Harv memory #2: The service here stinks!

It's going to seem like I'm picking on a certain barn worker from a boarding barn long in my past -- and I don't mean to -- but he's part of the story. His name was not Athens, but I'll cal him Athens.

Sometimes Athens tippled while at the barn, and chores were not done properly. In a 60-70 stall barn, mistakes can go unnoticed.

This was apparently the case one weekday evening at the barn -- a night that I was not there. The incident began with  a big commotion in the back aisleway. The back aisle ran down the outside of the indoor arena, and a horse was kicking the back of his stall so violently that riders could see the boards along the indoor wall shake. Everyone assumed a horse was cast, and the instructor came running.

Not cast. Pissed.
Earlier that evening, Athens (apparently) was very distracted when he fed the back aisleway, where Harv was stalled. He:

1.  Forgot to water any of the horses.
2. Dumped Harv's grain into his nearly, but not quite empty water bucket.

There was just enough water  in the bucket that Harv couldn't eat, and just enough grain that he couldn't drink.

Harv does not suffer in silence.

Probably an hour or two after Harv's meal was botched, it became apparent to him that the wait staff was not returning.  He started out kicking the wall,  but when the riders came upon him in his stall, he was head-butting the water bucket repeatedly, timed so that the bucket was spinning on the eyehook like a  wheel.

Good people that they were, they took care of my boy and watered the other horses. All because of Harv.  Although I worry about Harv, and his care--not so much now as then--that story made me realize that Harv was capable of making his needs known. And good for him!