June 30, 2006

• Whoops, most of that should have been inside. Just deal with it.
• Beautiful breed.
• Captain Foon: Those ears -- I gotta love 'em. Mr Spork: Lyre - [Foon decks him.]
• Ears to inspeyere. A beautiful animal. And yet I can't even look at the pictures without thinking how horrifyingly expensive it must be to care for one. [] [] nicely FPP'd GramMa! (those are sugar cubes btw)
• They are really beautiful. Those recurved ears must be a real pleasure to look at from the saddle. Hope the breed's scarcity hasn't resulted in too much inbreeding.
• Petebest: Weeeehhhhheee, phuuuunhhh! *lovingly snorts green snot all down shirtfront in gratitude for the sugar lumps
• Is there any reason anyone can think of not to now start calling petebest "Sugarlumps"?
• Yes. *shakes head, snorts*
• My lumps, my lovely sugar lumps... What? For more four-legged beauty, check Jonathan Vardi's video for Regina Spektor's Sometimes. 50Mb Quicktime. A bit sad, too.
• mm nice, horsemeat.
• mm nice, trollmeat.
• The Nangchen horse, adapted to high altitude conditions, sounds interesting, too, but I can't find any more information about them. *whinge, snivel, drip*
• The Nangchen horse, adapted to high altitude conditions, sounds interesting, too, but I can't find any more information about them. *whinge, snivel, drip*
• Oh yeah, I forgot rule #1 at MoFi: people are humorless sourpusses here.
• *yawn* Then go somewhere else, laughing boy.
• Bees, I did some searching and came up with a picture of a Nangchen horse and the sequel to the story of its discovery: Peissel went back to Tibet to study them, wanted to buy some, couldn't afford any and ended up finding another new breed, the tiny Riwoche pony. we now return you to your regularly-scheduled Marwari thread. Please return your ears to their full, upright and locked position.
• Pallas_Athene, thank you! And thank ye, BlueHorse, for a fascinating post.
• Hee hee, please return your ears... Berry Punny, PA. Amazing discoveries. Thanks for posting!
• I thought ye rode Western?
• YUM, dogfood!
• Berek! Martjen! Into the doghouse with ye! Actually, Bees, since I learned to ride on the East cost, and then have lived in the West for 30 years, I don't ride either style. I have an Orthoflex saddle--Western style pommel and cantle, no horn, no fenders--2" biothane stirrup "leathers." Snaffle bit or hackamore--I like a horse that will go "Western" on a slack rein and neck rein one-handed, but I like to be able to "pick my horse up" with direct rein on contact. For <10-15 miles, I wear Levis, or over that, tights. I use an Aussie hat mostly, or a helmet with a horse I don't trust (HATE helmets) and wear half-chaps with Ariat riding shoes. This way, EVERYBODY gets to point and laugh at the way I ride. Meh, whatever makes the horse (and me) most comfortable, most responsive and gets the job done. I call my style Me on top, Horse on bottom, and if that gets reversed, things are NOT going well. I'll bet you are the most properly turned out handsome English style gent!
• Wow, BlueHorse, sounds like a neat saddle. I like both English and Western riding, but I prefer English-- maybe just because I've done more of it. I remember feeling really "at home" in a Western saddle at times, though. My saddle was an English one made for endurance riding (I forget its brand name, but it had a high cantle and was supposed to be quite comfortable for the horse.) (and also me.) Helmets can be hot and icky, but without them I probably wouldn't have any head bones left by now. I have a thing for green or "difficult" horses, because often they're the intelligent ones; I like to try and figure out why they act up and see how far I can get towards untangling them-- gently, of course. /contemplates life sans head bones
• I have a thing for green or "difficult" horses, because often they're the intelligent ones Oh, so you like Arabs, too? ;) For years when I rode colts and dinks I never used a helmet, because you just didn't in this cowboy culture. I wrecked many things, but not the ol' bean--although there is a strange rattling whenever I nod my head. Now I'm trying to moderate my riding and ride (semi-) sensible horses, but I do find occasion to put one on. Either getting wiser, or just getting slower.
• I call my style Me on top, Horse on bottom, and if that gets reversed, things are NOT going well. If that gets reversed you have the makings of a truly excellent porno.
