Life........and Its Lessons........A Little About Work

Part 1

This would probably be a good place to begin the experiences I had either working for others in this industry or others working for me. Those situations have been laden with lessons.

Way back when I began this blog I posted how this dream of mine began. I mentioned I had worked as a groom but really didn't get into the details of how that came about or what our working arrangements were.

I worked for free up until the time I bought Scandalous on a contract. Grooms came and went, new ones were hired but I was never asked if I wanted the paying job even though I seemed to be the only reliable "employee" they had.

From the first day I arrived I worked six days a week and usually a minimum of 9 hours a day just because I wanted the experience. I showed up even when the roads were closed because of snow. I did the job even when the trainers were not there. I was reliable, willing and a fast learner. Before long I was as competent as most grooms who came and went.

I even worked a big sale they had just because they needed me. They didn't really ask me if I would work, they just assumed. It involved lots of extra hours and I did it without complaint. I was the only unpaid person involved and there were lots of people brought in and paid to help.

Yet, the daughter of the facility owner complained to a trainer about me because I hadn't dropped what I was doing to do her bidding . I got my *ss chewed by one of the trainers. When I explained that I was completing another task I had been assigned first that involved a hot sweaty horse and that I had come back to do the second job once I was done with the first, the trainer backed down. But I remember thinking at the time my efforts nor my loyalty were being appreciated much.

When I did buy Scandalous, I asked them if I could work off her board. The problems getting that worked out are here Despite all of the unpaid and unrecognized extra hours each day after that, not to mention, all the times I stayed at the facility to care for the horses when the trainers were gone to shows, you would think I might have earned some loyalty from them. That was not the case.

I remember at one point the trainers bought farm jackets for the paid employees. I was not included in that gesture. I told the trainer I felt like "FF's b*astard child." She sputtered as she tried to defend herself.........but her discomfort seemed to be more because I had said something than because she had forgotten about me.

It was another of those "ah ha" moments. There was no loyalty towards me at all, yet that certainly was not how I treated them. Granted we had no agreement that I would ever get paid but the fact they got more than double if not triple sometimes the amount of work out of me they were due, I guess I expected a little bit of something..........a thank you might have been nice......or that farm jacket.

You might think I would have learned from these things when it came to that contract on the third horse. I didn't however. I blindly went into it expecting the owner of the facility would do right by me.......yet she never really did.

She did, however, give me two aged ponies for my kids when we moved to our new farm. Both ponies had foundered so many times the owners couldn't even remember. Those ponies had lots of issues. Their feet were bad and the one probably had Cushings.........his hair grew continually. I had to body clip him several times a year so he wasn't miserable sweating underneath all that hair........even in the winter in the beginning.

I appreciated those ponies as did my kids but looking back I wonder if this gesture wasn't just about money too. With me taking over those high risk ponies, she no longer had to worry about them, nor pay for their illnesses.

The ponies did not live long once I got them.........but they did not founder either. Both died from colic. My vet figured it was from the years they lived on a sand lot so the owners didn't have to worry about them foundering.

My vet thought those ponies had the best years they had had in a long time living at my farm. They got to graze in pastures and were feed a proper diet.........not feed nothing but local grass because it was an easy way to keep them from foundering. Their feet got to be healthy again and their coats and teeth improved immensely.

Still both the job and the ponies were a situation of my making. I tolerated being "slave labor" so that I could learn. I took the ponies despite their issues because I knew my kids would love them. I probably would do it all again both for the lessons I learned about horses and the lessons I learned about some horse people.

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

A Little about Purpose




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