#today is horse facts

[liminalpsych]

All those popular medieval fantasy renderings of knights on giant baroque warhorses? All those movies with knights on towering black Friesian horses?

Yeah, that’s not anywhere near accurate.

Real knights ride ponies.

Probably ones like these native English breeds:

Exmoor ponies, the oldest native pony breed in England, running wild and with a random human for scale, who are around 12hh / 4 feet / 1.2 meters tall at the shoulder:

Orkney/Scotland probably had horses like the Eriskay pony. Also around around 12hh / 4 feet / 1.2 meters tall at the shoulder, sometimes a few inches taller (but that may be a more modern height). Interestingly, the Eriskay is almost always gray, sometimes with dappling... which is the color of Gawain of Orkney's horse Gringolet. Interesting. I'll do a separate post exploring that.

Southern England probably had something like the New Forest ponies, though they probably looked a little less refined than they do now, because they got an influx of Spanish breeds and even some Thoroughbred later on. They would have been the same height as the other two breeds at the time, though they're a bit taller now.

Honestly the details of the study are really interesting, and cover more than just “knights rode shorter horses than we thought”.

Before we go further, some definitions (time period / dates are the ones defined in the paper):

Hand = 4”, the standard unit of measurement for horses, they are measured from the ground to the top of their shoulder. I’ll give units in hands, meters, inches, and feet so everyone can follow along.

Horse = anything 14.2hh or taller. (4’10” at the shoulder.) The average horse today is roughly 15hh / 5’ / 1.5m or a couple inches taller, but this varies wildly by breed and use.

Pony = anything 14.2hh or shorter (with some quibbling by breed; don’t call an Icelandic horse a pony or there will be hell to pay despite the average height of 13.2hh).

King Arthur’s supposed time was the ~500’s, or 6th century C.E. (Late 5th, early 6th, other times vary by source material, this is more detail than Tumblr cares about I’m sure.) This varies by source but I'm going with Geoffrey of Monmouth's in this case. He's all pseudohistory but is where Arthur was first popularized as a king so I figure that's as close to canon as Arthuriana gets.

Late Roman 300-410 CE

Early Saxon 410-700 CE

Late Saxon 700-1066 CE

Norman 1066–1200  CE

High medieval 1200–1350 CE

Late medieval 1350–1500 CE

Post medieval 1500-1650 CE

The study found that from the 5th-12th century, horses were generally 1.48m or shorter. (That’s 14.2hh, or 58 inches, or 5’4”, at the top of the horse’s shoulder.)

The tallest horse they found was 1.5m, or 14.3hh, or 5’5” at the shoulder. That is an inch taller than the cut off point for being a pony.

1230-1350 CE has the first horses over 1.6m tall / 15.3hh / 63” / 5’3”.

Horses don’t get significantly larger until the post-medieval period, 1500–1650 AD. That’s also when we get a wider range of heights (1.2m / 3’ 11” / 11.3hh to almost 1.7m / 5’7” / 16.3hh).

They also measured robusticity, which of course none of the summary articles covered. (I read the full text of the paper so you don't have to, but you can read it here if you want! It's really interesting and has a huge sample set across all of England.) Basically:

Saxon horses were the Most Robust

Norman period had the daintiest horses

horses started to get Thicc in the high medieval period

Horses started out kinda sturdy, got more delicate over time through the medieval period (especially in their hind legs), and then started getting more big boned in the post-medieval period

I was wondering aloud in the Camelot Discord about the Norman period suddenly getting daintier, when I realized that this might have been when light-boned Arabian horses got introduced to Britain. Another member asked when the Crusades happened, and sure enough:

"European horses soon felt an extensive infusion of Arabian blood, especially as a result of the Christian Crusaders returning from the East between the years 1099 A.D. and 1249 A.D."

The researchers seem to think it's more due to an earlier collapse in the horse trade in England. They do eventually acknowledge the possibility of Arabian horses interbreeding with the English ones, as well as Spanish/French/Moorish horses that were gifted to the Normans according to written sources.

[simmyfrobby]

Sophocles, Elektra, trans. Anne Carson [16-36].

[nivienne-grovant]

Glamtober Day 3 - Match Your Mount

No shining armor, but her knight none the less.

[flowerakatsuka]

honse.

[a-s-levynn]

About those new masks..

So i saw this take a few times already and i have some thoughts. Obviously it's paraphrasing but you'll see these a lot similar to this if you scroll in ST spaces since yesterday:

"These new masks have too much personality, they said the people behind the music is uniportant but they now have this new personalized look instead of the uniform sleek minimalist one and it is the direct opposite of what they are saying. These new looks do not fit Sleep Token"

Let me preface this: I'm not going to explore specific reasons why people might hate on the masks because... No i refuse to go there, but i will talk about the issues i have around this a bit.

No.

If you are hating on the new masks so much so as to cry about that "this is not what they supposed to be about" you are missing your own point. You are in fact shooting the opposite direction. You are no longer in it for "just the music" but you are very much caught upon the "everything else beside the music." You got distracted. You putting the blame on them instead on yourself for loosing your own point.

There is no moral highground in this whole ordeal. Please respect yourself enought to try not to look utterly stupid if you frothing about something you visibly misunderstood. Do not hide behind excuses. Do not put this on the artists. Own up to the fact that you simple don't like it.

Admit that it's your opinion purely; because ultimately the artist creating their own art will understand creative choices behind their creations more than you ever will. No matter how far you try to bend backwards.

