Sometimes people are in such a hurry to cut loose from certain long-standing bonds and agreements without considering their true meaning first that they end up cutting the branch they are sitting on.

While recreating agreements that were built on mutual respect and understanding doesn’t come without a loss for the reckless side, they get to find out soon after, as this horse track owner did, that sometimes it is best to “hold one’s horses”.

More info: Reddit

A horse racetrack manager revoked a long-standing deal with a neighbor and came to regret it soon after

Image credits: @coldbeer (not the actual photo)

A woman went to see the race but was asked to pay for admission

Image credits: SignificanceSoft7561

Contacting the track manager, the woman was told that the one-time deal with her father was now off

Image credits: bambe1964 (not the actual photo)

Image credits: SignificanceSoft7561

The woman responded by placing a few logs on her road and got her neighbors contacting her almost immediately

Image credits: Igal Ness (not the actual photo)

Image credits: SignificanceSoft7561

Image credits: Gautier Pfeiffer (not the actual photo)

This Redditor shared the story with the pettyrevenge community on Reddit of her mother dealing expertly with the horse track managers whose land almost surrounded the woman’s property except for her having access to a heavily trafficked public road. 

In the past, when the land belonged to the woman’s father, he had a deal with the horse track managers, as he allowed them to use his maintenance road for moving their horses, and as a small thank-you gift, they allowed him and his guests to watch races, which normally cost $5, for free.

A couple of years later, however, the woman’s father passed away and she inherited the land. When she went to see the race with her granddaughter, though, she was told she had to pay for the admission as the admission-free entrance was a one-time deal with her father that now was off.

Following that, a few months later when cutting down some trees, the woman told the contractors to “accidentally” leave a few logs across the maintenance road. The racetrack managers, who now had to use trolleys for moving their horses, contacted her almost immediately, apologizing and offering her the same deal as with her late father.

The woman responded that the one-time deal was now off, which ended with them paying around $400 every month in addition to free admission to horse racing for her and her guests.

The track owners apologized, asking to reinstate the deal, but the woman noted that the one-time deal was off

Image credits: Cytonn Photography (not the actual photo)

The whole thing ended with the race track managers paying her around $400 every month in addition to free admission

In their study, Francis J. Flynn and Joel Brockner were researching the favor exchange in relationships and specifically the various factors that “givers” and “receivers” tend to focus on when evaluating a favor exchange and committing to a favor reciprocity. They noticed that receivers’ commitment to a relationship of this sort was highly influenced by their judgment of the givers’ interactional justice.

Researchers backed their conclusions with various studies, noting that the way people responded to resource allocation was determined not only by the outcome but also by the procedures that were taken. That is, according to the study, people tend to evaluate their interactions with others considering both the outcome, how much a receiver benefited in some material or symbolic way, as well as how it was achieved – how much the giver treated the receiver with dignity and respect.

Redditors cheered on the woman’s way of standing her ground by turning her neighbor’s own ways against them

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