So I'm selling this horse... Which means dealing with some crazy crazy people. I know this. I've sold plenty of horses to know this. From people with a misplaced snese of loyalty to this one horse they lamost bought before ever seeing her to people not buying a horse because it eats trees when there is nothing else to eat. Crazy people! CRAZY!

This thing just reches new levels of stupid though.

This lady emails me asking if the horse raced (something I already told her) and if I've had him vet checked and explains how she has a horse now who she's had for 2 years and recently came up with back problems which she claims are because he used to race.

Yes, you may commence "wtf?"-ing now.

I am patient and kind and tell her that I have no reason whatsoever to believe the horse might have a back problem. He moves well, isn't sore, jumps and moves fine, no tell tale signs whatsoever of any back problems. I also explain to her I've been around horses a long time dealt with numerous horses with back problems, sat in on a million vet checks and that vet checks rarely include back checks beyond a quick overlook for any immediate problems, so if there's an underlying problem, a vet check will probably not pick up on it. 

She is still sceptical because she doesn't want another horse with back problems. Which is fair enough

But at this point I wonder wtf for real.

Back problems happen and they're not more common in one sport or another that I know of. They are common around ill fitting tack, after lameness issues, after falls, due to bad conformation and so no and so forth but not after racing...!
It just doesn't add up.

I suspect and hope something got lost in translation and that maybe her chiropractor mentioned something along the lines of "injured a tendon in his racing days and this brought on back problems." Now THAT would make sense.

So I email her asking if this professional (which I assumed she had out to come to this wild accusation in the general direction of the racing industry) she got out mentioned anything about it being common in race horses.
I tell her how to me it doesn't make sense, physiologically speaking as well as experience wise. Racing does a lot of bad things but messing up a horse' back is not on the top of the list for as far as I know. I tell her I'm just curious and want to know how she and her professional came about this conclusion that race horses = back problems. So essentially I ask some critical questions about the whole thing.

I get an email back, saying how his first owner said he had some hind end soreness when she got him out of a paddock in a neglected state and how he knew nothing but canter and stop. She had him then treated for the soreness, put weight on him and he was then sold on a few times before this lady got him and she has now had him for 18 months and NOW he has a back problem.

She had a chiropractor out first who said he had never seen such a stiff horse (stiff...not sore) and decided to take up treatment from a n osteopath to get him right again and is donig a ot of lunging over cavalettis and hill work to make him better.

No where does she explain how he chiro or osteopath decided or mentioned anything about this hailing from his racing days. In fact, aside from the 'never seen such a stiff horse' there is not a word from either of these professionals about how this problem came around. Except that they think it may have happened after a fall or a buck in the paddock.
 
This ONE horse that she has had for two years now has problems and has a history of  being sore in his back end after coming out of a neglect paddock, she is reluctant to buy another ex-racehorse because: Apparently racing ruins their backs. This is a problem which then lies dormant for over 18 months only to be aggravated by a buck or a fall and cause major problems and make them unrideable. 

As a cherry on top of the milkshake she seems to expect me to get a chiropractor out to check my horse' back out, at my expense.

This could be me, but wouldn't that be something she should organize and pay for if she wants to buy him. But maybe she should just come and have a look at him and decide if he's even remotely what she's looking for BEFORE expecting me to spend money on investigating the possiblity that she thinks my horse, in the future, long after I sell him, might have a dormant back problem because of his racing days.

More "WTF!?"-ing my commence now.

So, we're planning a road trip and we'll be gone for four nights. And well.. four nights without the internet just isn't possible. Everyone knows this! I need to refuel at least once every 24 hours.

