#whats with the random hate train???
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The reason why some people hate Deadpool & Wolverine so much is because they went into it expecting an X-Men movie and not a Deadpool one
#know the difference#change my mind#you cant#deadpool & wolverine#whats with the random hate train???#its so weird#people will hate on anything that brings joy#people don’t like what breaks the mould either#ITS SILLY#BC ITS SUPPOSED TO BE#x men movies#deadpool movie#deadpool 3#deadpool and wolverine#wolverine#deadpool#ifrit speaks
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I think there should be some magnificent writing done of the looming moral dilemma of Elspeth Rook Mercar, the Breaker of Bonds, the firm believer in heroic nonsense, falling for a Lucanis Dellamorte, whose calling is death, the First Talon of the Crows. Because no matter how big and soft his heart is, he’s still unavoidably will lead the organization who helped to save Thedas, yes, but also is intertwined with many of the horrors that the Shadow Dragons oppose. And yet, still she will always choose Treviso, instead of Minrathous.
#this is so random#I love Veilguard I do very very much#but gods I needed more#nuances? non erasure of ugly bits?#the post-game lives of these two plague me#because its unavoidable of Rook learning how some crows are recruited#how they are trained#how Lucanis was trained by Caterina#that at the center of the pain and gloom there is family and love#and yet despite her morals and principles she stays by his side#she becomes the wife of the fitst talon she is gifted that dammed opal ring with Caterina’s blessing#because even though Rook is not a crow and cannot and will not be a crow she is *loyal*#like a dog#because she understands the importance of family unlike one specific man#I have so many thoughts about it#my rook would be so conflicted she hates Caterina for the abuse yet pities the woman lost to grief and and doom of her children and grand#and who doomed what was left#it’s so fascinating#please oh please BioWare give me a post canon dlc#I need to have a convo with the grandma please#on the brighter side the sheet confusion and frustration of Illario to comedic degree#because after everything he does bit expect Caterina to welcome Rook to the family with open arms#I live by the misery of Dellamorte family and the sheer comedic potential of in-law Rook and Illario#dragon age rook#rook#lucanis x rook#lucanis dellamorte#dragon age#dragon age the veilguard#veilguard spoilers
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i really love dc x dp tbh but i hate how so many fics end up making the batfam dumb as shit. and i don't mean in a "loveable goof" kind of way but in a genuine "these people don't have the skills or intelligence to be heroes" kind of way. which is just antithetical to their entire thing
sometimes it's because the writer just genuinely doesn't know anything about the batfam or what they've been through so they come across as idiots. and other times it's because the writer is writing op ghost king danny or just generally op danny and they genuinely think he could outsmart or beat them. more often than not, it's a combination of the two.
it's just so sad. like not only is it disrespectul to the batfam, essentially getting rid of all the skills and experience they have just to prop up danny, but it also makes things a lot more boring imo. don't get me wrong, i don't mind the occasional "main character is super op" kind of story, but it's boring when like 70% of fics are like that and there's no real challenge or obstacle for him. part of why the show danny phantom was so fun was that it was exciting and chair gripping to see danny have to deal with his new ghost powers, figuring out how to deal with ghost attacks or vlad, and dealing with school and his parents on top of that.
but often, dc x dp fics just,, get rid of any challenge for him. sure batman is a skilled detective but danny will always be able to trick him! sure cass has been trained since birth to read people's body language but this random ghost teen knows how to conceal and control everything!! yeah damian has also been trained since birth to fight and kill but this random guy from the midwest who just started fighting in his teens is so much better!!! like, alright. it's fun every now and then but it sucks when so much of the dc x dp content is just people acting like the batfam are the worst vigilantes/detectives in the world.
