Using "slave" flashes= bad idea. What if grannie's flash fired off mine? Radio control FTW!!
That's why I recommended the SU-800, the triggering is encoded, so you'll only get affected if someone has a D200 or SB800 in commander mode or another SU-800. You also get 4 banks, so someone would have to be deliberately messing with you.
Not worried about being sued. Its a known fact that if you enter a rodeo, you are doing so at your own risk. Tennessee has some really great laws about horses and riders and such.
Laws don't stop you from being sued, they simply help you prevail if you are. I'd think a flash is not an "inherent risk" of equine activities- so I'd bet that a court would take a suit under TN ST § 44-20-101 - 105 even if you ultimately prevailed. It's your risk to take though- but coverage for a couple million in liability will likely be under $300/yr- I cover ~25,000 in equipment with liability for $500/yr and that includes theft of my MacBook, dropping the camera and pretty-much everything else outside of floods and terrorism.
The other advantage is that it'll let you shoot at venues that require insurance coverage- I'd be surprised if you couldn't get decent coverage for ~20/month.
But my advise for you is to loosen up a bit. You had some good points,, you just sounded like a dick. I bet its safe to say that some server somewhere has spit in your food.
You'd lose that bet- if the waiter was out to make victims of the customers, then they'd get a vitriolic response- but I sure wouldn't be eating at a business that ripped off it's customers afterwards- and I'd assess the risk fully informed of the downsides of eating there afterwards. I sure wouldn't be even entering the door if someone said "I want to be a waiter, but I can't afford to wash my hands but $restaurant just hired me for my first gig!"
People in these forums forget that "pro" means there's a customer who's supposed to be getting value for their money- an attempt to rip off the customer disguised as some sort of photographer-oriented panache simply isn't fair to the customer. If it doesn't apply to you, then you can ignore it- but if it does then you should evaluate what you're giving the customer in that regard.
It's like speaking engagements- If I were to say "Hey, I really don't want to *do* any of that Windows junk- but I'd like to speak at various security conferences because it's good money and that Windows stuff is popular, so I'm doing my first "real" speaking engagement next week at USENIX Security- where can I get some screenshots of doing Software Restriction Policies?" I can't afford a copy of Windows 2003 Advanced Server or even XP so don't tell me any of those expensive options and I really don't have time to do it, so don't tell me to try it out!" In that scenario, getting up in front of say 120 people to speak as an expert wouldn't be fair to *any* of them.
Fine Art photography is about the image, most other professional photography is about the customer.