Cue discussion:

bexx_t_h : It's only 36 hours we'll be in pemberton! 
Me: EXACTLY! 36 hours! Do you hear what you're saying?!
bexx_t_h : We can watch TV and go fishing! 
Me: Watch dvds we've already seen and FISHING AT NIGHT!?
bexx_t_h : I don't think Pemberton HAS internet, no one replied to my emails!
Me: Call them then! 36 hours is too long! D8<

And thus Bexx makes a phone call.

bexx_t_h : Hi, I was thinking of booking with you guys and was just wondering if you have the internet? 
Dude: Oh yeah, we have that website thing...
bexx_t_h : No, I mean, the internet available at your accomodation.
Dude: Oh ... well... we have it in the office if you... need to check your e-mail you could use that... but
bexx_t_h : Okay...
Dude: Yeah, we don't.... don't have that... eh... that... thigy.. that... goes everywhere.
SomeoneInTheBack: Wireless?
bexx_t_h : Wireless? 
Dude: Yeah! That! We don't have it.

We're going to blood hick's ville! D8
BACK IN TIME! *flail* Words cannot describe the dread I am feeling! o____o

The search continues for a place that has both spas and wireless... >.<

God fucking DAMMIT! 

My bloody fucking emails are all screwed up. Sometimes theyjust will not go out no matter how hard i try and keep coming back. Some appear to go out and then hang in limbo. Others just come back after days of spending time in limbo. It's FUCKING unreliable I never know if I'M waiting for an answer form them or THEY'RE waiting for an answer from me!
And while it wasn't a problem whe I was jsut mailing family and friends I now may have lost my spot in the equine dentistry course because apparetnly they have not been recieving ANY of my emails, nor of my pleas to get an extension on the in-voice to pay them the money.
So now I have an ominous email sitting in my inbox titled "cancellation" and it's driving me up the wall.
I sent an email back obviously begging for forgiveness of my unintended radio silence that I didn't know of and pleading if I can still have my spot even if I don't have the monnies yet but DAMMIT I don't even know if that's going through! I'll send it again tomorrow if I havent heard back yet but FUCK!

I can't seem to get a hold of my dad, I've sent multiple emails (which are apparently unreliable) so I called a few times and I just keep getting his voice mail! >.<
I DO receive email just fine for as far as I can tell, it's just outgoing mail that's a right fucking mess and it's pissing me the FUCK OFF!

Amazing how one moment everything seems to be coming together almost miraculously perfect and then suddenly it all goes to hell in a handbasket again. I don't GET IT! Is the universe just messing with me or something?!

Dad, if you're reading this. CONTACT ME! Right away! I don't care what time it is, I'll wake up for it if I have to. I needs me some monnies FAST! >.<

Went to bed listening to woman from previous post wandering around the apartment complex, going in and out of her place slammign the door talkng and cursing ot herself and saying stupid crap like "Think of the kid... think of the kid..."  
Until like 06:30...

Woke up at 13:30 to her wandering around the complex yelling at the poor kid. =/

What do you do when it's 3am in the morning and there's a 6 year old little girl knocking on your door going on about how someone is hitting her mommy in the apartment downstairs that you've heard fighting noises from all night (plate smashing et al.)? 

Please to be leaving your answers in the comments. O_o

Edit:
Glad to hear we did the right thing! :P

Called the cops (obviously! Did it right away!). Tried to help the kid but she was freaked to hell and kept running back out to her mom... Who then sat her down on the steps in front of the house only to go back inside herself, smash some more plates and yell some more at her darling boyfriend/husband/whatever.
Place downstairs was trashed with stuff all over the place in front of the door...

Cops came after about half an hour (!!) and of course about ten minutes after the kid had been let back into the house and had apparently been put to sleep (despite stupid woman constantly going "We're leaving!")

Cops came out and had a nice chat with the both of them which we had the joy of half over-hearing.
Some lovely gems of the conversation for all your delight and delactation;
"The neighbors aren't even home!" 
"We had an argument but it's settled now it was minor." (followed by turning around and bitching eachother out)
"Trashed? It's a little messy is all...!"
"My daughter is in bed and has been sound asleep."