and honestly i still feel this way even with the ghost king danny fics because how? he's never had to deal with people obsessively reading his body language or reading between the lines. he's had to deal with hiding stuff sure but his parents aren't the most observant people - their whole deal was being neglectful. even as a ghost king, why would he know how to outsmart, take advantage of, or beat the batfam in any capacity when he would still mostly deal with ghosts. it's a completely different skill set here - one that he likely wouldn't be prepared for. it'd be fine if they at least attempted to explain why danny would have those skills (like league danny aus) but most of them don't.
and i'm not saying danny couldn't do it at all, especially if it's a ghost king au, but i'm just tired of seeing the batfam constantly downplayed in these fics Just to make danny look better, smarter, stronger, etc. ik most people in the fandom are just danny fans but it really shows with how they treat, characterize, and shit on the dc characters just to prop danny up. it also serves to occasionally make danny look like an asshole when he intentionally messes with them and basically commits psychological torture for a goof.
#man...#i Do like this crossover but i completely understand why so many dc fans hate it#the oocness the fanon the constantly making these skilled trained characters fumble around and get outsmarted by Some Guy#ghost king danny isn't even canon to dp! which isnt a bad thing by any means ik the dp fandom goes crazy for fanon#and generally speaking the fanon Is a lot more fun and engaging than dp's canon#but as a dc fan its insane to watch#i want to engage more with dc x dp content so badly like this crossover is really interesting to me#but so much of it is just 'the bat.fam are actually fucking useless and my blorbo is so much better :)))'#it's almost like they dont even like the bat.fam!!! they keep saying they just dont know/understand them#but it fully feels like they straight up dont like the dc characters#it definitely comes across as 'hey this is a fun world to put danny in lets do that while also shitting on it and all of the characters'#'lol bruce is so stupid this random teen can outsmart him and he can lie to cass and he can beat dick in a physical fight lol'#there's a point where it stops feeling like indulgent op blorbo and more like insulting anyone who isn't danny#<thats actually exactly what it is and its insane to me like why even like crossovers if you dont want to engage with anyone but danny#how can you say you like them when you outright refuse to know them or respect them?#and obviously im using 'you' in a vague way im not specifically calling anyone out#ik there are people in the fandom who are genuinely fans of both and Do know and respect the dc characters#but so far its very few and far between which is just such a fandom culture shock for me#like in most fandoms im able to read a lot of fics and only occasionally think 'thats not right'#but with this one its the other way around - im constantly going 'they wouldnt say/do that at all why does the op think that?'#like 9 out of 10 fics im like 'oh yeah this person has never read a comic in their life'#i can immediately tell when someone has only read the webtoon its extremely obvious unfortunately#maybe i should make a dc masterlist for dp fans... like here you can write about them again After you do your homework ajdhgl
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every year people start spotify wrapped posting i check mine purely for fun because i barely use it and the results are as always funny/not representative of my actual music taste whatsoever as a result. my absolute top artist is someone i spent a total of 59 minutes listening to (i played an album as background music once) to which spotify generously congratulated me on my 'dedication'
#it's just the language of it that always gets me with its#'you were obsessed with This guy this year'#and 90% of the time i need to think if i can remember who that is and what songs of them i supposedly listened to#this is mainly because i only use spotify when i'm riding trains and only have my phone with me btw#and then end up listening to random songs i don't tend to revisit (bc real listening to music for fun i can only do at home)#so my 'top 5 songs' are all the ones i 'randomly' shuffled to twice instead of the usual one time that goes to the other songs#absolute nothing burger of a statistic#(I'm still not over last year when it gave me tayIor swift as my top artist because i somehow accumulated 15 minutes of listening to her#while. no hate meant. i cannot listen to her music without feeling bored. not my vibe at all. spotify wrapped never change)
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Love to torment my sister's do-nothing boyfriend. easiest method is simply doing things to reinforce his belief that my cat is actually my familiar (he is genuinely superstitious to this degree). this is easy for me because my cat is very responsive and easily trained. our recent accomplishment? she is meowing and i say "Cashmere, inside voices" and she pauses and then takes up meowing again...but quieter. Saw my sister's boyfriend struggling really hard not to immediately "call me out" in front of my sister.
