#probably a little redundant there

[tehkusogaki]

A lot of the horse's problems aren't actually horse problems: they're people problems. I would assert that 90% of their maladies are from poor husbandry, not evolution. After all, horses have been wildly successful from an evolutionary standpoint. Especially considering that most other perissodactyls have become extinct, or are endangered. But horses? In places where they roam they have become so numerous as to be a problem.

It's true that they are built for one thing, running, but they do it very well. And when they aren't kept in a box with little mental stimulation you can see that their evolutionary adaptations suit them very well.

Horses are "insane" and "sickly" because we took a highly social grazing animal with strong self preservation and flight instincts and put it in a place without enough space to run, keep it in an enclosed barn that is typically dusty and poorly ventilated and dark, where it typically only eats a couple large meals instead of a constantly available food source, it is often isolated from fellow horses, and then given strenuous work when 90% of the time it is just standing around.

Of course horses suffer respiratory problems: they're supposed to be out in the open fresh air and they're not.

Of course horses suffer injury: horses are supposed to spend most of their time roaming and playing with herd mates, not standing around with only short but strenuous exercise periods.

Of course horses suffer stomach issues: they're meant to be grazing constantly, not fed large meals of dry hay and pails of grain.

Horses are neither suicidal nor homicidal, but their instincts and anatomy have one solution to danger: run.

And if they are in an enclosed space, or tied to fence, or have someone pulling on their face, they can't do that.

So of course the results are disastrous. Often ending in either injury to the animal or the handler.

But a well treated horse isn't usually aggressive. Horses are generally docile and sweet. If you have a horse that would just as soon kick you as look at you, either that animal has an usual amount of aggression (it happens, behavioral problems are a big reason why many animals are euthanized: fido is sometimes unsafe around people), or it has been horribly mistreated at some point, or it has just picked up some bad habits from bad handlers.

It is unfair and inaccurate to call horses cowardly when they have won humans empires.

"Fragile" is hardly an accurate term when horses are capable of amazing feats of athleticism. Watch stadium jumping: those horses are frequently jumping rails their height or near it. Watch team roping or reining: the sudden stops, spins, and changes of direction all done with a rider. Or even just a wagon pull: there's a reason that when we needed a term to describe the power of an engine, we called it horsepower.

But horses are athletes, and like any athletes in any sport, injuries are going to be common. Are basketball or football players more fragile than the rest of the population because they are prone to injury?

The most common injury to horses isn't them spontaneously shattering their glass bones: it's soft tissue and joint injuries (and a broken leg would be a death sentence for any ungulate).

If we put our other livestock though the same physical rigor we demand of horses, their injuries would be just as common. But the only thing we need a cow to do is get fat.

Rethinking how we manage horses is the best thing we can do for them. Making sure the majority of their time is spent in a big enough space with other horses would go a long way toward their welfare.

Trying to create a "grazing" feeding schedule by either pasturing, feeding smaller more frequent meals, or utilizing slow feeders/hay nets could drastically reduce ulcers and colic.

Taking time to properly warm up before strenuous activity like any athlete should, and making sure all equipment is used properly and fits the horse well, and that the horse is properly cooled down and stretched afterwards would probably reduce injury.

Making sure barns are well ventilated, cleaned frequently, large enough, and most importantly: that stalls are used as infrequently as possible with the horse given plenty of turnout, will help with a whole bunch of maladies from respiratory to mental.

The point is: nature does not need to rethink the horse, we need to rethink our horse husbandry.

I recall at least one of you guys having worked with livestock animals. Why are cows so damn indestructible while horses keel over and die if mercury is in retrograde or a dog barked in Kazakhstan?

gettingvetted here.

Let me tell you a story about how livestock animals work.

In the beginning, God created the horse. God looked at the horse and saw that it was beautiful and strong. “However,” God said, “it breaks too easily.”

Then God created the cow. God looked at the cow and saw that it was more durable than the horse, and tasted good to boot. “However,” God said, “it poops too much.”

Then God created the goat. God looked at the goat and saw that it was perfect.

God looked around and saw that he still had some spare bits of fluff on his work table, but no brains to put into it. So then God created the sheep.

Now let me tell you what my equine surgery professor said on the first day of class.

“Horses are only interested in two things: homicide, and suicide.”

And that’s all you need to know about horses.

[scificrows]

i made a few silly little ART phone backgrounds in the spirit of the inofficial fandom shenanigan renaissance! thank you so much for inspiring me to do this @the-yearning-astronaut!

[coolnonsenseworld]

A little promo with my little obsession on the side...........

Reminder all items are shipped from Poland - for details on shipping times check out FAQ or send me a private message!

 mmezzy.bigcartel.com

[ohnoitsz1m]

FURRY AU BLOODY IS DONE

This guy,,, took a while >_> BUT I'm happy with the result. Most of what took so long was just figuring out what to do for a hairstyle

I also did Bec a while back- I plan to make Victor and Traitor Lead as well it's just gonna take a while lol

[pcktknife]

now that I'm farther in the show I can say that I don't think nico robin would be a pony in the mlp au (the multiple hands/arms thing is too cool to assign to a hoof-only having race. but if she was a pony I think she'd be earth and not a unicorn as I previously doodled. though flower fruit unicorn could use the ability to make a spike trap and that'd be pretty fun)

[gorgeousgalatea]

MAWS Lex Luthor beta tests the Superboy project by making a Slade/Livewire clone baby, thereby fulfilling Leslie's symbolic status as Slade's eye-gouging ex wife because let's be real, even if she hadn't been in a committed relationship with another woman she would never want to go near that dick

[starrysharks]

Just out of curiosity I have to know your opinion on people adding "core" to the ends of words to describe preexisting fashion trends OR just slapping core onto the names of fashions that already exist. like i swear i have seen the word "punkcore" before or maybe im mad about a made up scenario. I have to add "aesthetic" or "core" at the end of search terms if im trying to find cool images for like. a pinterest board and i am lightly disturbed by it

when the style originates with the '-core' attached (think cottagecore) it doesn't bother me, but i honestly just think it's super unnecessary 99% of the time. like 'punkcore'... 'emocore'.... just use the prefix on its own like there's nothing wrong with it 😭 what really gets my goat grinds my gears etc is when people take a fashion style that has its own specific name and completely ignore that name and make up a 'core' (infamous example being 'cutecore' used for general kawaii fashion)... like why r u re-writing history like that....

[seventh-district]

so uh. that 2.2 Special Program, huh

[neptunevasilias]

The whole Emerald & Mercury & Tyrian & Hazel dynamic makes me explode whenever I think about it. Fuck.

[devilsskettle]

i hate that this website has location based ads now like it's one thing to promote the local grocery store chain to me but i am seeing ads for my workplace now :/

[sunnibits]

kinda want to change my blog header.. title? whatever tf it’s called. except I’ve literally had the same blog title since I first joined tumblr and haven’t changed it once in the past 4ish years so it feels so wrong to change it. but like,, I’ve been wanting to change it for so long,,, but the tradition….

[teiasviago]

happy 20th birthday to me <3 hard to believe that eight years ago for christmas i got my first gaming computer to play inquisition!! lagged so bad during combat and crashed when i tried to enter the undercroft for the first time lol. don't mind me being weepy, dragon age just happens to be the first ever rpg series i played and i wouldn't be pursuing video game writing alongside tv writing in my screenwriting major if not for that!

[halfdeadwallfly]

i'm so combustible today

[frecht]

just added another story to my neocities if anyone wants to check it out!

[bowsnbots]

Chat, this is getting out of hand. Now there's, like, five of them.

[thecherrygod]

/