Some "Special" Treatment for the Twins and More Shortcuts...

 Part 1 of the Black Years

 Part One of Amanda's Wright's Story


The more time that passed here without the promised help, the more frustrated I became. There were so many instances were I felt used that I couldn't walk out the door and see that hideous RV and not feel exploited.

That thing was so bad they had a tarp over the roof with milk jugs full of water tied with hanks of yellow plastic rope at each grommet to anchor it down to stop the leaks. During a windstorm that tarp caught air and wrapped itself around the power line going to my house. The weight of it all caused the line to sag and as the wind gusted the whole thing bounced and blew. The dangling anchors flung about like dancers in some misguided choreography, thrown by the wind and jerked back by their tethers,weaving themselves together in a unwieldy mass that dangerously jerked at the power line. Watching the movement of this conglomeration, I feared the force would rip the wires down or tear them loose and start a fire.

Of course Darryl and Amanda were gone and when I called her about the danger she showed no concern. The only thing that mattered was her schedule and she was busy. You'd think if she wasn't worried about my house burning down, she would have at least have been worried about her own since the RV was parked so close if one burned so would the other. 

I ended up out in the storm fencing with the milk hugs to untangle this mess, not an easy fete with a cramped abdomen. When I finally got this mess off the wires, I pushed the wadded up tarp underneath the RV so it wouldn't blow around and cause no more problems. It stayed there for months until I insisted they do something with it and the other junk they has accumulated around and underneath the RV.  Neither of them ever apologized for the problem and that too irritated me. it seemed like everywhere I turned there was another reminder of their sense of entitlement.

Every time I worked outside picking rocks or turning horses out etc that Amanda was supposed to do while she and Darryl sat in their motor-home playing on their computers, I felt raped. Every time I stepped in their dogs poop or cleaned up after them in my bathroom....I felt raped. Every time I had to clean their rotten food out of my refrigerator or found no room in my freezer, and had to clean up the crap down my hallway that Darryl dragged in, I felt raped.  Plain and simple....to be hurting so badly I could hardly stand while those two played on my WiFi was more than I could take especially when there were these other things happening to add salt in the wounds.

Then when I shared these feelings with Dave, his response was he didn't want to do anymore work. I'm sure he thought it could not be that bad but I have been raped in my lifetime, actually more than once.  A man who raped me actually turned into a murder-rapist who killed a woman I knew so I am familiar with what being raped feels like and to be old, sick and exploited for nearly 2 years has all the emotional elements of rape: humiliated, powerless, guilty, ashamed, embarrassed, exploited, exposed, weak, vulnerable, abandoned, depressed, unworthy, unloved, used and abused, the list goes on. The repetitions of these events only exacerbated these feelings and  the wedge between Dave and I grew every time I pushed through my pain while they played and Lindsay and I worked. It was getting pretty ugly here. My horses were fine but I was falling into the darkness with no lifeline in reach.

By the time the baby came I had a pretty clear picture of what Amanda Wright was about. She had led me to believe she saw horse keeping the same way I did and that's what she would do once she was here but it only took a few days after they arrived for me to see it was all a lie. If she really felt the same as I, she would have been in the barn grooming horses and seeing to the turnout rotation instead of hold up in her trailer acting like the horses didn't exist.

At no time during her stay did Amamda show anything that looked like genuine concern for my horses despite the fact she was trying to convince me otherwise. There were a few, very limited instances, where she mentioned to me a horse had an issue but she didn't follow through with the care the horse needed.

As an example, some time over this last summer, after the baby came, Amanda noticed Surprise was injured. The mare must have been kicked by another horse. She had a huge lump on her jowl, a cut that looked like it might be infected(I thought it might be from a hoof's edge although it was not long enough to show a curve) and her eye was swollen closed and weepy. Treatment was twice a day icing/cold hosing, SMZs and ointment for the eye but Amanda didn't follow through after the initial treatment even though she kept the medications with her in the RV so she wouldn't forget.  She didn't take care of Surprise unless she was reminded by me. After she went somewhere leaving Surprise's medications out of reach,  so even we could not treat her, I ended up having her return them to me so I could monitor the status of Surprise's care. I prepared the SMZs so all Amanda had to do was give them but it  was only the first three days that she was involved in Surprise's care at all.  It was easier for me to take care of the mare myself or have Dave do it than chase Amanda down.

How Amanda could claim to love the horses and ignore/forget Surprise's injury is beyond me but it is just one of many examples that says Amanda does not love horses like she claims. Luckily there were not many injuries but most of them weren't even seen by Amanda. Lindsay was and is my eyes and ears.

Then there was the issue of keeping the horses clean. Not having shavings in the wintertime required some extra attention to keep the horses clean.   Their long winter hair is like a magnet for poop and pee. If not curried regularly clumps of material can form. Despite my illness I had kept my horses clean until last winter when it was Amanda's job to see this happened. As long as you stay on top of it, it's not a difficult job. Most of my herd is pretty tidy. Only a handful of them require constant watching but Amanda didn't groom them at all.

I pulled Trouble out of his stall one day and he was disgusting with dried on crud totally covering his belly, armpits, hocks and lower legs. The only time I have ever seen anything like this was when Heather Kohl Davis left Vee living in a sewer. Vee's situation was worse because the sludge covered her entire body. I would say that Amanda's behavior was as neglectful as Heather's. Lucky for my horses they weren't living in circumstances like poor Vee.

I spent two hours hosing this mess trying to soften it so I could get it off. In the process I was stepping in Amanda's dog's crap. Two days earlier Amanda had turned Trouble out and she had ignored this disgusting mess because she didn't want to deal with it. The whole time I have been laid up my horses have never looked this bad but it never occurred to me this woman would  neglect my horses like this.

Like this all was not enough there was another nasty habit Darryl had. My stalls are wood and having a board kicked loose is pretty common with all of these mares. Instead of hammering them back up, Darryl would pull them off and throw the board out of his way never telling anyone. Eventually there were more boards over my french drain than there were forming the partitions separating the mares. It was only as Dave discovered the extent of this that he began to realize he was spending more time fixing Darryl's messes than he had ever spent cleaning stalls. The lazier Darryl got, the more Dave realized this wasn't turning out like he had expected either. Darryl didn't know it yet but Dave was reaching his boiling point.

To be continued.....

The Beginning of the End......