#my sister is tired of her boyfriend trying to 'prove' that i'm capable of using magic to curse him#also it's not really a cute fun little 'teehee i'll trick him into thinking i can do magic and have a cool cat familiar'#and more I actively hate this guy#and he truly believes that you can't train cats to do anything beyond using a litterbox#he's also one of those guys who watches sketchy documentaries and weird podcasts and believes weird conspiracy shit#and also like just random stupid shit#the dumbest i've heard so far is that if you have glasses you should stop wearing them#so that your eyes can 'fix themselves'#not sure if there's like some alternative homeopathic bullshit he thinks you should do on top of that#but yeah my astigmatism is not gonna correct itself if i stop wearing my glasses dumbass#there's more but i think you get what i'm working with#all i need to do is teach my cat some simple tricks like 'lower your volume on my signal' and 'go where i point'#and he will start quietly (my sister will not be amused if he brings this up again) flipping his shit#like i'm lucky my cat is really responsive and trainable too. i've taught my cats simple tricks in the past#but i'm more motivated now that i have a purpose for it (riling up my sister's shitty boyfriend)#he just gets so frustrated because he wants to call me out so bad + he knows i'm 'being obvious' on purpose because no one will believe him#and it's true. he'll sound crazy if he tries to convince anyone i'm an actual witch–sorry tumblr witches but i do not believe in witchcraft#and i like to emphasize this by openly saying things to my sister like#'haha almost slept in this morning because Cashmere turned off my alarm so we could cuddle longer'#i previously explained to my sister that she figured out that if she smacks the thing making noise it will stop#so these statements are traps. if he brings up the familiar/witch shit my sister will chew him out#because she already got the 'haha my cat smacks my noisy phone to make it stop' explanation#so him saying 'obviously this is black magic' is not gonna go well for him
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never fucking trust me to be on time
#i missed the fucking train by 1 min 😭#idfk what my heart rate is rn but my watch says 180 😭 which ik probably isn’t true#maybe it is because i can feel my head being dizzy as fuck#since i underestimated the time it would take me from wake up to leave the house i forgot to consume smth#this is not good i’m gonna hope i have some random food in my backpack#I should’ve fucking packed yesterday 😭#i literally set my get out of the house alarm 15 mins early as well#and was 10 mins late to leave the house#somehow managed to be only one minute late#but still fuck fuck fuck fuck#i hate this dizziness :((#maybe i’ll set my get out of the house alarm 30 mins earlier next time
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That comm vs wol post had me like. All my attempts at ffxiv!Nyra just ended in failure bc she'd look like every other highlander in that game unfortunately, but also because I know the Scions would hate her.
There's no way in hell she's anything but the Protagonist TM and she wouldn't let herself be bossed around by anyone (which is what Scions do in a way so)
Only thing she'd actively enjoy is getting to beat, fuck and/or date Estinien 😔
#nero's random thoughts#alysannyra#nyra/estinien is a crackship i am so fond of#same way I'm fond of nyra/zaeim#like. she would wanna fuck that elf so bad and also beat his ass in his own game for funsies#idk what that sameface says about her design or about final fantasy but#idk sometimes i feel like her base isn't as flashy and out there but shes so beautiful to me i wanna yell#she somehow stands out in gw2 and wouldn't in ffxiv. idk why#don't take it as hate it's just preferences and train of thought#i like ff14's cc#but I'm used to gw2#so nostalgia bias wins?#also we have sliders which ff14 lacks but ff14 has heterochromia and highlights#so even
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happy first day of disability pride month let's hear it for my fucking spine
#moogletalks#venting#medical stuff cw#i haven't slept well in the last several days because my nerves Hate Me#and either Hurt or make me nervous when they don't#i've had like an hour of relatively pain-free time to focus per day and pretty much all of it has been consistently spent on#taking care of what basic needs i can and then hyperfocusing on a random train of thought without being able to choose#moreso than usual lol#and my house is a wreck because of all the cleaning stuff i haven't been able to do the last few weeks#which does not help my exdys or mood#aaaaauuuuuggggghhhhh#bitch bitch bitch anyway happy disability pride
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ok very interesting quest in hsr