The masks fit Sleep Token because it is Sleep Token who decided to have them. End of story. You can hate it all you want but it is still part of the shabang now. And don't try to mask your distaste over visuals with shouting about the artist not understanding their own ideology.

If you are so hung up on how they look like, more than what the music still is, than stop and think for a second please.. You have it backwards. If you really truly only care about the music, what it is about, what it gives you, than you are not going to give a shit what they are wearing on stage.

Maybe in a passing few sentences but otherwise you are not going to be worked up about it to the point you sent hatecomments to the artist who made them.. It is shameful.

Besides i hate to break it to people but they already had their personalities with their outfits just not this strongly. III had the random whacky shit. IV had the hint's of this comfy leisurly punk-ish techwear whatever going on besides the fancy stuff the past a months since the summer. II had a slightly sleeker but maybe sort of tech-ish look which is now reflected (in my opinion) much more strongly with this new look (which sorta reminds me of a stylized oni or something tbh and that is extremely in line with their older far-east inspired thematics visually, just saying).

They are not handing you the "we are unimportant" part anymore. They are not spoonfeeding it to you. Not in the way they had before at least. They presume you are mature and smart enough at this point to get it. To get to the conclusion that it is unimportant what they look like. And allow them to still have fun with it.

Or just they are being cheeky and went for something that would shake up the people. I don't know, i don't know them or anyone close to them. I don't have answers. But they are trying something new an it is perfectly fine.

Also which would have come off so much differently if Vessel is 100% btw. Be honest, if they would have been able to perform to their fullest abilities, far less people would be so loud over this.. This was just an unfortunate turn of events and when shit hits the fan it usually never just one dose. And my heart breaks for the boys for all this.

Besides, people were so loud about hating that "they looked the same" and "so hard to distinguish" and "easy to replace because of this" ... now they have personalized masks and looks and the same people cry about the exact opposite they did before..

Also it just occured to me that this is basically the same as the lightshow upgrade. It gives you something to look at at the rituals. The new looks are visually interesting, and with the lighting setup they have now they are gonna look like some seriously fun nightmare creatures btw. I love that already.

So all in all i don't know, i don't really have a point here i guess, but the boys are in such a no win situation right now and i hate the fact that people are shitting on them just because they don't fit their idea of "an anonymous collective" anymore. Which is reddiculous and sad because nothign has changed.

It never was about being a blank page. It was about being human. It flies over so many peoples head but the anonymity part isn't about not being a person under there. It is being about that person not having a name. It doesn't matter if the person has a personality or not. What matter there is that no name.

There is no definitiveness. It gives an open invitation for anyone to step into that person but first you need to recognise that there is a person there. And there is no doing that if there are no traces of personality. Or humanity if you will because personalities makes us humans. Don't make me hold a philosophy lecture here on what it means being human please.

It does not matter who that individual it is by tagging a name on them. But it is extremely important that there is a person there. Otherwise there is no connection point. If there is no person there is nothing to understand. But it does not matter how that person looks like. It does not matter what the person wears. Or what that person is called. What matters is that it is a human being. And as such you can understand it. Our at least you should be able to.

Regardless of the design of a mask.

[i-was-today-years-old-when]

i learned of Gingering; the practice of making an old horse appear young and lively by inserting a sprig of ginger into its anus. (x)

[bluebird-ascended]

ok we're back to posting art 👍 coming in with Lisa and Starshine. lowkey dont like this one but thats ok because we stay improving

[iandarling]

Gallavich date on a farm

Ian, the sporty one, wants to ride a horse because it seems fun and like it could be a good exercise (plus he can be a sexy cowboy)

Mickey, the sensible one, is terrified of the horses because they’re too fucking big and they run really fast (mickey is me i’m terrified)

[galaxywhump]

20: Random and useless fact you know?

There's an 18th century Polish encyclopaedia titled "Nowe Ateny" ("New Athens") which contains the best definition of a horse - "everyone can see what a horse looks like".

[heyclickadee]

Back to wanting to eat that bacta gel.

[interiorlulus]

Everytime you think you are done finding the most infuriating people on the internet yet, the ig fyp works its magic.

[savage-rhi]

Cue the pink!

[apollowritesstuff]

Today I discovered:

Equus Giganteus was possible the largest horse that ever existed and was previously considered just an overly dramatized cave picture. Most cave paintings show us a “male riding one as numerous large-breasted females gaze on him in admiration”. Basically, cave men flexing with giant horses to get girls.

However, in the late 1950′s in North America, bones of several were found. And just like the cave drawings - with it’s giant feet in the back, allowing him to accelerate to enormous speed and height estimated over 2m (or 6.56 feet), soon enough a new evolution branch has been named. And by the way - at this size, this giant horse could see an Asian elephant face to face.

And for comparison: the largest horse on record is a shire horse named Sampson which stood 220 cm and is considered a biological rarity.

Now, why did this speedy monster become extinct? According to this article from The Science Creative Quarterly, it’s probably because he needed a little bit too much fuel to function and humas just couldn’t afford that at that time - so he just became a dead evolution branch.

(By the way, the article also talks about a few more dead evolution branches and is really worth the time!)

[warningstandbygo]

The great thing about being an Adult is that if you randomly get Extremely Overwhelmed by Existence, no one can stop you from going into your closet in your bedroom with your laptop, changing into a onesie, and sitting in the dark quiet enclosed space all by yourself (even though you're the only one here because your spouse isn't home from work yet).

[1m-facts]

Read the remaining facts, plus myths, quotes, faqs and an epic quiz at: Horse Facts

[jorvikzelda]

Somehow despite fully optimal conditions having the worst day of my entire life