The Equestrian God Complex
It’s tough to admit you don’t know. That you’re only guessing. That you are, in fact, human and not a god. [12:12] Now I’ve been sort of banging on about this for the last couple…
It’s tough to admit you don’t know. That you’re only guessing. That you are, in fact, human and not a god. [12:12] Now I’ve been sort of banging on about this for the last couple…
It’s been an exciting and busy year, full of discussion by equestrians from all over the world, and representing a number of disciplines. As we put 2014 behind us let’s review what happened at Writing of Riding…
Maybe I’m not being clear, but if time after time I’m being cut off, interrupted, my thoughts summarized incorrectly, then it is safe to assume the listener is no longer trying to listen. Of course at the pace our society moves who really has time to sit down and fully listen to another person…? Or do we and we’ve simply allowed ourselves to get caught up in a pace which requires us to constantly repeat ourselves?
But don’t forget that we also lose trust in our horses! Unfortunately for us, the only way to repair our own lost trust is to work in gaining the horse’s trust rather than looking for a horse to build our trust. There are definitely horses which help boost our confidence, but without working through our own trust issues we’ll eventually see that confidence weaken and our old trust issues come to the surface again. Much better to be proactive!
If you’re an equestrian it’s hard to be unaware of the web-presence that the Fugly Horse of the Day blog commanded. Often referred to as FHOTD, by far it was the most popular horse blog on the internet, even as the content quality took a nosedive while being shuffled around from one blogger to another. A majority of posts earning a thousand comments or more, it was obvious that people were not only ready Fugly, they were engaged.
Then it was gone.
Dressage is supposed to be a dance, why not combine it with a real ballerina? The girl riding demonstrates the ability to perform high-school dressage moves in a bitless bridle, which is a shame that competitions don’t yet allow.
When slavery was legal and the norm in the south, just because you treated your slaves well didn’t extend any freedoms or rights. It just meant that they experienced a level of captivity which was better than many others’ in captivity. Still, they were slaves, captives, subject to the whims of any white person around them. According to most accounts slaves were considered the same as livestock.
In that context let’s look at our horses. They are subject to whatever whim we should have. We buy/sell/trade them as we wish (or the market will support). When they are no longer useful we can put them down, send them to auction or the slaughterhouse. If they misbehave there are torture devices to deal with that – from whips to spurs, harsh bits and even some trainers have been found to use electric cattle prods on their horses.
The title should include, “or severely injuring him!” Honestly a large animal vet’s job is hard enough with a well behaved patient that I can’t help but think it’s just downright rude to present him…
Let’s establish one basic truth, each horse has a neck. Sylvia Loch once remarked, “horses would be so much simpler to ride if they didn’t have necks”, which I can’t much argue with. Early in…
To me this isn’t terribly new, I’ve had a few close friends who have dealt directly with sloughed hoof capsules and so on. Somehow my curiosity just doesn’t tire of it though and I thought…
This neat little gem came to my attention thanks to the Sylvia Loch & The Classical Riding Club (CRC) facebook page. The video caption says – Lesson to a student in the Amazon carousel Nuno…
No lie, I think most people by now know I’m not a big fan of barrel racing… but this is my new favorite video of just that. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnjHxCDDGdQ But I mean, really, a TUBE TOP?…
There’s this idea, which is so prevalent among equestrians, and in many other niche groups as well, that critique or criticism of anyone or thing in the group is inherently evil. Especially if you aren’t a…
When you’re around horses long enough you’ll eventually hear something along the lines of not letting your horse “win” if you should differ on opinions with one another. But by deciding the horse ought to…
How tight do you hold your reins? And can that impact the rideability of your horse on a given day? According to researchers from the University of Gottingen, in Germany, the impartial measure of rein…
Yesterday the EquiSearch blog reported that Dutch rider Adelinde Cornellisen’s horse Parzival was hospitalized for cardiac arrhythmia. Adelinde and Parzival stood out on the international scene when they were disqualified at the 2010 WEG. Well,…