#theyre getting better at this writing shit#hsr spoilers#tho i think dh and jy was still kinda random lol i guess it made sense since it was a dream(?)...#i haven't seen enough people crying abt misha but to me. its sadge we can't see him on the train anymore :( but he got#his wish.... he talks abt always wanting to go on the express and traveling and he did it.... he made it!! so im happy for him :')#aven pisses me off lowkey ipc hater group. whatever tho#i like where they went w robin so now i'll just wait for sunday#also the boss design is so nice and cool and very reminscent of ena but fuck the gameplay oh my god i hated fighting sundays mecha body#so much .... i swear if robin's gonna need those materials i'll just be like . 🧍♀️#much to think about though. at the same time i actually have no idea what happened and need to read a plot summary#hsr#they also need to stop putting elements that i don't have built like genuinely besides gui.naifen and hime.ko i have 0 fire chars#and id rather not use ms train navigator bc she doesn't seem good against bosses#robin and sunday are intriguing and so is boothill.... neutral on fire.fly but i guess she's alright at least she improved from getting#murdered for shock value in 2.0#ramblings!#oh one more thing sunday apologist i dont think what he did was necessarily right i just want to chew on him like a toy#hoyo loves their characters falling out of giant robots#chicken wing boy pls be playable i'll pull he's so funky a bit in over his head but we love a biblical coded guy w savior complex#oops edit: also wtf is the state of the family rn we kinda just fought sunday fought sunday again for real this time and then he fell#and penacony went back to reality??? or what? maybe i'm not comprehending or maybe there's another part to this???????
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Like actually regular exercise sounds cool to me but not in the clean girl 💅✨ yoga mat in the sun way, neither in the gainzzz get some muscle swoldiers 🍌 and post for gymbros way neither like running 🧍 changed my way I swear I love marathon and winning way like................... I wanna be strong like my working class family from Slovakia is, the I built my house with my own hands, I carry around trees for wood in the winter and chop it up and I attended whole as garden and field for food and crops, I want to be that bitch that can fight a bear in the forest and crush a skull with her thighs and canclimb a cliff just cuz the view will be sick, walk around mountains all day and just cross swim lake (that's only thing I can actually do) but how do you fucking train for something like this in modern city
#život#no but that's my whole fucking struggle#like I have spaghetti arms cuz I hate repeating exercise in closed area#and all modern athletic leisures are designed like that#and I hate running#while I have trained my swimming abilities by simply being bored and overheated in summer#I just find random free pond/lake and just go and swim#same like ngl I struggled walking 30km a day straight uphill with heavy bag but like I did it#like my body is fucking capable I know it is#it has unbelievable stamina and easily gains strength#like I'm literally the strong man type with more fat but with easy gaining muscles#it just I don't have ability to build my own house and gain muscles that way#or ya know I don't have forrest to tend dndns#so like what can I do to gain more strength#without wanting to shoot my brain out from 30 reps 3 sets#also I have hyper mobility so it would be cool to stretch my body more and gain even more proper flexibility and gaining strength would#would help with joints and random pains#but like is there any way for adhd person like me#hhhh
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i feel like i haven't made any long-lasting connections with people in a long time because my anxiety brain constantly psyches me out of initiating interactions with people i haven't known for years already.
i've lost contact with a lot of people that could have been friends because i never knew when it was safe to consider them a friend and not just an acquaintance. so my brain convinced me that if i initiated an interaction it would come across as weird or creepy. and the longer we didn't talk, the more i felt that way.
and then there's people i'd really like to be friends with in servers i'm in on discord, but i constantly overthink and tiptoe around my conversations with them because i'm afraid of coming across as "too friendly" with people who still consider me a stranger. i'm afraid of oversharing, coming across as too pushy about my interests, or accidentally steering the conversation too much towards myself.
and it's such a catch-22 because how the heck am i supposed to befriend people if i never feel like it's okay for me to initiate an interaction or talk about anything that goes beyond the surface level??? it's frustrating as all heck and i wish i could just relax and talk to people like a normal person but nope, my brain hates me and makes me overthink every conversation i ever have.