And the KILLER of the night was;
"No, I walked into a wall, and this is the only bruise I've got as you can see." 
Because that's so believable! A WALL? Come on now woman, even if you're piss faced drunk you should be able to lie better than that!

Then it all went quiet for a bit and now it's 4:45am and I can hear them bitching AGAIN! And more door slamming and what not... Hurrah! x___X

I need a credit card or something! >_< Just for online purchases since PayPal is portraying fail like fail was never portrayed before!
I've always happily used PayPal with very little problems until I decided to flop down in Aus. Suddenly stuff becomes too difficult for PayPal. What happened ot the good old days where PayPal was all in english and actually a multi-national company!

Apparently NOW it's all branched off and I'm the happy member of Dutch PayPal which means I can do ANYTHING with my PayPal account in the netherlands. I cna ship there, I can use the dutch bank and all is peachy.
However it's apaprently impossible to ship anything to a country other tha nthe netherlands. I can change everything abot my shipping addres EXCEPT THE COUNTRY IT'S IN!

This already led to a rather entertaining customer note to the Office of Letters and Light along the lines of "PAYPAL LIES! I live in Australia now, not the netherlands, please ignore their LIES! D8" but I still fear my order might have gone missing! DX

In the meantime I'm trying to work my way through customer service and FAQ of PayPal looking over every question EVER asked in the history of PayPal but to no avail. Apparently no one ever EVER tried ot change the country they lived in.
Never mind the ever amusing comment on my PayPal that "Sorry, the FAQ has not yet been translated to english."  because apparently the dutch FAQ is completely different from the english one.

Eventually I manage to fight my way through the customer service form to contact a helpdesk employee (subjbect, sub-subject, question, message, language message was written in, etc.) asking them how the hell I should go about that.

I get a nice reply back explaining it's DUTCH paypal and it wants nothing to do with filthy Australia! They tell me if I really want ot I should close my current account and sign up with PayPal Australia.

I e-mail them back asking if I can't just run two account because it seems rather dumb to close it now and then re-open it next year, they agree with me and say I can.

I try this an I NEED TO HAVE AN AUSTRALIAN BANK ACCOUNT TO SIGN UP FOR IT!
 

RAAAWR! PayPal is driving me maaaad! DX<
and getting in the way of my x-massy shopping!

Isn't it amazing how I wiki to find the history of horsemanship... and end up reading about bederastic relationships in greece and the traditions and values of relationships between men and adolescent boys.... ?

How does this keep happening?

Also; is it a coincidence that the first man who preached to be patient and gentle with horses and is percieved as the first important horse master was a flaming homosexual?

Yes! Three updates for this asshattery deserves it's own post. 

More schoolrelated stuff.

So I handed in my final project (finally!) April 22nd. My teacher saidshe was going to read it and come back to me before the week was out with what she tought of it etc.
Verily so friday of that week I got an email from her though it was so uninformative it was almsot painful. something along the lines of;

"The-shrieking-banshee and I are considering your grade. You will hear our final decision after the May Break."

Right.. okay.. so as May break is over I was expecting an email yesterday as grade were due then. Got nothing. Grades were being sent in today at 16:00. I received an email from my teacher at 17:30.

"Je profielwerkstuk is beoordeeld met een voldoende." *
Your project was graded with a pass.

No feedback, no opinions. Nothing. No critiques, no helpful comments, nothing to even remotely indicate what she thought of it, other than that it was passable! 

.....

Wtf ROC? It took you THREE WEEKS to come up with that? Are you actually affraid to teach your students anything? Feedback might've been helpful, since it's not a Gold Star project apparently, so where could I improve on huh? All I really learned now was that apparently I have to dumb myself down to make myself understood to my classmates and I should never try to do more than is strictly asked of me. Very valuable life lesson right there. I can now also lower my IQ whenever I need to. 

