Common Sense?

Good Thursday morning, folks.  I promised you last week I'd get to my issue of how little education and common sense people seem to have.  The farm is a good place to use common sense.  Unfortunately, I shouldn't count on it.  The farm is not a place one must have a Ph.D. to work, but I am frequently surprised how often my employees don't get simple cultural or literary references.  Let me share.

Last year about this time, I had a young man working for me who had just graduated from the Bible College. He spent the year between undergrad and graduate school with me.  So, by this time last year, he'd been with me nearly a year.

He was using the year to apply to fancy graduate programs.  He is now at an Ivy League seminary on a 95% scholarship.  He's no dummy, obviously.  But, don't count on the common sense.  This young man was frequently lacking common sense.

Once he called me to ask if he could turn one of the horses out, fully saddled and bridled--called "tacked up"--and put his dinner in his feeder while he waited on me to return and the lesson to arrive.  Well, what do you think?  Do you think a 1,000 lb animal can be trusted out in a paddock in several hundreds of dollars of equipment and not roll over in it and ruin it?  Or do you think the horse can manage not to get those reins tangled around his legs and break them or hurt himself? 

No. You cannot turn a horse out in a paddock fully tacked.  That is an accident waiting to happen.  That is tack waiting to be crushed when he rolls over in his saddle.

Even if you don't have any horse experience, it seems this should be obvious.  It's like asking if you should turn your two year old niece out in the back yard in her best white Sunday dress.  What do you think?

Think there'll be grass stains or worse on that nice dress?  You bet.  You'd think things like this could also be translated into horses. Nope.  They can't.

Of course, there are several feed bags in the barn that simply slip over a horse's head. We use them every day on Big Mac. The feed is put in it.  Put it on the horse's head.  He's able to munch on his dinner while he stands at the cross ties tie-up and fully tacked.  Nothing gets broken.  No one gets hurt.  Did this young scholar think of this option? No.

I could go on and on.  Tomorrow will be Part Two.  The things you expect Bible College students to know.

Have a good day and thanks for reading!