#color rambles | personal#vent cw#this is such a random vent post but this started because someone in a rp server i'm in was watching infinity train#and i keep wanting to ask them if they ever finished it but i keep psyching myself out of it because i'm like#'what if they think i'm trying to force them to like it'#or 'what if they think it's weird that i'm singling them out to talk to when we haven't interacted much yet'#i hate it!!
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For anyone that may be interested on a sweater update
We're stuck in ribbing hell, ladies and gentlefolk. Let it be known that knitting rib and crocheting rib? Totally different things. Knitting rib is SO MUCH FASTER OH MY GOD WHY IS THIS SO DAMN SLOW!! PLEASE!! I only have one single wrist done. I still have the other wrist. Then the waistband and let's not even talk about the turtleneck portion. This is too damn slow.. this is why I prefer knitting..
Also I had to add an entire new line of squares to the underarms and side of the sweater because the point is to be a little baggy and it was very fitted and tight and I didn't like that. We're getting ginormous sleeves girlies..
But anyway I should finish this eventually. And hopefully I won't hate it after all the countless hours this has taken from me 😭
#THAT OLD LADY DUVET IS ME!! I'M UNDER THAT! NO JUDGY COMMENTS IT'S COLD AS HELL OKAY!? 😤😤#also in random updates: if you follow me for Kasper? God hates us girlies#honest to christ that (no bad words Sunny...) photographer doesn't post any new stuff anymore..#there's barely any stuff.. not even training stuff gets posted all that much..#so.. we're going through a drought girls but hang in there#i'll just spam random stuff at this point might as well.. i miss him 😔#and back to this post: i want this done with.. so tired of crocheting.. my back and wrists HURT#also i've learned how to make macramé hearts.. Irena you know what that means..#yes i learned how to make stuff out of macramé too.. I LIKE STRING I'M A CAT#adventures in crafting with Sunny#crocheting#The Autumn Crocheted Sweater
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it feels like the population of people online who understand that sometimes people watch stuff that is not technically "good" simply because they enjoy it is getting smaller all the time
#like... idk... every time i hear some random teen show being criticized for not being deep enough...#i dont really watch many of them but like. idk? what happened to let people enjoy things?#like you see people flaming some very nonoffensive tv shows / movies that they think have personally harmed them by not being deep#not really about anything in particular just observing a trend#liza post#like idk i feel like a lot of poeple are so obsessed with critiquing stuff that they dont understand the concept of watching smth for fun#why dont you play pokepark wii pikachus adventure and calm down#edit okay maybe a little inspired by the weird backlash against wednesday#idk about yall i went in expecting a teen drama about a goth girl and i thoroughly enjoyed it#some ppl on here act like it killed their mom by existing#also cuz i probably had one of the best times ever watching bullet train and then found out critics hated it lolol#yall gotta stop going into everything expecting Black Mirror or Jojo Rabbit. sometimes things are just fun
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It's up! Should be the post below this one <3
Thank you to anyone who reads.
It'll be up on Ao3 shortly.
Special thanks to @roxannepolice for conveniencing me about Cheetah virus, @strobbiery for encouraging me to finish it and @kidshows-are-life for the encouragment and letting me workshop ideas with you
<3 I love you guys.
What is clicker training?
Hi, im Forest, and i've worked rescue for a decade. (I also just so happened to write this fic!) If you aren't educated on what clicker training is and want to learn more:
No, it is not a kink (well- could be if you wanted to incorporate it into pet play), no its not abusive, infact a ton of people who are R+ use clicker training, and no, it doesn't involve punishment.