Or was it just that my shredding evaluation I gave on the project, the system and the school's policy of abovementioned alledged overachieving so hurtful that you no longer WANT to teach me anything?

New school motto, should they ever need one, here's my suggestion:
"The ROC: No, we really ARE just trying to annoy you."

Apparently I don't have tomorrow off.

This sucks balls. >.<
Wtf school?!

First I got this in an email from a teacher... Well not A teacher, the shrieking banshee teacher...

Trouwens, kan je een ander taalregister kiezen voor je aanspreking van mij? Ik ben geen leeftijdgenoot, geen vriendin, geen ondergeschikte van je.  

For ye english people "By the way, could you pick a different language style when speaking to me? I'm not your peer, not your friend or your subordinant." 

While I always thought my emails were pretty normal/semi-formal. Okay, it's not all tip-top in order but hey, it's an on the run, in a hurry- email basically going: "Here's my literature list, byes! See ya whenever."

S in stead of going with my normal "Hello," to start my email I went with "Dear Mrs. Glasser."  for my next email ,sortof blowing it off like "yeah whatever..." not made any comment about that either *points up*

And got this in return. 

De aanspreking wordt al beter! Ik heet trouwens Glaser met 1x s. Ik vind een naam wel belangrijk. Niet alleen voor mijzelf, maar ook voor een ander. Ik zou het vervelend vinden als ik jouw naam steeds verkeerd spelde, want je bent je naam ook, toch?

Een klein beetje aandacht en betrokkenheid kan de hele verhouding tussen mensen opfleuren;  daar hoort ook het correct gebruik van omgangsvormen (o.a. e-mailcontact) bij. Omdat je naar mijn idee een veelbelovende cursist bent, wijs ik je hier op.

For ye english;
"It's getting beter! but my name is Glaser, with one s. I think a name is rather important. Not only for myself but also for others. I would find it bothersome if I kept spelling your name wrong. You are your name after all, right?

A little bit of attention en involvement can change the whole relation between people and brighten it up; proper forms of conduct (a.o. e-mailcontact) are included. I point this out to you because you're a promising student in my eyes." 

....erm... yes.. thanks. I kind of got that, I just didn't bother to pay attention to it  in 2 line emails. Nor did I need this really... O_o but... thanks.. I suppose. And why am I suddenly a promising students two months before exams? While last year you couldn't stop going on about how I wasn't going ot make it if I kept up my behavior?
Changed your mind on that one did you?

Also; this coming form the school who decided in my second year to make my second name into my first name. Resulting in my second name being on every damn attendance list, test and assignment instead of my first name. But oh how she'd HATE to spell my name wrong, so we just use a COMPLETELY different name...!

So, leaving the house a little earlier than planned probably. Not a bad thing per se... A bit more notice would've been nice.
Instead of; "We kinda need to know what your'e going to do and where you're gonna live by tomorrow if you don't mind..! 8D"
Considering how I should probably involve the people I'm going to be moving to about it and all.... Talk about last minute.

Uh well... Can't be helped I suppose. 
E-mailed dad, hopefully he'll get back to me today about if I can drag my stuff, cat and dog over to his place for a few months... 
If all goes well I'm moving by the end of march/beginning of april. but that depends entirely on how quickly my dad can take me in, if he'll take me in and when he has time ot help me move all my shit to his place... 

I think I shal lcharter the brother into helping me with the latter. Whether he wants ot or not, as retribution for not letting me know on Friday that they'd seen nice apartments and were considering moving there by april! XP

In regard to my previous post; the explanation, but I can't be bugged to do an edit...

So, I send an email in my best english ever asking some questions and asking about the realistic chances of a foreign student getting in. As I can imagine that they'd prefer Australians as to keep the knowledge in the country and to supply jobs etc. It made sense in my head...

