How would you handle this? Unqualified peeps blanketing horses at barn

[SillyHorse]

@J-Lu

Posts like your are why I don’t post here anymore.

And then you posted four more times, mostly to call other people rude, lol.

[red_mares]

Wow, this is a bigger train wreck than the one in East Palestine, OH.

[RhythmNCruise]

@J-Lu

As I have mentioned originally, the rug got put on.

You never mentioned that until this post. Thank you for finally clearing it up.
The horse spooked in place and the blanket got put on. It’s a non-issue. Nothing happened that doesn’t happen all the time at horse farms all over the world. Horses spook for all sorts of reasons. There is no reason to lay blame. There’s definitely no reason to email an adult’s parents (while they’re busy with family issues) and suggest someone give their adult daughter training on blanketing. Nothing. Happened. Goodness.

[J-Lu]

@Simkie

@J-Lu

I didn’t address Ghazzu.

You make a lot of statements in this thread that really raise the question if you’re even aware of the things you post.

You responded directly to Ghazzu. Do you see this?

You responded to Ghazzu’s post. You asked her a question. Yes, you addressed her.

You also come here late at night and rabidly and repeatedly insult people who are trying to help you, while saying you’ve left and you don’t post here anymore. Do you know that’s happening?

And it’s strange that you think this is true.

@J-Lu

As I have mentioned originally, the rug got put on.

Where do you think you clearly stated that?

There seems to be a serious disconnect with reality here.

I am aware of the things I post. So rude. Obviously I’m aware of Ghazzus very rude post which was very rude and not helpful at all. Do you condone her “Felicie” post? I don’t. That sort of crap drove me away from this thread. Of course I addressed her. What is your point? Do you think she and others were trying to help me? No, they weren’t. Lets be straight about things.

I come here when I can. Why do you care when I respond? People have been as rude as Ghazzu. Do you expect me to agree with thier BS? I haven’t been rude to anyone who provided constructive criticism. Instead I get the Mean Girls who try to redefine the narrative instead of asking questions. Because the Mean Girls like to pile on - it seems fun for them.

I clearly stated the rug got put on in I think the first post or shortly after that. Posters here came to think that the rug wasn’t put on and several of you went with that narrative, which wasn’t true. An example of people here creating their own narrative about the events.

[J-Lu]

Give it up and grow up. I’m posting because of the responses to my posts, many of which ARE rude. Including yours. Your posts aren’t anything close to constructive and comprise the Mean Girl insult posts. You have no desire to engage in actual discussion, but just want to insult. So characteristic of what happened to this thread.

[J-Lu]

Hope that bizarre analogy made you feel “happy”.

[J-Lu]

Thank you, but I disagree.

Maybe you are fine with inexperienced people working around your horses. Maybe you are fine if your horse knocks down an inexperienced person. Will you pay for their medical bills? This situation could have gone badly, but it didn’t. If it went badly, my horse could have been injured and/or this young woman could have been injured. Just because it didn’t happen doesn’t mean it can’t in the future. Are you so hung up on the fact that nothing bad happened and not the probability that something bad could have happened? The family has had horse injuries.

I pay for board. The contract protects the owners against me being hurt. It does not protect the owners or kids from being hurt. I’ve also known this young woman for about 8 years now - she has very limited experience with horses/desire with horses but earns her “chore” money these days by dealing with horses.

I think I’m done explaining, because I’ve explained before. I’m 100% done with Mean Girls. I feel like I’m repeating myself with people who haven’t read the whole thread or forgot facts. If anyone has CONSTRUCTIVE feedback, I’ll try to respond. I won’t respond to the Mean Girls who will undoubtedly proliferate here to make themselves feel “righteous”. Such BS.

[K_VanOlst]

New drinking game - take a drink every time OP uses the word rude or BS take a shot every time she flounces from the thread and then reappears.

[IPEsq]

You can get liability insurance to cover your horse causing injury or damage to someone else. Whether that person is on the farm or your horse got loose and caused a car accident, or whatever. Farm owners ought to also have workman’s comp insurance for their staff. A lot of jurisdictions recognize that anything involving horses is inherently dangerous. Because it is.