Clicker training is a more modern version of Pavlov training. Usually you would Click a clicker when the dog does something you want it too, followed by a treat.
Same thing as “Yes!” Training without the click and replace with a verbal “Yes!”. Pavlov training is when the animal hears a certain sound. It responds by doing/ expecting a specific action.
In Pavlov's experiment, he rang bells before/during mealtime and found that dogs got hungry when they heard those bells even when there was no food around.
The Office shows this.
youtube
This is what we will be doing to the Master.
Do your dogs run to the door when they hear your jiggle of keys or come to tell you its dinner time when they hear the clock strike 4 times? Congrats. Your dogs are instinctively pavlov trained!
I can not believe I have to say this, but NO. I do NOT support ABA methods.
Not towards the meme poster, You know who you are Lol.
Why the HELL are people comparing this to ABA? A thing directly applied to autistic children in hopes you can shut them down enough to mask for life and live as a neurotypical? To force them to stop stimming or to "talk normally"??
I will specify. As you can see there is NO punishment. None. Now I will admit that in the fic Amy sprays him with a water gun but its filled with catmint tea. (In her defense he keeps trying to kill Rory) This is more for the comedy aspect seeing as in the fic he still has cheetah virus and its super funny to think about.
This is nowhere near the same thing.
1. It's clearly an overexagerated and spoken in a joking manner. Do you think im trying to change him into smoothbob? Take away his personality? Honey, even if you wanted to, you couldn't force this man to "be normal." The guy shoots lightning from his hands. You think electroshock therapy is going to do a dent? Not to mention clicker training has no negatives. Only positives. If you're using a clicker to signal a punishment, you're doing it wrong.
2. This man is a mass murderer. In the billions. How is not wanting him to commit more murders a bad thing? "Oh no. You want him to murder less, Im going to compare that to a LITERAL child abuse method backed by Autism Speaks" (!!??) A group KNOWN to electrocute children who dont behave to the standard?
3. Since when is giving a dude snacks and praise for NOT trying to commit crimes, as well as setting a routine for a clearly homicidal person considered abusive? Do you know what else is abusive? Locking your best friend in a cage and forcing him to eat from a dog bowl for an entire year.
4. And yes, humans use dog training on children all the time and vise versa? We actually made dog training FROM raising children because dogs have the same emotional intellgence as a 2 year old when fully grown, some breeds have gotten up to 4/5 years old on that scale.
A lot of the same concepts. For example:
-Don't praise them after they've done something naughty or else they will think the naughty behavior is okay.
Im not gonna hug a child after it punches me in the face or praise a dog for biting me.
-Create positive association with specific things like hair clippers for co-operative hygiene care.
Kids are taught from a young age to allow their parents to stay still so they can wipe their bums and dogs are taught from a young age to stay still so we can clip their nails.
-Don't scold them for accidents and instead show them the correct way.
Despite popular belief hitting or screaming at a child for an accident will only make them scared to tell you, and hitting a dog for an accident in the house only confuses them.
5. How do you think bells in school work? You know the ones that ring to let everyone know its time to switch classes? Kind of the same thing for when farmers blow their whistles to tell their herding dogs different commands.
Or high pitched dings when you get an awnser correct in a game? Kinda similar to how we say "Yes!" And "good boy!" To dogs or even "good job" to kids?
Hate to tell you sunshine but young umans are NOT far off from having the educational standpoint of animals because we are in fact animals.
Do NOT be coming onto my page accusing me of things you obviously know little about. This topic got me so heated because clearly some of yall are very chronically online and seem to think feeding the Master snacks is abuse now.
I have kids of my own, and I'll be damned if im accused of abusing my children simply because there are similarities between training dogs and teaching kids.