So I get an email back today. It completely went past me that the subject line read "Antwoorden." which is dutch for answers, and when I read the email it started off in perfect dutch. And I do mean PERFECT dutch so I had this momentary heart attack of "omigod!!IdidsomethingterriblyWRONG!'
Thinking I had sent it to the wrong address or failed to notice that they had a special dutch section to answer my questions or SOMETHING to that extend. It took me 5 reads before I clued in that it actually just meant the guy running the facilities; is DUTCH!

I mean... what are the odds that the first person in Australia that I contact, turns out to be dutch. It had me in a chucklefit for; a. freaking out about it like I did and b. for the odds of it.

He answered my question about my realistic chances of getting in right away wiht a joke of "So since I'm dutch, you don't' have to worry about 'selection' I simply prefer dutch students.... Just kdiding, I select whoever I think would suit the course best."

So that's one relief.... plus, teacher-owner-guy sounds pleasant enough.

Other than that I'd expressed concerns over the duration of the course since my working visa only allows 17 weeks of study and the course is 30 weeks from 2009 onwards because they added some material to it.
He did that off with "It's australia, they're not that difficult, as long as you spend money..."

Which again highly amused me. XD

Now I jsut need to go find money for tuition, as it seems like a really great opportunity...
 

"Hallo Lindi,

Toen ik vandaag je E-mail zag, zei ik tegen mijn assistente dat engelstaligen zich moeten schamen want jouw brief was beter dan de meeste van hen.

Ik ben nederlander dus je hoeft je geen zorgen te maken over 'selection'. Ik heb natuurlijk voorkeur voor nederlanders.... Nee hoor, grapje,  ik kies op wie het best geschikt is en als er meer aanvragen zijn dan plaatsen, krijgen de eerste aanvragen voorkeur.

Het is altijd  mijn doel geweest om zo goed mogelijke behandeling van het paard te waarborgen en heb daarom altijd het niveau van studenten hoog gehouden.  Je kunt op mijn website ('methods') ook zien dat ik prijs stel op het gevoel voor paarden en 'menselijke' behandeling.  Dat betekent dat ik het ook niet eens ben met het zaag en slijpwerk van de amerikanen zonder enkele wetenschappelijke basis.  In Australie geven meeste goede dierenartsen eerlijk toe dat paarden tanden een zwak punt is van hun en ik wordt door dierenartsen gewaardeerd voor mijn doelgerichte behandeling in associatie met hun.  Ik heb hard gewerkt voor die erkenning.

Ook al wordt mijn training door vele instanties en individuelen erkent en gewaardeerd, mijn training heeft geen officiele status van de regering.  Tot nu toe wordt het in de equine industrie meer gevraagd met wie je je training gedaan hebt. Veel mensen doen in de US een hele korte training en gaan dan snel aan het werk voor veel geld, met soms betreurbare resultaten.  Om dit te voorkomen ben de eerste accreditatie dagen aan het plannen en dan worden getrainde equine dentists 'licensed' en moeten ze hun praktijk en behandeling volgens een heel strikte Code of Practice uitvoeren.  Er worden dan ook regelmatig steekproeven gedaan om hun licentie te behouden.  Meer op mijn site onder Equine Dental Practitioners Board Initiative

De distance education (D/E) wordt geheel via E-mail gedaan.  Wekelijkse lectures met wekelijkse kennis toetsen gecombineerd met taken.  Momenteel is D/E 14 weken en on-site (O/S) is 7 weken intensief.  Vanwege de uitbreiding van het materiaal gaat, zoals je gezien hebt, de lengte naar 20 weken D/E en 10 weken O/S.

Wat betreft het visum; maak je geen zorgen.  Dit is Australie en bovendien zijn ze al blij als je hier geld uitgeeft.  Bovendien heb je dus ook maar 10 weken nodig.

