Part 1 of the Black Years
Part One of Amanda's Wright's Story
Despite my confrontation with Amanda, things continued on as they were.
Occasionally Darryl and Lindsay would work on stall mats but with 2 people
cleaning stalls, the issues with the mats could have been resolved the first
month they were here if Amanda had been interested in doing what she'd
promised. As it was, mats were only fixed when there was so much debris pushed
up underneath, the stalls really weren't safe.
It usually took me
pointing out to Lindsay that a particular stall needed work, even if it was a
stall that Darryl was responsible for maintaining, for mats to be fixed. It
really wasn't an issue of him not knowing. It was that Darryl wasn't doing
anything he could avoid.
Without Lindsay any problem mats wouldn't have
been fixed at all. As far as I know, Darryl didn't ever do this work without
Lindsay's involvement and he didn't reciprocate by assisting her with mats on
the stalls she cleaned.
During the 9 months they were here, only one stall
had the situation fixed properly where the stall was re-leveled, gravel brought
in and rolled, and the mats put back in place. There were 8 more that needed
that kind of fix. The 1 that did get fixed only happened because I raised a
pretty big fit over it after 8 months of nagging hadn't worked.
And just
for the record this particular stall was not only the worst but it was one that
Darryl cleaned so he saw the situation every day that he did stalls but still
ignored it.
Amamda can't say she didn't know it was a problem either
because the one thing she did do for me when I asked was worm horses. That meant
she went in each stall and actually saw the irregular surface that mare was
living with. If she cared for the horses like she claimed she would have made
sure Darryl fixed it. Instead she turned her back on the situation and she
ignored my requests to have it done.
Of course, Amanda used being
pregnant and work as her excuse for not doing things here but personally I
believe both were about her having a reason not to do what she'd promised, if
not for me, at least for Darryl, since even he didn't understand why she was
avoiding me when she'd convinced him that horses were her dream and she wanted
to be mentored by me. Darryl took on stall cleaning because she convinced him he
must so she could have what she dreamed.
Even though Amamda had a job,
she began driving a taxi for extra money but she soon quit the Wal-Mart job
because she claimed they wouldn't work with her taxi schedule. However, as I
correctly predicted, that job too quickly went by the wayside. By then Amanda
claimed she was feeling poorly so age did nothing until after the baby was
born.
At no point do I want to suggest I expected Amanda to put her
health or that of her baby at risk because that was never the case. Darryl could
have easily done the job Amanda promised if he'd wanted. My observations about
Amanda's status are strictly informational, pieces to the puzzle, and how I got
to my opinions.
After 18 months of dealing with the way Amanda operates,
I believe it was her intention all along to avoid work of any kind. Maybe she
thought she could live here indefinitely, like she had at Jerry's, but by this
time I had had it with being exploited and I wasn't going to let her slide. I
was sure they would push Dave beyond his limits and then he would ask them to
go. It was just a matter of time.
It was becoming clearer to me all this
had been about Darryl taking care of Amanda because she was doing what she could
to avoid any kind of work herself. Once the baby was born she would get
assistance from the state and no longer need to work but the state would require
Darryl to get a real job.
I predicted if Darryl found a job that would
be the end of the stall cleaning. The state wouldn't care about any arrangement
with us and I figured Amanda would not step up as she'd claimed she would after
the baby came. Then it would finally be enough for Dave to reach his limit.
To be continued.....
Picture is Rose
Some "Special" Treatment for the Twins and More Shortcuts..........
What a mess, and what kind of life to bring a child into , manipulations dishonesty and arghh!!! I have to stop, knowing how I feel about folks like that
ReplyDeleteNice lens! About 40+ years ago they never even used mats...our stable in California was next to a Rock Quarry, when they closed it, they threw away rubber weight scale mats. We retrieved them to use in the horse stall mats. They were heavy (1.5") thick and long, we cute them up and used them in our stalls. I brought them with us to Missouri and then sold the house & barn leaving the mats there. I was happy to see mats here in Wisconsin...never even knew they had them for sale. Too bad I did not think to make a business out of the mats.
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