And I shouldn't have to say this, but honestly, how can anyone look at this page and think "hm that person is definitely not autistic. I should accuse them of using harmful methods against autistic children." (which I have and are thriving)
But the fact that you're here makes you a fan! Bye fans, Love you <3 Thanks for the reblogs and engagement!
“why’s he always covered in blood” he needs enrichment. What’s not clicking
#wtf is going on#The master is just man ray#spongebob#the master#simm master#11th doctor#doctor who fanfiction#Wtf No this isnt ABA#Go take a walk outside#or maybe at least know what you are talking about?#actually audhd#hey look mom i apprently am tumblr famous enough to get random hate!#spoilers#the master could be clicker trained.#this just in#clicker training isnt ABA#ivan pavlov that fucker#for the greater good#dog training rant#Youtube
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,
#the harder i swim the faster i fucking sink#i actually tried my best to like. do something today. went to my sport practice that ive been skipping for weeks#and it sucked and i didnt like it and the girls there all ignored me (obviously because im never fucking there)#and i had to train with this tiny fucking annoying kid who kept walking away and leaving me alone#so i couldnt fucking do anything#and now im home and my entire body hurts and my mum told me to go away and im just. fuck !!#i KNOW its late and im just tired but dude im tired of my entire fucking life#i tried to pick out nice clothes today to help me feel better (bc i had been scrolling pinterest and was feeling so inspired)#but that just made me miserable <3 because im not a fucking pinterest girl and my closet is just random shit#not some fucking. aesthetic . and i never own the clothes that i wanna wear at that moment but i also can never find things i love in stores#and i cant believe im complaining about something as mundane as this i just. feel like shit rn#tried to do some painting and it didnt work bc i had zero inspiration and everything i made looked ugly as hell! so that was fun#i fucking. need to change something up. cut my hair weed out my closet change my room. because i am feeling sooo stuck in this life#first tho. i will go to bed#because of course i have fucking work tomorrow. i cant WAIT until april when i can finally stop at this fucking job#(well i say can. they fired me <3 but who cares i wanted to quit anyway)#this has been. a long rant. oops#i just hate that so often when i try to make a positive change it just . fucking sucks#but what can i do about it. not much!#goodnight anyone who read all this i'm sorry#sas.txt
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Horses: Since There Seems To Be A Knowledge Gap
I'm going to go ahead and preface this with: I comment pretty regularly on clips and photos featuring horses and horseback riding, often answering questions or providing explanations for how or why certain things are done. I was a stable hand and barrel racer growing up, and during my 11 year tenure on tumblr, Professional Horse Commentary is a very niche, yet very necessary, subject that needs filling. Here are some of the literary and creative gaps I've noticed in well meaning (and very good!) creators trying to portray horses and riding realistically that... well, most of you don't seem to even be aware of, because you wouldn't know unless you worked with horses directly!
Some Of The Most Common Horse + Riding Mistakes I See:
-Anybody can ride any horse if you hold on tight enough/have ridden once before.
Nope. No, no, no, no, aaaaaaaand, no. Horseback riding has, historically, been treated as a life skill taught from surprisingly young ages. It wasn't unusual in the pre-vehicular eras to start teaching children as young as 4 to begin to ride, because horses don't come with airbags, and every horse is different. For most adults, it can take months or years of regular lessons to learn to ride well in the saddle, and that's just riding; not working or practicing a sport.
Furthermore, horses often reject riders they don't know. Unless a horse has been trained like a teaching horse, which is taught to tolerate riders of all skill and experience levels, it will take extreme issue with having some random person try to climb on their back. Royalty, nobility, and the knighted classes are commonly associated with the "having a favorite special horse" trope, because it's true! Just like you can have a particularly special bond with a pet or service animal that verges on parental, the same can apply with horses. Happy horses love their owners/riders, and will straight-up do their best to murder anyone that tries to ride them without permission.
-Horses are stupid/have no personality.
There isn't a more dangerous assumption to make than assuming a horse is stupid. Every horse has a unique personality, with traits that can be consistent between breeds (again, like cat and dog breeds often have distinct behavior traits associated with them), but those traits manifest differently from animal to animal.
