Goodbye Headaches, Heartburn, and the Desire to Choke the Living Crap out of Someone

Finally, the saga ends.

Let me back up and begin at the beginning. I was looking for a place to keep my horses. They are very important to me, and a safe place was number one on my list of things to look for. A friend of mine steered me to a place relatively near my home. I went with her to look the place over and meet the manager. I have to say that in looking for an affordable place to keep horses close to the city, the place was the best one I had seen so far. That's not to say it was perfect, but after looking at it, I decided that with a small investment I could make it safe enough. The manager seemed to be a good person, with a genuine interest in horses, and the people who owned them. So based on what I saw and heard, I gave him a check to hold the private pasture I'd been shown until my horses could be trailered in.

The next thing was to get some sort of shelter built for them. The pasture was just a 3 acre plot with no shed or barn. I found someone selling those portable car ports, and had seen someone convert one to a run in shed for a good price, so I ordered one. After many delays, we finally got it up and ready.

Then I set about making the fencing safe for my old lady and the deaf two year old that was her partner in crime. I bought and installed t-post toppers and electric wire. Just about that time is when things started being -not- what I had been promised. The first thing to go haywire was access to electricity for a fence charger. Suddenly, I was not allowed to use the electric outlet near my pasture because it would be "too much of a draw on it". Hmmmm. OK. So, I go out and buy a solar charger that costs three times what the regular plug in variety costs. I guess that's ok, because it is for the safety of the horses, right?.

Then there was the promise of a break on board in return for the run in shed we were building staying on the property whenever we left. That would have been great, but there was never a discount on the bill. Hmmmm, guess he changed his mind. No problem, I will just take it with me when I leave.

So, then the horses came, and for a while all was well. I had told the manager that Baxter was deaf, and if he needed to be in my pasture for any reason, he needed to call me and I would come out and put the horses up so he could do whatever was needed. Apparently the manager is selectively deaf, because a short time later I drove up and found him brushhogging my pasture with my horses loose, and Baxter was following the tractor with his nose virtually on top of the mower deck. OMG!!! I ran out and caught the horses up, and locked them in the small feed area. Then I told the manager that I had asked him not to do that and he said he couldn't find my number... Uh, yeah. Sure you couldn't. Because of this, I went and spent more money, this time on locks and chains so that he would *have* to call me. I also wrote all my contact info, including work, home and cell numbers down for him again.

A couple of months later, I drove up to my pasture to find that my locks had been cut off and the pasture had been mowed down to dirt. Ok, now I am pissed off. Not a little, but a lot. I called and got voice mail and left a scathing message. No return call. So my brilliant solution was to find a lock and chain that the jerk couldn't cut off. I also told him that I did not want him to mow my pasture any more, that I would pay someone else to do it. That ended that particular little problem.

On to the next bitch. Arrived to feed one weekend morning. Susie was in the pasture, but Baxter was not! Lovely. I found him in the stallion lane between my pasture and the one that the resident stallion lives in. The stallion had grabbed Baxter by the throat, and nearly killed him. After I caught Baxter and put him up, I started looking for the escape route. That was when I found that either the manager had removed the back fenceline from my pasture, or there had never been one to begin with. The very back of my pasture was thick woods, and the horses never went into them. I had (stupidly I guess) there surely there must be a fenceline back there, but no there wasn't. So I strung a line of step in posts with hot tape for a temporary fence until I could get some t-posts. By this time I had found that asking the manager to do anything always got the same response. "Oh yes, I will take care of that". Unfortunately he never got around to it, and this was crucial. I bought t-posts and a pounder thingy. I put half of them in and strung the hot tape on them. I left the rest of them by my feed room to do later that week. When I got ready to finish, I found that the t-posts were gone!!! I thought, great the manager finished it for me. Uh no. He had taken the t-posts that I bought and put them in the stallion's fence line!!!! ARGGGGGGG!!! Bought more t-posts and finished my fence. I am starting to really loathe this guy by now...

The next issue was when the manager decided that my pasture needed "cleaning up". So he goes in with his tractor and cuts down the brushy area at the front. This was covering up a spring that stayed wet most of the year. So the manager (from here forward referred to as "the jerk") gets his box blade and proceeds to try to "stop" the spring from being a spring. All he succeeded in was getting the damn thing stuck in my pasture. So, I put up some more step in posts to keep Baxter from killing himself on the stinking thing. It was stuck in my pasture for 2 weeks. Finally it dried out enough for the jerk to get it out. Then he comes in with a chain saw and starts cutting stuff down. That would have been fine with me, except he also took down the temp fence and left stubs sticking out all over the place. The VERY FIRST thing Baxter did was go down in that freaking mess and puncture his foot, breaking his coffin bone. Furious does not begin to describe my feelings at this point. Between vet bills, bandage materials, and fencing supplies it cost me over $1500, and I am still not sure Baxter will ever be sound for riding. The urge to beat the snot out of the jerk was almost overwhelming.

The scariest thing that happened in the three years I had my horses there was when some idiot let Baxter out of the pasture and shut the gate behind him. It happened at night, and of course I didn't find him missing till the next day. I was in a panic. My big 1400 pound deaf horse was missing. I was positive someone stole him. After much frantic searching, I finally found him at the far end of the property. Thank God he was fine. This apparently happened because the jerk had pissed off some former boarders who supposedly would sneak on the property at night and either take down fences, or let horses out. I got more chains and locks, and locked both sides of every gate accessing my pasture. I also put up a step in fence inside the regular fence. Funnily enough, Baxter did not "get out" again.

The final two things that pushed me over the edge were the stallion getting loose and grabbing Baxter again, and the jerk driving right by a black horse that was loose on the property at 5:30am and going out the open gate without stopping or closing the gate. If he will drive by that horse in the dark and leave without even trying to catch it or shut the gate, then he would drive by mine too. The single most irresponsible thing I have ever seen done around horses. I closed the gate when I left. I didn't try to put the horse away, because I had no idea which pasture it belonged in. Supposedly, someone was coming in again and unplugging the stallions electric fence. I have no idea if that is true, but I do know that the stallion attacked Baxter again, and that was it!

All of these things really happened, but were just the worst of it. There were constant annoyances like loose horses mugging you at feeding time. Loose horses getting *in* my pasture and kicking my horses. Starving horses with no food or water if I didn't feed them and fill their tanks. Horses getting loose and getting hit by cars, or impaling themselves on t-posts or injured in fences, and on and on ....

I found a new pasture. I had driven by it every day for the last 2+ years on the way to feed the horses, but it was occupied. Then I noticed it was empty, and I stopped to ask about it. It was the same price as the bad place, and only 3 miles from our office and 7 miles from home! I was lucky to find it. It is safe, close, good grass with a barn, feed room, and arena, *and* there are no stallions to break in or out and try to kill my baby boy!

Thank goodness I found it. It's a huge relief to know my horses are safe.