You really need to get over the fact that this incident hinged upon this person’s experience level. Actually sounds like she knew how to not get trampled. And got the task completed. And before you again tell me how strange I am because I must like idiots handling my horses and everyone getting hurt—no…that’s your “bizarre” strawman argument…what I don’t like is idiot barn owners who set up things on the property as an accident waiting to happen. And if that were to occur and I didn’t have the conversation with them at that time (e.g., when location of food got changed), then I really can’t be that surprised or upset when the accident does occur.

[Sdel]

@J-Lu

I clearly stated the rug got put on in I think the first post or shortly after that.

Hmmm….nope. Maybe you should go back and re-read instead of assuming.

[Ambitious_Kate]

@K_VanOlst

New drinking game - take a drink every time OP uses the word rude or BS take a shot every time she flounces from the thread and then reappears.

Well, I got caught up on this thread. Nothing useful to ad that hasn’t already been delivered. Unfortunately I skimmed it all without alcohol. What a waste! Of what could have been a great drunk! Aiee! All I can conclued is how everyone must get extra busy when J-Lu come to the barn.

car door slams
Everyone looks up
Boarder 1: oh, no, here she comes!
Boarder 2: Look busy!
Blanketing daughter: ducks out the back door
J-Lu: Hey, why is there no blanket on my horse! Isn’t anybody trained in blanketing around here??
Boarders 1&2: peer together, studiously, at a horse’s frog
BO:
J-lu:
BO: I can’t tell you how much I love the way your horse trims the lawn in nice neat tidy rows.

[enjoytheride]

@J-Lu

I clearly stated the rug got put on in I think the first post or shortly after that. Posters here came to think that the rug wasn’t put on and several of you went with that narrative, which wasn’t true. An example of people here creating their own narrative about the events.

I went back and looked at your first post and you don’t state that the blanket was put on. I looked at several weeks of other posts and you’ve gone back and edited all of your posts to remove any of your previous responses.

[S1969]

@J-Lu

Maybe you are fine with inexperienced people working around your horses. Maybe you are fine if your horse knocks down an inexperienced person. Will you pay for their medical bills? This situation could have gone badly, but it didn’t. If it went badly, my horse could have been injured and/or this young woman could have been injured. Just because it didn’t happen doesn’t mean it can’t in the future. Are you so hung up on the fact that nothing bad happened and not the probability that something bad could have happened? The family has had horse injuries.

I pay for board. The contract protects the owners against me being hurt. It does not protect the owners or kids from being hurt.

Ok. Since you are still posting - what kind of place are you boarding at? Seriously - is it a regular boarding barn where they have other clients who pay board?

If so, while they could sue you in theory if your horse hurts the hired help, I don’t see that happening or being successful. They are a business and their staff are covered by their insurance and workers comp. You can take out additional insurance to protect yourself in the event of a lawsuit - but if an employee is injured in the course of their work - your insurance ce should never come into play.

(Your insurance might be useful if your horse got loose at a show and hurt someone, but on the boarding property it should not be necessary.) Unless you feel that the barn/barn owner is under insured, in which case I’d be moving my horse asap.

When you board you always give up some control - you may not be told of staff changes or their experience. And, as mentioned a million times on this thread - “experienced” barn help is tough to get/keep without paying more, so…you kind of expect that stall cleaners and blanket staff are not necessarily highly skilled. But, you have to trust the barn to make good decisions and trust their livelihood is important to them too (as they will take the hit if inexperienced employees get hurt on the job.)

Of course no one wants their horse to hurt anyone, ever, but they are horses. Accidents happen.

[SillyHorse]

@K_VanOlst

New drinking game - take a drink every time OP uses the word rude or BS take a shot every time she flounces from the thread and then reappears.

We’d all be plastered very quickly.

[Simkie]

@J-Lu

That sort of crap drove me away from this thread.

It hasn’t. You’re still here. Do you see how saying this and then putting up a veritable avalanche of ugly posts is contradictory?

