Life is a Circus

I board at a friend's farm. She rehabbed Doobie for me after his tendon injury for four years and even when I was moving him all over while I was in college to try to find a new barn closer to school, she always let me come back. She also, coincidentally, is who sold me Jimmy. So she truly a friend to me. She is extremely kind hearted and always wants what's best for the horses.

Well, this week she and her husband are out of town and needless to say, things aren't quite ship-shape around the farm. This bugs me because normally everything goes exactly to plan every day and I have very little negative energy towards the farm. Right now, I'm bitter.

For seven consecutive days, I got to the farm and Jimmy had no water. So I added another bucket about...day five. I was getting there at 7PM, so it was understandable (somewhat) that he would be dry because no one would have gone down there (he's the only horse who stays inside/uses the dry lot) since stalls were done in the morning. Then I got there Tuesday night (day seven) and saw that he now had TWO EMPTY buckets. Alright, I was really patient with this....but Strike One. I figured he hadn't been watered since breakfast on Monday.

Then last night I went out, hoping to find he'd have water...AND HE DID! SUCCESS! one full bucket of water, too! Yay for small victories! However, there was a pretty huge downfall... His stall door and window were closed, so he stood in the darkness all day (it was REALLY gloomy in Chicago yesterday).

Add to that, the guy who does stalls Wednesdays doesn't come until about 5PM to do them. Since all the other horses are outside all day every day, doing their stalls at 9am vs 5pm makes no difference - they don't come inside until about 8pm so they don't know or care when the stalls get done. However....Jimmy currently lives inside/in his dry lot. When he doesn't have access to the dry lot, he stands in his stall, in his urine and manure....all.day.long. I came in last night to this:
Hmmm. Strike Two. Thankfully, Antonio is the nicest stall-guy ever so as soon as he saw me he was telling me he's so sorry, he just got there and was about to do Jimmy's stall because Jimmy was inside all day & he's sorry but no one opened his door so his stall is very dirty. I responded in Spanish that I understood and it's okay. I know Antonio busts his ass for Jimmy. He give him big time special treatment compared to the other horses. When the other horses' stalls are dusted with shavings (fully matted & they're only in their stalls abt 8hrs a night) Jimmy gets a full bag. His buckets are regularly cleaned, and he always has a fresh flake of hay in his stall (much to my dismay...you can see he's gigantic right now from recent pix).

So I really can't be that angry, Antonio did right by me and by Jimmy with his wicked-fast stall strip and refilling it to the brim with fresh shavings. I'm just getting exhausted with having to go out every night praying my horse has water. Is it too much to ask that he gets fed, watered, AND gets let outside? Even if they don't clean his stall, I don't mind. Just please let him outside!!!! Barn owner & her hub come home Saturday. That day can't come soon enough. These things don't happen when they're around.