a farrier rant: warning, verbose & trailing
Hello, looking for some advice and looking to get a vent off of my chest...
I keep my horse in a family co-op situation. There are six horses on the farm, and one is mine. I pay for all of his grain/feed/needs, have my own farrier and vet practice separate from the family. Horse is in his own grass paddock because while he plays nice with others, he plays rough and other family members don't like it.
On July 3rd, for whatever reason Family member #1 (herein referred to F1) decided to put my Horse with the herd, and it went as well as you would expect. Two horses threw shoes, all of them were running, and we're lucky no one got seriously hurt. One of the horses that lost a shoe was my horse, and the other horse belonged to Family member#2. I was informed after the fact that this had been done. F1 shouldn't have done that especially not without my consent, but whatever. I don't want to cause a big fight, so I just roll my shoulders and look for the shoe. We found the shoe, surprise, in the herd's paddock.. which means he lost it when he was interloping with the herd.
I did not immediately text my farrier because it was the day before a holiday and I didn't want to be That Person, but I spoke to F1 and F2 on the 4th and both said they had already texted their farrier to come and put the shoe back on their own horse. I said "ok, I'll just text my farrier on the 5th after the holiday is over" and left it at that.
July 5th I text my farrier in the AM letting him know Horse pulled a shoe and asking him if he would be available sometime this week to put it back on. I don't hear from him all day. This is normal, he's busy, I don't think much of it.
I get home from work on the 5th, bandage/wrap my gelding's hoof, leave to go home and get a call from the farrier saying he is on his way to shoe my guy. Super short notice but I only live 5m from my horse. Great, I think -- I turn around and go back to the barn. 10m later farrier pulls up, tacks on the shoe. I mention to farrier that there was another horse with a pulled shoe, but farrier doesn't have any interest in putting the shoe on the horse (backstory: my farrier was badly burned by F2's farrier). In the past my farrier has offered to put shoes back on other farrier's horses because he's a really considerate person -- that he didn't volunteer to do it for the other horse makes me think he doesn't want to touch that farrier's clients. F2 pulls up in time to see farrier and I, chats with us, but doesn't ask my farrier if he can put her horse's shoe back on.
Fast forward to today, now 8 days since F1/F2's horse pulled his shoe, and he still does not have a shoe. Apparently F1/F2's farrier doesn't want to come out and told them to ask my farrier to do it.
They apparently have texted my farrier three times and he has not responded. As far as farriers go mine doesn't always reply immediately, but he is responsive within a day or so which I think is reasonable. I'm inferring from his lack of response and also his lack of interest in putting the shoe back on while he was out for me means that he does not want to tread on the minefield that is the other farrier's client base. Gently as possible, I mention to F2 that he doesn't want to do it, but F1 is positively livid at ME, accuses me of being a liar (saying that I am lying that my farrier's visit was unplanned and super short notice). F1 is now mad at me saying I am inconsiderate because I did not tell her beforehand that my farrier was coming..
I guess I'm frustrated, as this entire fiasco could have been avoided if F1 never put the horses together. I don't feel it's my fault (or my farrier's) that F1/F2's farrier is unreliable, but F1 is furious with me and thinks I am inconsiderate for not informing her that my farrier was coming. I did not text her to give her a heads up when he was here, which is true, but he is not her farrier, it was super short notice, I was busy holding a horse and F2 was there in front of him .. Personally, I'm a little at loss for words that this situation has somehow become my fault - should I have texted F1? Maybe.. I honestly didn't think of it because of our farrier's testy relationships, and to be honest, I try to keep my interactions with F1 to a minimum since I feel sometimes she looks for reasons to be angry with me. I feel bad for the horse who is now on his 8th day without a shoe.
What do I need to do in the future to protect myself from a blow-up like this? I obviously learned I need to inform F1 of every little move I do.
Submitted July 11, 2017 at 09:14AM by HORRIPIG
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