interview.

The second job was about 4 hours south and I arrived around 4pm. The owner greeted me and ran me around, and I was trying to remember to take notes, but it was getting dark. She could provide me a room in the basement, and my horse a stall with shavings and hay. I did not get to see much as all the horses were spread out all over the farm and my job would be 4 hours - 5-6 days a week in the morning. That would give me time to work on my businesses, websites, and have a life. I was admittedly tired, and overwhelmed from the journey, but figured that even after another week of diligent searching, couldn't find anything else.


I tried for 3 weeks to pack, but the storms had started, the winds whipped up, the ice came and went with the snow, making it practically impossible to pack the trailer and close up the house. During this time, Harry was recovering from an adverse reaction to blood root for a sarcoid on his neck. The treatment cleared up the sarcoid, but he was in so much pain, that he threw me up against the stall door once, bruising my chest and knocking the wind out of me, and then a day later when I went to put on his halter in the field, I found myself on the ground counting blades of grass. He had flung his head and threw me on the ground. The guy that was there taking the last of the second story of the old barn down, reckoned I'd been out for a few minutes. It took me almost 3 weeks to be able to approach him without him backing up and being suspicious of my motives. I was only feeding him and turning him out. We quickly reached a silent trust with each other so that he knew when it was time to go out, what I expected of him, and it was almost a week before I could even get near him to change his blanket. I spent 4 days making all of his clothing open fronted, so that nothing whatsoever would be going over his head. I had to change a doz blankets. Turns out this was a pretty good thing.

Finally the day arrived when I could get the rest of the trailer packed, get my hay in the back, all my tools (it was about 30 degrees but no wind), and throw in my tools, machines, and get the house closed up the pipes drained and leave. I had 3 false starts and finally left around 8am on Sunday morning. After white knuckling the drive out of the farm, and down to the interstate (a trip of about 13 miles that took almost an hour), we were fine until we crossed the border into PA. From the truckstop it was another 3 hours trying not to tip over on the mountain roads as they had made the four lane highway 2 lanes with big Jersey barriers on either side, straight down the mountain. The previous day they had an 11 truck pile up from the ice and snow. Oh yea-glad I've driven this route for most of my life in my KW with a 48 ft. trailer, this is really nothing, but I am now responsible for my horse and my dog and myself instead of a load of produce or meat. Once I got past Williamsport, I was fine, but realized that this was going to put me at our first stop after dark. I arrived at the barn where I was staying the night in MD, but could not see the driveway, and ended up turning one driveway too soon, and was in a corn field turning around. I settled Harry in for the night, was picked up by my friend Joannie, and we went to dinner.
Joanie working on Harry-

Monday morning we returned early to the barn, and Joannie gave Harry one of her energizing treatments, and we were on our way South again. I was so looking forward to this job. I had the best feeling but then I'm kind of a glass is half full kind of person, and always try to see the best, or make the best of any situation. I arrived at the new place at 3pm, there was no one about. This was only the second time I had seen the place, and had no idea where to turn Harry out. I quickly cleaned out a paddock and turned him out and fixed his stall, glad that I had brought shavings. The sawdust pile was uncovered and soaking wet. There was no way I was going to put Harry in a stall with wet sawdust. I also had brought 15 bales of hay to transition him to the hay here, but the hay here was so toxic and dusty it wasn't fit even for cows! I went into the apartment around 5pm to make Harry's dinner, and was shocked to see a small bar sink on the floor, and no fridge to store my perishables in. It was also extremely sour and moldy smelling and damp. Finally the owner showed up and did take me out for dinner, which I appreciated. Of course the two Margarita's she had should have been a red flag, but I was here now, had no where else to go, and would have to make the best of it. After all I wasn't in NY battling the storms, and it was only until May.

I must say here, that I do my utmost to give people many chances, making excuses for them, trying to put myself in their shoes, yada yada yada. Well, I think at this stage in my life, I need to learn not only to consider myself and my animals, and make sure that we will be safe and healthy.

The age old GUILT phenomenon driven into my brain as a child never fails to come to the fore when dealing with these tough issues or situations. I'm getting much better at pushing it aside where it belongs, looking at life more in the way of my dear friend and coach Valerie Knight, who continuously reminds me that " ...it's not likely to alter the fate of nations..." (relative to something Harry and I are just not able to 'get' yet).

I don't want to appear ungrateful, you know, or unappreciative to my present situation, but it has been so overwhelming on so many levels, I've learn to stop sputtering inside about it, and keep up an endless giggle here and there.

I am not on any medications, I don't use drugs or anything to dull reality. I say, Bring it On!, I can deal, well, most of the time, but this situation kept engulfing me, sending wave after huge wave over me and on more than one occasion I was ready to pack up and leave. Of course, not being able to go North to home-the farm is totally closed down and with the snow and ice there, unavailable for habitation until oooooooohhh about April 15th. The mud season. Haha. Faced with the prospect of finding a job in So. Pines, when everything now has been spoken for, having no place to put Harry, myself and Tutti, was disconcerting, but in the 'fullness of time' as Valerie often says, these things will work themselves out.

It's a good thing I have friends like Joannie and Valerie who remind me of the larger picture (sometimes hard to do when you are in the midst of it) as many times during these first week I alternated between wanting to run into traffic, and setting my hair on fire. It's more in the visual than the actual folks.