The End

Ok...well this is getting long and whiny so I will wrap it up here. All these little things kept piling up and began to make life not so enjoyable around the barn. I began to dread going and would try to tack up quickly and head out to avoid the "we need to talk" from the BO. It never worked, but I kept trying.

Two final events occurred that pushed us both over the edge. The first was our farrier. I chose her at random on the internet. I refused to use the barn farrier due to his reputation for making horses lame. When I showed up on Saturday D and S (who I really like) were both there. I brought Gemmie in and D made some comment or other. I told her our farrier was coming. She made some other comment and I told her that we were using someone else. She asked who. I was now getting irritated with the questioning, but I told her it was a barefoot trimmer named K. She replied "Oh, does BO know?" I said I doubted it. She then said "Well, there is bad blood there" I snapped back "Good thing she isn't paying for this then" and left to get Pete. Sigh. You can refer back to the foot post for the farrier story if you care to.

That was on Saturday morning. Sunday afternoon I wanted to go by the barn and check on the horses to make sure they were still happy on their feet and to re-measure Gem for hoof boots which I seem oddly incapable of doing correctly. The BO showed up and started off in her condescending tone "We need to talk" Sigh. Again? She then informed us that we could not use the farrier we chose because of undisclosed personal reasons between the two of them. The hubs tried to reason with her saying that our professional relationship with the farrier is not related to her personal feelings, but we were just told that (continue condescending tone) "you are used to businesses and this is a family establishment" Umm... kindly quit telling me what I am used to and no you are wrong. Wisconsin was a family owned establishment. We were told we could use any farrier we wanted. Apparently not. We asked if there were any professional reasons we should avoid this farrier (like hurting horses, being late, changing fees etc...) and was told no she just doesn't like her. Then she told us we could trailer out to meet the farrier in the future. Huh? Oh...and please don't tell her anything. Ok...wait...so you want me to call the farrier who I have an appointment with in 6 weeks and tell her not to come, try to find some random roadside location to trailer to, and yet not explain this sudden and irrational decision? No thank you. I will not get put in the middle of your personal problems. I'm not being loyal to someone I barely know, but really? This is getting old.

We left and talked about things and decided we needed to move the horses. It just is too much of a hassle to cross lines we don't even know existed. I wonder how long it took for D to tattle tale on us to the BO. Do you think she waited until we left to call? We debated on timing since we had no clue where to move them to. I have a new friend who has a lot of horse connections in the area (and also has "bad blood" with the BO) and so I called her and asked her if she new any boarding establishments. She knew a bunch. Or if we would prefer we could have them in her backyard. Or in her friend's yard. Or in another field she knows can be leased. Or...or....or...lots of options!