Ik hoop dat dit wat van je vragen beantwoord.  Als je meer wil weten mag je ook even bellen. Mobiel +61 414 566 789 of thuis 61 3 9859 5225. (het is 10 uur later hier)

met vriendelijke groet,

Peter"
 

I would.... say something but right now I'm too busy giggling like mad over the fact that the first australian person I contact IS DUTCH! Shall edit this later once I've recovered from my near heart attack of "OMIGHODI'mstupidIdiditwrong!"... XDDD
Shall also translate later for the english among you, buts I have to go any moment now...!

Is... from the same planet as superman... o_____o

I was lunging my horse.. or rather, getting ready to. letting him throw some bucks nad race around a bit so he'd get that out of his system... and Globe was cold and didn't know where to stand so I said ot her she could stand with me in the cente.r We could talk and walk and it wouldn't be so cold...

So she comes in, and Amy, my doggy, follows her... no big thing, usually I don't allow her in the lunging arena until I'm done but she was sitting quietly next to us so yeah... I didn't send her out like I normally do.

Then a few moments later my horse is cantering, my dog suddenly racesforwar,d barking at him as if playing. They play together sometimes but never quite like that... and she just.. ran... under him! While he was cantering!

And he couldn't evade her if he wanted to so he stepped on her... FULLY STEPPED ON HER! And she was yelping and snarling. And my brain was going "oh crap vet bill of doom... x_X" and then.. she.. just... walked back up to us.. without even limping...!

And my horse jsut kept going... and ... dog is fine. Still. Not even a limp, nothing... she's... fine... *still a bit in awe*

My dog is bleeding indestructable..! My hrose isn't particularly small or light, he's a good 1100 lbs at LEAST. At a canter! So all his weight on that one leg...! O_o

I have a friggin' yoga pony and indestructable dog...!

OMIGODIT'SALMOSTFOALYTIMEYEEEEY!8D

*squee**dance**cheerleads*

BIG BELLIES EVERYWHERE! 

Good god Classy is gonna asplode if she doesn't pop out her foal fast! D8 (and yet she cna canter?! wtf?!)




*deflates*

You know something is wrong with you when the first concious thought of the morning is: "Oh! vagina..! *slither*" 

Not sure what happened there....

I defied the laws of the universe and made it to school. Just in time for the second chance at a test I never made in the first place or knew I even had. 

However, I've caught up to nearly everything. Finished one paper, handed in the first draft on another one, FINALLY got the assignment for the last one. Got my exambook (and down another 15,75 because of it x_X)
Now I just need to barf out a book list which I'm alledgedly going to read. 
And apparently I've got a presentation on January the 18th.... I have no idea what it entails but I shall ask ...somewhere next week.... 

Apparently for my history project (big finaly project i'm supposed to spend 40 hours on) I should sift through all the sources of information I found and figure out which information is useful and which isn't and seperate the good from the bad and select what I'm going to use. 

I am seriously wondering if ANYONE works like that when writing an essay.... 

Regardless, have about half an hour of nothingness ahead of me now... 

And oh my god, the look-a-like from the guy who does the apple commercials just sat down next to me O_o *stares*

December is made of blah and suck....

So plan was to go to bed early and to wake up at 8 o'clock, then get picked up at 8:30-ish to go ride and practice for the x-mas show thingy...

Dandy by me...

So I get to bed at around 2am (which is early, no matter what anyone says) and promptly fall asleep (as I have a habit of doing) and the next thing I know I wake up with the distinct impression it's far too light outside. 
I get up to check the time and find my computer is turned off, which sorta sucks since it's my alarm. But I hadn't heard the bell or anything so at this point I was mainly just confused like nothing else. 

I grab my phone and see it's 11:40. 

What the fuck?!

I also incidentally have 6 missed calls and they're all from le friends. Typical.. so I sent them a text message "O_o; wtf?!" 
Promptly get a call back with lots of wagging fingers about not answering my doorbell. 

What doorbell? I heard nothing! 
I must've been abducted by aliens or something...! How can I not have heard the doorbell, apparent pounding on my door and my dog going nuts over it.... and still be fast asleep?!