The Beginning of the End

Part 1 of the Black Years

Part One of Amanda's Wright's Story

Considering the concerned horse person Amanda claimed to be, it is hard to imagine how she could ignore so much and still make such an assertion. JJ commented on yesterday's post that she thought Amanda and Darryl were the worst we had here and I believe she is probably right. However,  it's important to menton Amanda was quite outspoken in her complaints about Jessica and Erin. In hindsight I realize  that was nothing more than a way to get her foot in the door by making it look like she would be some much better than either of the other two.....yet there she was....so much worse in so many ways.

 The only reason I qualify my agreement with JJ is Amanda was around so much longer than anyone else and I am always trying to be fair but the reality is whenever Erin or Jessica were specifically asked to do something they did a much better job than Amanda ever did. Trouble or any of my other horses did not end of looking like poor Trouble while Jessica and Erin were here.   Erin actually spent more time in the barn than Amamda ever did and Erin was only here 2 months next to Amanda's 9.

More horses actually were groomed by Erin than Amanda too, even though that isn't saying much. I was embarrassed by the way my horses looked twice when I showed them to prospective buyers when Amanda supposedly got them ready for the people to see. I was NOT embarrassed by what Erin did to get horses ready when people came during her stay. The job could have been better, considering she came from a show barn and the prospective buyers were looking for show horses, but the horses were presentable. Yet Amanda had criticized what Erin did when she appeared here that day.

Last August I had people coming from Florida to look at a mare and her two daughters. Like anytime I have people coming, I want all of my horses to be groomed since I never know when someone will decide they want to see another horse. These particular people I expected would want to see all of the horses because bloodlines tend to differ across the country so this would be their opportunity to see different horses than they are used to in their neck of the woods.

With Amanda no longer pregnant I expected her to get my horses cleaned up for this visit, all of them, not just a few as I had asked when people had come over the winter.  Dave expected the ugly RV to be moved to a less conspicuous location. There were also some expectations about getting the farm in order. One of which was getting mats fixed since the mare and one of her daughters has the worst mats on the place. I also wanted a muddy walkway fixed and the lawn mowed and edged.

I knew approximately when these people were coming but I also knew from Amanda's past performances that she would put these chores off so I gave her a deadline that was a week earlier than the actual visit. I didn't let her know the people were coming later. For all Amamda knew her deadline was the real deal.

I wanted all of my horses' manes and tails combed out and kept that way as well as each horse thoroughly rinsed off. I gave her enough time she could have bathed them all if she was really interested in making up for all the time she'd let me down.

Interestingly enough at this time, Darryl began some program with the state that he was forced to attend because his child was now on the welfare rolls. As I had predicted, stalls were not being done while Darryl was gone for these purposes. The program, however, didn't take up as much time as expected so its impact was not as bad as it would later become but enough to finally be getting through to Dave.

I kept asking Amanda how she was doing with getting the horses groomed and I reminded her I was not going to tolerate being embarrassed by dirty horses again. She claimed she was making her way through manes and tails but I reminded her she needed to be making progress on getting them rinsed too so that we would only need to do a quick touch up the day before the people arrived.

Amamda assured me she was beginning that task on Friday. Her sister and her fiancé were going to help. They planned to come first thing in the morning and then be here the whole day for a work party. The fiancé was going to work on the storm damage from two winters ago and her sister would hold horses for rinsing. Amanda figured they would put a big dent in the job then.

I had experienced Amanda's idea of a work party with her sister and fiancé before. They had shown up after 1 and were gone around 3. The only real worker in the group was the fiancé. I didn't expect this time to be any different.

While I was pressuring Amamda to get the horses cleaned up, Dave was doing the same thing with the RV. He told Amanda the thing could NOT stay where it was. It had to be moved or else......

Dave is a very easy going guy. He would have to be to live with me. I push him pretty hard and he rarely pushes back. I think Amanda had seen enough to know she'd better take him seriously when he said "or else because that is really unlike him. The RV wasn't running yet but she claimed to be waiting on parts.

Darryl actually found a job working for Subway. His orientation was to start the same week the people were coming from Florida. I knew the stall cleaning was done by the way they had already handled Darryl's absences. Amanda did feed lunch sometimes but she had not touched a stall. The working dynamo she'd claimed to be when she was grooming her way onto my farm was just one more lie. She had a lousy work ethic and her word was useless. The only question I had was how high and dry would she leave me with people coming all the way from Florida?

To be continued.....

The End Gets One Step Closer........

This picture is Surprise. I should have posted it yesterday when I was talking about her. As you can see from the attitude, she expects to be appreciated. I love this little mare. Hope I get to breed her someday. Curretnl that's not looking likely.