Follow on from the 'You've got a horse, you're loaded' post

i get comments from my in laws and other non horsey people, they all say that if i got rid of the horses then i'd spend more time at home with my husband and kids.......my husband bought me my horses and will be the first to admit he's glad i have them as he couldn't cope with me in the house every second he's home from work!

i also get told that if i didn't have the horses i could buy nicer clothes and go out and meet new people. again i have to point out that i don't want nicer clothes, i'm happy with what i have and as for going out meeting new people, well i've done that and they weren't that nice so i've stuck with my horses and i've met loads of nice people (and some strange ones!) through the horses.
another typical comment from my mother in law is that it isn't healthy for the kids to be around all that poo and that i shouldn't take them there. i have 2 answers for that depending on my mood, 1, it will help them grow or 2, it's healthier than her house/garden, she keeps birds and happily spends £400 a month on bird feed and vet bills and has live feed in her house and she expects the kids to help feed the birds, yuk!
 
_CJ_ said:
Also, it makes sense to me to pay a yard manager or professional groom to assist with the horse in the event of emergency while I am at work. I also prefer paying for part livery so that I can work late, travel on short notice etc whenever required.
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My horses live at home......I am the yard owner/manager and groom;)

No-one says anything about my horses.....they just stopped asking where I was going on holiday, as the answer was always 'I'm not':D
 
I am very lucky in the fact that when Legend was PTS I was going to give up horses (or just find one to share) but my OH said I would be the most miserable person ever without a horse in my life and he also gave me some money towards it :D My in laws are also horsey, so they 'get it' and my mum doesn't really mind (although she wasn't too pleased when I spent some of my student loan money on Legend when I bought him ;) ) as she's never had to bail me out or support me in terms of money so I am totally self sufficient.
 
my MIL made the statement (to OH not me but i overheard!) that if i stopped watsting my time & money on my silly horses we might have the morgage & debts paid off, i cant repeat what i told her on a public forum but it may have had some personal comments about her Drink issue!
 
Aoibhin said:
my MIL made the statement (to OH not me but i overheard!) that if i stopped watsting my time & money on my silly horses we might have the morgage & debts paid off, i cant repeat what i told her on a public forum but it may have had some personal comments about her Drink issue!
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:D:D:D I have 2 horse and a drink issue (:rolleyes:) god knows what people say about me! Thanks god my Hubby doesnt dp Drag Racing anymore, we'd be living in the streets:D
 
My top two insults are probaaaably.....

Christ, you must be minted, two horses on part-livery. (Sadly NOT the case!!!!!!)
What's the point in having a horse if you can't ride it? (From my non-horsey-no-idea uncle) - When we had our little dartmoor
 
_CJ_ said:
As it happened, I was too far away to get there soon anyway (working abroad) so I had no choice in the matter. If anything happened now I would tell work I had a personal issue and needed to take some time off, and hope they agreed to let me use up some holiday so I could go straight to see mine, but I would not discuss my horse.

My manager does not seem to have any interests outside work, expects everyone to do lots of overtime, seems to put work before family etc so I strongly suspect would not be a good idea to go into details about my horse. I'd have been more comfortable confiding in some of my past managers who were more family and work-balance focused :-)

Also, if I started crying I think my manager would feel extremely uncomfortable, which was another good reason for not bringing up the horse situation.
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I understand what you are saying. Especially if you are in a very senior well paid job it would be seen as unprofessional to just up and go because of an animal. I am very lucky in that my husband is the bread winner and I get to run the non profit making livery yard. Having said that, I was pleasantly surprised the day I rang hubby to say I had to have our 13 year old bitch PTS. Despite being in a very senior position, he rang back to say he owed it to her to be there and left work immediately. However, had he been at an important conference or something he would not have been able to risk it. At the end of the day, all the animals owe their living to him.
 
I am a senior manager in my current job and my manager isn't animal-minded but does believe in work-life balance, so if I needed time off in an emergency I would be able to take it, although it would mean a bit of juggling as I cannot choose my holidays.
I have in the past (different job) taken time off when a horse had colic. Our horses are at home, so there is no 'yard- manager'.
 
stroppy said:
Clearly you are a person that has animals and not an 'animal person' BIG difference, what exactly do you do?
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I think thats unfair to say. I adore my horse, she is my life but i wouldnt expect my boss to understand. If i had an emergancy phonecall at work from the yard to say my horse was sick i would just drop everything and go but i can do that because my mortgage/family etc does not depend on my income as i only work part time (im a student) if i were in my chosen profession i would be inclined to do the same but i understand that it might be very difficult. Not everyone can just ditch their eg. computer at work....many of us have patients etc of our own who depend critically on us
 
my current hubby loves the horses and never moans about money but my ex (and he is an ex for a few reasons including this one lol) would say "your effing horses have prevented me going to blah blah because they need something or other"....didn't stop him buying his secret a few nice gifts though did it lol
 
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