The Count Down for an Arabian Breeder's Annual Open House Part 2

Part 1

There was no way the farrier was going to come to my house after he left my friend's farm. It was going to be way to late. He had horses to haul the next day and needed to be in Monroe early in the morning.

By now, I was seething but now wanting to make him made and have him hang me out to dry all together, I hung in there while he promised me he'd reschedule his Thursday appointment and come to my house instead. I'm just going to have to trust that he isn't going to let me down. He knows how important this open house is to me.

I've never had a problem like this with him before. He's been doing my horses for years. He is a great farrier and he's kind to the horses. I can understand why he would want to do the hauling if he can. It's better money and not as hard labor as shoeing horses. At our age easy is sometimes better.

I realize that it's new for him to be juggling his schedule hauling horses and doing his regular farrier work. I know from experience sometimes when you're doing something new, it can be easy to misjudge how long it's going to take you.

Unfortunately the problem with the farrier is not the only thing going wrong. The temperatures are soring and I have big problems with the heat. I've suffered serious heat stroke a couple of times in my life and have trouble keeping my temperature down when it elevates outside.

Normally the thing that saves me is our heat pump. I can work outside until I get too hot and then go in the house and cool down enough is half an hour to be able to get back to work. BUT our heat pump died! and it died big time. It had to be replaced and the company was booked up solid for weeks.

Luckily someone cancelled and the tech that was here had mercy on me and plugged us into that slot. We were able to get our installed two weeks ahead of schedule. They brought the unit out Friday and put the coolant in today so we're finally cooled down again.

I got sick from the heat a number of times last week so didn't even begin to get my clipping done. That and we had a big hay delivery that couldn't be postponed that took up another day I hadn't planned on. People from back east came out to look at a horse and my clippers died...again!

I bought these clippers the last time I sold a horse for decent money. They are cordless Litening by Laube. They are a smaller power packed clipper with state of the art lithium batteries. Normally, I don't look at items this expensive. I'm too afraid I'll make the investment and something will go wrong and I'll be stuck.

But I had the opportunity to use a pair of these clippers for my open house two years ago. They were amazing. The batteries charged in about ten minutes. Seemed to last much longer than the older version of Laube cordless clippers.

They are much lighter and quieter. Because they are cordless, they're really great to use on the young horses. Without that cord to work around, I didn't get the clippers knocked or pulled from my hands by a frightened horse. And the morning of my open house when I rise early to do a clean up clip on all the muzzles and bridle paths in the barn, there was no cord to mess with. The job took half the time.

So I was sold. First time I had enough money to buy these clippers I did. Wouldn't you know my pair would be a problem. When I first received them I couldn't get the batteries to charge and my charger overheated and melted.

I sent the unit back to Laube and they "replaced" the charger. Only when the clippers arrived the charger wasn't even in the box. They did get that rectified and I thought I was home free.

This was all last year, the year of the twins. The twins affected everything in my life including getting to use these clippers. So after the first charge and quick use to be sure everything worked, the clippers ended up back in their case and stayed there until my open house is Sept.

Then to my chagrin, the clippers didn't work. I was too busy to figure out what the problem with them was so I bluffed my way through my clipping with my old clippers that were on their last legs.

After the open house, I played around with the clippers some and came to the conclusion that they didn't wouldn't hold a charge for an extended period of time. I should have re-charged them before trying to use them. So once again I thought I was in the clear.

Then this winter I had another problem with them not working. Again I surmised I was doing something wrong. They didn't seem to hold a charge if it got really cold. Once recharged they worked fine.

But now that I'm back to clipping for my open house the clippers are not working again. They run for about three minutes or less and then they stop. Let them rest for an hour or so and they'll run another few minutes. Let them rest for 5 minutes and they might run for 30 seconds. I've finally come to the realization that the lithium batteries must be the problem.

I don't know if they were damaged by the charger that melted. Or if they are why the charger melted. All I know for sure is my warranty is long gone and my $500 clippers are toast!

Dave did some work on my dead 10 year old $100 clippers. So I'm limping along again with a sick pair of clippers. They get pretty hot, pretty fast so I have to let them cool down for at least an hour before I try to do another horse. But at least they're working!

To be continued............

Part 2

For the specific information on my open house visit my website, Rising Rainbow Arabians.


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