Here I am again, sitting at my desk in the dark, other than my desk lamp, with the pile of bills. Benji and Emma have done their homework and have been in bed for hours. Jim is drinking his second beer after coming in from the barn, exhausted after another 14 hour day. All he has to worry about are training the horses, kissing up to the women customers who come for riding lessons, and mowing pastures on pretty evenings.
Me, I have all the behind-the-scenes dirty work. Hire a stall cleaner, for the 100th time, figure out how to update the old website with all our horses for sale, schedule the vet and the farrier, do all the accounting, and now the part that makes me physically sick, try to figure out who I am going to pay this month.
We have to have the truck and trailer that we paid WAY too much for, so we can roll into the horse show like we own the place, so those two get paid.
I can put off the hay man for a month if we don’t feed as much hay.
The mortgage is a must too. Liability insurance is crazy, but we have to have that. Bare minimums on all the credit cards.
Shavings and feed are tougher to stretch, but somehow when I clean the stalls and feed the horses, we don't use as much. I need to get out to the barn more...
Course, feeding the family is a must, but tuna and hamburger helper are my friends. Emma and Benji grow out of their shirts, boots and jeans so fast and those are so expensive. The same goes for me, I have to show off my jewelry and designer jeans and boots and Lord knows, I have to have a different outfit for each show. Jim, well, he is not picky as long as I starch his jeans, shirts, and replace those shirts when the collar gets worn.
We gotta look successful to attract new customers. We have to look the part when we go to the horse shows, so we can't skimp there.
If we could just sell more horses faster and easier, all this nightmare would be over.
Signed,
'Too Many Bills Betty'