Of Deep Friers and Manure

When my 26th birthday rolled around this past April, I came to the realization that I'm now the other side of 25. Officially having begun the descent on the slippery slope that leads to thirty, I sometimes find myself thinking about where my life is going and what I want out of it.

Recently, McDonald's is featuring more and more prominently.

Allow me to explain.

I picked up a summer job thinking that I could make a little money, get back into shape and generally keep myself busy. It seemed like a great opportunity to learn more about sport horse breeding from a reputable and highly renowned place and, really, what better to do for a summer than ride and get paid for it?

However, now that I'm older, I have a greater sense of self-preservation. I still consider myself to be relatively young and stupid, just not as young and stupid as I once was.

I now have a problem with not being told vital information. Information that could, well, save me from dying or being horribly maimed while at work. My current employers apparently have no such qualms. Over the past few months I have fallen off more times than ever before, been cornered by a pissed-off alpha mare and been kicked in the head by the same horse that almost crushed me in cross-ties, all because no one thought it necessary to tell me about certain horses'... quirks...

During this time I have also witnessed a co-worker being kicked in the face by a feral foal and another who was almost crushed by a round bail; I've seen a foal euthanized because of a broken leg caused by unsafe barn design and generally been placed in unsafe conditions time and again because of managerial staff that have absolutely no horse or, for that matter, commonsense.

One day I was talking to a horsey friend about the BS that is my job when I admitted that I would rather work at McDonald's than spend another day at my current place of employment.

Her response?

"Ya, at least you know that the deep-frier is hot. You don't find out three months into your job when it finally tries to burn you."

Score one for Ronald.