Thread by @OGYokYok

These two horses are Dot and Dash. Dash is closest to us, you can spot him because he’s got some pink coloring on his lips. The other horse is Dot. He’s Dash’s older brother. If you took the harnesses off of Dot and Dash, they would spend a lot of time hanging out just like this.

They came from some farm in Ohio. As I understand it, they used to work on one of those fair carousels where they’d spend the entire day with people on their backs, walking in sad circles.
They were always affectionate horses.

This is probably going to be a long thread, sorry

They came to #GreenfieldVillage (part of #TheHenryFord) shortly after I transferred to the barn from the Model T’s.
How lucky could those horses be? The Village is a magical place. Sure, it could pay more, but it’s a non-profit and you get to drive a Model T all day. Rad, right?

One time a model T driver almost hit a kid who ran out into the street. This is a normal occurrence for T drivers. But this guy, after many years of doing this, and many close calls, began having nightmares where he was killing kids with a model t. He had to quit.

In the army, that’s PTSD, and can easily get you a 30% disability rating. (I’ve got a rating from my time in Iraq)

T drivers are non-union so I don’t know if he gets anything for his sleepless nights.

I was transferring to the horses. They’re union. Gotta be Teamster. $$$

Except, at The Henry Ford, the union folks are UAW and it’s a SMALL bunch with little support. I almost choked when I learned we made like 11.30/hr. I was expecting something around 18-20 to START considering the risk assessment and the level of knowledge needed.

But if you ignore the money, it’s a rad place to work. Seriously, look it up, and tell me you wouldn’t want to work there. Weird-ass Henry Ford bought a bunch of historic buildings and surrounded himself with them for comfort—and you can work there!

I’ve never worked with horses before. Shameful, I know (I was a cavalry scout after all!). I’ve always been fascinated with the frontier and the Wild West, and before I joined the army, I lived in rural Montana. Getting to learn about horses at the village seemed amazing.

It was everything I could have wanted (aside from the pay). I found a supportive team of knowledgeable horse-lovers who had been working with horses for years and years. One of the senior people there was only like 27 and already had like 17 years of working knowledge.

This sort of experience was typical of the people that worked in The William Ford Barn. I craved this sort of environment ever since I left the army. I loved the teamwork and the camaraderie. I loved how silly everyone could get and how serious they could be.

The problem is that, not everyone is as lucky as me. I collect a pension from the VA and I also have another job that is 75% less physically involved and requires 100% less brains. It also pays twice as much.
Other millennials in my group aren’t so fortunate.

The workload in the barn can be physically exhausting, is frequently dangerous, and the shift is long. It starts at 0730 and ends at 1730. If you’re lucky enough to be a driver, you get paid about 11.30. If you’re a non-union groom who works with the horses, you get minimum wage

Side note: you ever work a union job where non union people can grab your equipment and use it?

Non-union farmers would take our horses, frequently. Used them all the time. I’ve never seen that before.
I wouldn’t let a mortarman touch my .50 cal unless I was hitting him with it

One time the farmers used a team of horses to pull an old 19th century reaper (something I call the “Death Chariot” because it looks like a prop from Caligula) and it freaked them out. The horses ran through a fence. The driver had to jump off the machine. Total mayhem.

^ This is almost off-topic. What I’m saying is that horses are unpredictable on top of being big ol’ sweet dogs with rocks for feet and you need a lot of situational awareness and knowledge to predict behavior and react safely.

You need team mates you can trust to safely handle the giant, easily startled, kind animals and rig their equipment correctly. Once you met someone you could totally trust it was glorious, and once you got a horse to really trust you, it was magical.

Anyway, people get stepped on like, daily. Sometimes it’s enough to sprain or fracture a foot. Sometimes you straight up get kicked. One farmer got kicked in the chest once. I got my knee cracked by Orville. (Orville was so scary we sold him. He’s happy somewhere else.)

TARGET starts people at 12 bucks or something like that and nobody kicks you as far as I know. Also your shifts don’t last 10 hrs (including break). Because of wages like this, we went through 22 people in 2 years.

While I was there, the horses became noticeably agitated.

Doc is a giant and used to be super chill. Last time I bridled him, it was a total pain. He’s so high strung when bridling now. He was also colicking a lot lately, which was strange. He used to seem to like working at the farm (although it’s muddy there)

This is probably a good article to read to understand what’s coming up. (Thanks to one of my colleagues). This stuff was all new to me as it was unfolding as I am new to horses. Because of our attrition I was a senior person at 2 years.

canr.msu.edu/news/impaction…

Probably wouldn’t be good for your dog’s mental health if it had 22 people of varying competencies come in and out of its life in 2 years.