• Snaffle bit or hackamore... ah, I love strange terminology. Monkeyfilter: Me on top, horse on bottom
• ...and it finally comes back to horse buggery. It always comes back to horse buggery.
• Heh! Rider on top, horse on bottom -- 'tis the only sane way to go about the matter! 'twas a point that escaped me in my younger days, but I was an idiot then, as opposed to the fully-fledged nincompoop I am nowadays. BlueHorse, never ridden much with a helmet. Or not in the ring, anyway. Being a natural slob, I am not in everyday life what anyone would call natty, but in the ring one dresses to a performance standard. *tips tophat to BlueHorse* Ride English or what some call continental style. Prefer alternating forward and flat saddles on horses, so they don't form too many expectations before being worked. Been riding/training mostly Iberian breeds for the last 40 plus years, deciding when I went into this I'm too tall to show smaller-framed animals to best advantage. What started as personal recreation has slowly turned into a kind of late-blooming career almost on its own, a pleasant if unanticipated development. To be candid, my preferred (or blatant showoff) style of riding is completely tackless, using only natural aids to let a horse know what's wanted. But not just sny old horse will do for this - takes years to train a horse to be able to do advanced work without bridle or saddle so all I have to do is sit there. ;] (Always knocks the socks off onlookers though.)
• Ah, Bees, some people ride horses, some people are horsemen. If I did any showing, it would be dressage--am too old for jumping now. I love the discipline, and occasionally I schlep around in a clinic, but don't know if I could stand the politics and backbiting of showing. A couple years of showing in my teens was enough to turn me off forever. And then there's the galloping $$$$. But you should see some of the mule deer mountain trails I go up and down--and rocks--what rocks? Gopher holes? Why do these people that want to go see the sights with me keep screeching like that? Man from Snowy River--my hero.
• Can easily picture you kiting along neck or nothing, BlueHorse. About Taking this DownUnder fellow as an exemplar for riding, though - I dunno. The Man from Snowy River was damn lucky he had what sounds like a very sure-footed horse. But then, Paterson doesn't write to celebrate horses, his focus always is on the doings of men who lived in a culture where horses were tools to be used, and when necessary, broken or discarded.
• In my opinion, the poem should be called the Horse from Snowy river instead, I guess.
• Oh, yes, Horse it is. In every generation there are those that view the horse as an object for their own use. I could cite some on the show horse circuit, and the situation of the average horse on the track makes me shudder. Out here I see the two-year-old QH Futurity horses being ridden till they're ruined. True, TMFSN focuses heavily on the rider, which was not my meaning--I was more thinking of how they leapt helter-skelter down over the top and of the way a riding a good horse over rough terrain can make your heart leap for joy at the experience.
• Riding a two-year old hard is a sure way to ruin a good animal. Being raced too often while young is why so many Thoroughbreds will break down in their infancy. Used to be more people were in it for love of the breed and working to improve it, and racing could be rightly called a sport. But it's become a completely commercial enterprise, with folk owning shares in a sire or a dam, and wanting to see returns on their investment as fast as possible, an attitude to the detriment of any breed, I think. In dressage, ye find impatient folk trying to shortcut the training -- of both horses and riders. Training a horse for dressage takes years longer than most folk want to believe, and things just will not be rushed beyond a point with a horse. People are shelling out ridiculous amounts of money for animals they haven't the skills to ride or to train. Incredible. Really need to match an older horse with a younger rider, or a younger horse with an older rider. As I'm sure ye know. Take this with a block o' salt, knowing some of my remarks here are directed towards opening this out a bit (hemhem) for benefit of non-horse-crazed monkeys.
• Ah, I was just a casual rider, but I loved the horses. My best horse friend was Rusty, a sorrel thorougbred/Arab cross. He was trained for roping, and riding him bareback was a challenge, since he'd stop on a dime. He was also the only horse we had that wanted to go out with us when we were riding. Didn't have to chase him across several acres of pasture to be able to saddle him up. But, the Arab stud (Rusty's father) was a complete sweetheart. After my father was disabled by a brain abcess, he carried him everywhere. He seemed to understand. So, now I'm getting all weepy, thinking of Topsy, Rocky, Mickey, and the paint colt that tried to play with my then 5 year old brother and ran him down - brother still complains about our laughing, 50 years later, though he wasn't injured. I love horses.
• <3s path.