@J-Lu

Of course I addressed her. What is your point?

You said:

@J-Lu

I didn’t address Ghazzu.

Can you see that these statements are different, and contradictory? Do you remember posting this?

@J-Lu

I clearly stated the rug got put on in I think the first post or shortly after that.

No, you really haven’t. Go find it. Quote it here.

This happens a lot here, where you don’t appear to know what you’ve posted before. It really looks like you’re not aware of what you’ve posted.

@J-Lu

I haven’t been rude to anyone who provided constructive criticism.

You’ve been really awful to a lot of people that have provided constructive criticism, with rabid personal attacks, just because you didn’t agree with them.

People responded to your vitriol, although no one–not a single one–stooped as low as you have. Telling you something you don’t like to hear is not the same as calling someone incompetent, calling someone an asshat, the exhausting use of ASSume.

You even took your very unreasonable anger to an entirely separate thread, that had nothing to do with you. You worried the OP there that her account had been hacked, and then you mocked her concern:

@J-Lu

Oh Please. The OP was considering abandoning her account because she thought she was hacked?

You complain about people making “ASSumptions” and getting it all wrong. You don’t want people to assume? Provide them with the information. Someone asks a question, answer it. You don’t like the answers you’re getting? Well, you can either use that as a wake up call, and take a good hard look at yourself, or you can ignore it. Insulting everyone you disagree with is a tough way to go through life.

It’s clear you have trouble getting your point across. You think everyone misinterpreted your posts here. The barn owners weren’t talking to you because:

@J-Lu

They read my email wrong and thought I was talking about the BO, not my horse.

You have a lot of problems with people not getting what you want out of your writing. That’s on you. YOU can improve that.

Here are your first ten posts here. Show us where you said the incompetent barn helper successfully blanketed your horse.

@J-Lu

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!

@J-Lu

Thanks

@J-Lu

Thanks

@J-Lu

Thanks

@J-Lu

THANK YOU!!!

Complete sentence for Coth.

@J-Lu

The Natural Horsemanship trainer who trains out of the barn takes in a lot of problem horses. There are FAR more difficult horses on the property than mine. My horse has been blanketed his whole life. He’s very sensitive under saddle and processing new information. He’s pretty great with routine and in his pasture. He’s easy to blanket if blanked correctly and with someone who understands body language, as the BO told me.

My horse has never been difficult on the ground here because he had extensive training in groundwork with the NH guy. I can longe him in the arena without a halter, free-jump him without a halter and a chute but just with one jump in the arena, and lead him by his withers. I let him graze without a halter (this time of year, he has no green grass in his pasture) and return him to his pasture by leading him by the withers.

Can you do any of this with your horse? You really are assuming a lot in your posts.

@J-Lu

Please! My horse is one of the easiest horses on their property! Where are you getting you ASSumptions? They have company picnics there and my horse is the star carrot-taker from adults and kids because he’s so gentle in taking food from peoples’ hands. He’s the only horse that uniformly grazes his pasture so his pasture doesn’t need mowing as frequently as some of the others do. He really enjoys people and is usually very happy in their presence and doesn’t challenge people. I was once literally ran over by one of their foster horses that they had with my horse. Literally. Run. Over. My horse has great ground manners and I reinforce that all the time. That he didn’t flatten the daughter when shocked on the fence is a testament to that.

@J-Lu

Thanks

@J-Lu

Can you do any of that with your horse? It took me years of work on the ground to do this.

I’m assuming you can’t.

@J-Lu

I’ll ignore you because you haven’t had anything constructive to say.

[RhythmNCruise]

@J-Lu

This situation could have gone badly, but it didn’t. If it went badly, my horse could have been injured and/or this young woman could have been injured. Just because it didn’t happen doesn’t mean it can’t in the future.