Probably your dog wouldn’t like it if one of those people essentially threw a shovel at it. (That person was fired immediately)

I’m just saying that people always said that Lincoln was a challenge, but him and me would jog together to the red barn and I swear he loved running with his little human.

Nowadays you have to put a muzzle on him before harnessing him because he wants to bite everyone.

Having all those people changing in your life isn’t good if you’re a person let alone a horse. We’ve definitely bitched about the turnover rate (see? It’s just like the army, bitching and all!) but not a lot we can do with highly paid anti-union lawyers on retainer.

Honestly if they paid the barn staff enough money to quit their second and third jobs, you’d get an entirely different program in a few years. You’d have EXPERIENCED handlers who know the horses and trust each other. It would be safer and better for the horses.

You’d probably save money in the long run as well, since you need 50 hrs of time driving on the carriage bench before you can take any guests around. That’s on top of the however many days of institutional orientation and basic horse-handling. That’s a lot of money invested.

22 people in 2 years is like 100% turnover. William Ford Barn is only like 20 people or something. It’s a small team (just like my scout platoon: undermanned and underfunded, LOVE this job and I’m being serious). Imagine if you didn’t do all that and just kept the same people. 😲

I feel like I’ve told thousands of people about Henry Ford getting tired of wasting money retraining people who quit soon after and decided to pay them five bucks a day. A solid wage. Something like 16/hour in today’s money.

We only tell of innovation. We do not partake

Well, some of us get raises:

Hey, I’m sure the CEO has at least SEEN the horses. Maybe while we gave them and their multi-millionaire friends carriage rides during after-hours cocktail parties.

Someone said the CEO campaigned against 15hr minimum wage but I’m too tired to confirm.

Anyway, late last year, upper Henry Ford management unveiled the plans for the new parking lot. It conspicuously overlapped our entire outer pasture. In fact, removing that space would reduce overall pasture space by 50% (by my scientific google maps eyeballing)

Knowledgeable senior barn staff raised concerns (because we LOVE our animals) but they had already made their decisions, I guess, and tore down a barn, then built another barn.

But never built the fencing. So the new barn sat unused nearly the entire year.

Many of the horses got rain rot due to inadequate shelter and only then did money management cave and build some shelters in the small pasture up front.

The replacement pasture was never built.

Construction on the new parking lot began.

Horses churned earth into mud.

Horses pick hay up from their mangers, throw it on the ground and pick through it while eating. Recently, as weather conditions worsened, the horses began inadvertently consuming dirt with their food. This was never a problem before, when we always had some flat, fresh earth.

Over time, lower management shake ups got us some barn staff in what we thought were key positions. They were the highest ranking and most knowledgeable people we had, but I guess other people knew better, because all they did was take more space away.

And then this happened.

And suddenly this happened.

And suddenly, as a horse novice, all the other sick horses made some sense, like a mud and piss covered ending to Usual Suspects. And our tiny department was devastated, because we love those animals SO MUCH. The guests love those animals.

Money parking lot people do not.

And suddenly, one of the comforting aspects of the job: “I provide a comfortable and happy life for these horses” was taken from me. Because no matter how much we love the horses, the people with the most power don’t care. They care about money.

The WFB staff need their jobs.

I am privileged enough to be able to quit my job on principle. The rest of the staff do not. And they don’t really want to quit because they love the horses and fundamentally love their jobs. If The Henry Ford truly wanted to innovate, they’d pay these people a decent wage.

They’d also LISTEN to the advice of the people who are hired to take care of these animals instead of ignoring them or prioritizing profits over the lives of the animals and employees.

How are you going to ignore someone with 20 years experience? How do you tell them sorry?

If they only care about money how about this: a new good horse is expensive and it’s a lot of hours getting it used to model T’s and screaming kids and scared adults and those paid hours are tears in rain when a horse dies.

But if you’re not a morally bankrupt dirtbag, you’ll pay these people what they’re worth and let them care for these animals the way I THOUGHT we cared. They serve an important purpose to the people in metro Detroit and dearborn. Practical, educational...

And it’s worth it because on more than one occasion I’ve seen people see a horse in person for the first time and literally cry.

So I wouldn’t want to dissolve the program. Just do it right. The correct way.

I really hope it happens for the horses and the people handling them. I won’t be there because I walked out shaking in anger and eyes filled with tears. I couldn’t even say goodbye to Dash on my way out, I was so ashamed.

Pretty sure these posts will burn every bridge at THF

And that’s a shame because I used to love that job

and then I got to meet the wizard and that dude sucks.

#thehenryford
#greenfieldvillage
#AnimalRights

Let me show you a typical special event schedule for the barn.16hrs. Do you let people operate machinery after 16hrs of continuous work? Why do they make them operate horses for a shift like that? The current team inherited a culture that abuses employees. Hard to break the cycle