Texas Equine Veterinary Association

www.texasequineva.com • Page 23 probably enough, but the fun of the art of barter is getting the most you can, even if you don't need it. "Okay, I will take the cord of wood and load it myself…… but you have to throw in that white rooster!!" A white rooster? Really? What does Dr. V need with a white rooster? But he was insistent. He had lost the battle of help loading, and didn't want to be the looser in the game of bartering. The old gentleman considered this for a good long while. Dr. V giggled to himself as he went through the age old bartering ritual with this fella. Finally the deal was set and Dr. V finished working on the animals, loaded the wood, and put the white rooster in the back seat of his vet truck. He was feeling pretty proud of himself for not being bested on a twenty minute barter. But the question is, who really won? Dr. V was staying in a run down motel with his wife for two more nights. Where in the world was he going to keep a white rooster for two days? He arrived back at the motel and discovered the rooster had pooped all over the back seat on the trip back to town. He couldn't leave that thing in the pick up all night because it would ruin everything in the entire cab. So…..He took it in the run down motel and put it in the closet. The floor of the closet was concrete and he figured that would be easier to clean than the seats of his truck. You can just imagine what his wife said when he came carrying a chicken into the motel room and put it in the closet. He informed her that the rooster was an important part of his payment for the day, and he wanted it to be comfortable through the night and safe in the closet. After all, chickens roost at night and the closet was a perfect, comfortable place for a rooster to sleep. You can imagine what his wife said when the rooster started crowing at 5 a.m. in the morning. Not only her, but what about the folks in adjacent rooms? Dr. V was back in the pickup at 5:15 a.m. heading toward the old gentleman's house with a large white rooster crowing in the backseat of his truck. His last words to me as we finished our phone conversation was this…."Bo, I thought I had finally out-bartered an old border farmer, but they always seem to get the best of me." BO BROCK, DVM, DABVP From "Crowded in the Middle of Nowhere" written by TEVA Founding Member and Current Vice President, Bo Brock, DVM, DABVP. Available for purchase on Amazon. It is such a wonderful life, being a veterinarian in rural America. I was recently talking to one of my good friends on the phone, Dr. V, a veterinarian in South Texas. I have always had an interest in how each veterinary practice that I know has such a distinct personality that reflects the people of the region they serve and the personality of the veterinarian that serves them. Dr. V is a character. He is one of those people that practice veterinary medicine for all the right reasons. He wants to help people and animals and he wants to have fun doing it. During the course of our conversation he told me a story of a recent client encounter that made me laugh for days. Dr. V goes down to the border once a month and stays for a few days taking care of the horses and livestock of the people in that region. He has done it for years. It is a totally different culture with some of the kindest and hardest working people you will ever meet. I have been down their many times and have learned to love the locals and how they think and the traditions that they live by in an environment that most people in America will never see or understand. Dr. V has a way with these folks. Most of them are so kind, often poor and humble, but their animals still need care and Dr. V has such a big heart that he goes out of his way to make sure they get the best care he can muster up and not loose too much money doing it. The barter system is in full force just north of the border. People here are used to trading goods instead of money, and Dr. V has learned to play that game with the best of them. The old farmer had two bulls that needed castrated and a cow with mastitis. Dr. V told him how much it would cost, (barely above what it cost him to do it) and the old gentleman approved the price and soon had two steers and a cow with a happy udder. After the procedures were over, the farmer asked Dr. V to do a few other procedures for free (since, of course, he had already paid for the essentials). This is often the way things happen. The locals get the necessary things done with the money they have and then try to get the "luxury" things done by some sort of persuasion. This fella wanted Dr. V to float the teeth of three horses, palpate 15 cows, and castrate a dog. I can just imaging the fast speaking Spanish that must have been going on as these two dickered over what sort of payment would be necessary to get such things done. After multiple offers and counter-offers, the old farmer was set firm with a cord of wood. Dr. V was about to agree but insisted that to old farmer had to help him load it in the truck. The old farmer was determined that he wasn't going to trade the wood and also load it. Dr. V was receptive, and a cord of fairly sorry wood was DR. V

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