But, this is true of anyone handling any horse at any time. All of us, regardless of experience level, are aware that handling big prey animals is inherently risky. You yourself have been severely injured by your horse in riding accidents. Many here have related their experiences getting stepped on by their own horses. People get kicked, pushed, bitten, knocked down, thrown off, fallen on (me), and any other number of things simply due to the inherent risk of handling prey animals that weigh about 10 times as much as we do. Are less experienced people more likely to get badly hurt? Sure. I’ll agree with that. But inexperienced people have to gain experience to become experienced people. I’ve definitely had people with less experience than me caring for my horses over the years. Luckily, I’ve been able to care for mine myself for the majority of the past 36 years (either due to owning my own place, running other people’s places, or boarding at self-care). Still, I don’t have a requirement for the person handling my horse have a certain level of “experience.” I’ve had my good friend and her children take care of my horses when I was out of town back when I had my own place. No one got hurt. Could they have? Absolutely. But how in the world can we live in fear of what “might” happen to someone? That cannot be controlled.

I’d say the young woman who blanketed your horse did pretty well. No one was hurt. COULD someone have gotten hurt? Of course. But that’s true every day that human beings handle horses. We’re all just one spook away from getting knocked down, stepped on, etc.

This morning the bottom line of electric fence between my horses and their neighbors is down. It looks like the gelding on the other side of the fence may have gotten his foot in it as one of the small step-in plastic line posts is laying over in his pasture. A few insulators have been broken clean off. The horses play and cavort at each other along the fence. This is the second time they’ve broken the fence. It happens because horses are horses. They do horse stuff. When they do horse stuff with us in the way, we all have a chance of being knocked around due to their size in relation to ours.

I think you’re a bit idealistic about how much control a human being has over every situation involving a horse. This young woman didn’t force your horse to touch the electric fence. He touched it by accident. He didn’t overreact, she gave him space in case he did, and the blanket got put on. It sounds like she did a good job. I would feel confident having someone like her blanket my horse anytime.

[QuestionMark]

Speaking of drinking, games or otherwise, are you drunk? I’m asking in complete seriousness–do you have a drinking or mental health problem that is making it impossible to walk away from this mess? You sound miserable and unhinged. If so, I hope you can find a way out. You will probably need some big help; I sincerely hope you can get it.

[SuzieQNutter]

@SuzieQNutter

@J-Lu

[Deleted]

So not only are you superior to all of us, now you think you are a moderator as well.

I did that first so you are following my trend, asking you to not post with insults and bullying. Just answer the questions that have been asked.

I answered the question you asked. Lets see if you can follow that trend.

Oh look. Mean Girl was edited by mods, and no I did not report that post as an insult, which it was.

I am so glad to see the @RhythmNCruise question was finally answered.

What a total mountain out of such a molehill as I predicted.

[pn]

Thanks Schoolmaster!! Yes such a stupid thread this has become. J-Lu, you feel a horse who steps on a persons toe is untrained or whatever it is you think this time. The horse was a 23 year old been there, done that children’s hunter. Imported from Germany after a show career as a dressage horse. Did the medals, derby’s, EVERYTHING…and did well. Carted his pre teen around like the pro he was. His name was Newcastle Rex if you want to look him up. He had blood. once the trailer pulled up he knew he was going somewhere and just got plain rude. YES he was trained. HE WAS ALSO RUDE when he got excited. Please don’t assume that because he crushed my toe , he was not trained.

[SuzieQNutter]

@pn

Thanks Schoolmaster!! Yes such a stupid thread this has become. J-Lu, you feel a horse who steps on a persons toe is untrained or whatever it is you think this time. The horse was a 23 year old been there, done that children’s hunter. Imported from Germany after a show career as a dressage horse. Did the medals, derby’s, EVERYTHING…and did well. Carted his pre teen around like the pro he was. His name was Newcastle Rex if you want to look him up. He had blood. once the trailer pulled up he knew he was going somewhere and just got plain rude. YES he was trained. HE WAS ALSO RUDE when he got excited. Please don’t assume that because he crushed my toe , he was not trained.

Of course he is untrained, he has not been trained for over a year by J-Lu’s magical trainer, who will tell you when you are in tune with your championship pony and give you discipline lessons like leading from the wither. /s