Hi all,
How would you handle this? BOs now have one of their 19 yr old daughters picking up more “jobs” at the barn because daughter doesn’t have a job. She is super nice and has made money over the last couple of years cleaning troughs, paddocks, etc. She doesn’t ride, doesn’t handle horses and is not a horsie person. They are fairly new to horses and ride once or twice a month. They don’t do lessons or clinics.
Lately, they have asked her to blanket horses when they are out of town in cold weather. She just learned. She tried blanketing my horse when feeding recently, he moved forward, his nose touched the hotwire and he was shocked. He spooked significantly but was cognizant enough to not get in her space even though there is a fence in front of him and right on the side. She told me about this event and we both said she was very lucky and we talked about it. She and I get along very well. Of note, my horse has lived there for 10 years and has been blanketed for 12 years. He’s easy, as the BO told me 3 months ago.
I emailed BO and described the event, and asked if they could give the daughter more training on blanketing horses or a lesson with the barn trainer to work on ground work. One responded by saying my horse is somewhat unpredictable, damaged their run-in so they had to put hot wire in there (not true until they put a mare in with my horse’s gelding friend and they have a weird 3-some dynamic - they share a run-in), that he can be pushy to blanket (contradicted the last message that he was easy), their daughter was likely fine and that they have blanketed 200 horses in the time since they purchased the place. I replied that my horse is easy to blanket when he’s eating (and he just is all the time - they blanket and unblanket when they feed), I was talking about their inexperienced daughter, and that the only time he was hard to blanket was when the other of them tried to blanket him in a hurry and my horse took off running and fell to his knees. We talked about this incident years ago and the conclusion was that the husband was trying to rush things (said the wife) and didn’t have the right “energy” (said the wife).
They are not talking to me since this after-Christmas email exchange (even in social situations) and “want to talk to me” later in the week. I think the place is ideal for my horse, but I’m having concerns with what seems to be some serious reactions that I think, as a paying customer, I have to right to identify and come up with a solution for. I think their daughter could have been hurt by any horse that for some reason hit the hot wire when eating in a small area when blanketed. Since this has never happened in the previous 10 years (they’ve owned for 7), I’m going to assume their daughter new to blanketing/interacting horses was likely the cause. They now interpret such feedback as negativity about their business.
We’ve become good friends over the years and they were new to horses when they purchased the place. I’m really saddened by their reaction to the situation.
Am I being unreasonable? How would you address them “in the meeting”? How would you have dealt with the news that your horse who has been there for 10 years shocked himself on the hotwire while being blanketed by a non-horsie person?
There’s a lot to unpack there but I’d love to know your thoughts, especially from barn owners. Thanks!