My mother had an Arabian horse, Zipper, that hated being kicked as a signal to gallop. One day, her mom and stepdad had a particularly unpleasant visitor; an older gentleman that insisted on riding Zipper, but refused to listen to my mother's warnings never to kick him. "Kicking" constitutes hitting the horse's side(s) with your heels, whether you have spurs on or not. Most horses only need a gentle squeeze to know what you want them to do.
Anyway, Zipper made eye-contact with my mom, asking for permission. He understood what she meant when she nodded at him. He proceeded to give this asshole of a rider road rash on the side of the paddock fence and sent him to the emergency room. He wouldn't have done it if he didn't have the permission from the rider he respected, and was intelligent enough to ask, "mind if I teach this guy a lesson?" with his eyes, and understand, "Go for it, buddy," from my mom in return.
-Riding bareback is possible to do if you hold onto the horse's mane really tight.
Riding a horse bareback (with no saddle, stirrups, or traditional harness around the horse's head) is unbelievably difficult to learn, particularly have testicles and value keeping them. Even professional riders and equestrians find ourselves relying on tack (the stuff you put on a horse to ride it) to stay stable on our horses, even if we've been riding that particular horse for years and have a very positive, trusting relationship.
Horses sweat like people do. The more they run, the more their hair saturates with sweat and makes staying seated on them slippery. Hell, an overworked horse can sweat so heavily that the saddle slips off its back. It's also essential to brush and bathe a horse before it's ridden in order to keep it healthier, so their hair is often quite slick from either being very clean or very damp. In order to ride like that, you have to develop the ability to synchronize your entire body's rhythm's with the rhythm of the horse's body beneath you, and quite literally move as one. Without stirrups, most people can't do it, and some people can never master bareback riding no matter how many years they spend trying to learn.
-You can be distracted and make casual conversation while a horse is standing untethered in the middle of a barn or field.
At every barn I've ever worked at, it's been standard practice with every single horse, regardless of age or temperament, to secure their heads while they're being tacked up or tacked down. The secures for doing this are simple ropes with clips that are designed to attach to the horse's halter (the headwear for a horse that isn't being ridden; they have no bit that goes in the horse's mouth, and no reins for a rider to hold) on metal O rings on either side of the horse's head. This is not distressing to the horse, because we give them plenty of slack to turn their heads and look around comfortably.
The problem with trying to tack up an unrestrained horse while chatting with fellow stable hands or riders is that horses know when you're distracted! And they often try to get away with stuff when they know you're not looking! In a barn, a horse often knows where the food is stored, and will often try to tiptoe off to sneak into the feed room.
Horses that get into the feed room are often at a high risk of dying. While extremely intelligent, they don't have the ability to throw up, and they don't have the ability to tell that their stomach is full and should stop eating. Allowing a horse into a feed/grain room WILL allow it to eat itself to death.
Other common woes stable hands and riders deal with when trying to handle a horse with an unrestrained head is getting bitten! Horses express affection between members of their own herd, and those they consider friends and family, through nibbling and surprisingly rough biting. It's not called "horseplay" for nothing, because during my years working with horses out in the pasture, it wasn't uncommon at all for me to find individuals with bloody bite marks on their withers (that high part on the middle of the back of their shoulders most people instinctively reach for when they try to get up), and on their backsides. I've been love-bitten by horses before, and while flattering, they hurt like hell on fleshy human skin.
So, for the safety of the horse, and everybody else, always make a show of somehow controlling the animal's head when hands-on and on the ground with them.
-Big Horse = War Horse
Startlingly, the opposite is usually the case! Draft and carriage horses, like Percherons and Friesians, were never meant to be used in warfare. Draft horses are usually bred to be extremely even-tempered, hard to spook, and trustworthy around small children and animals. Historically, they're the tractors of the farm if you could afford to upgrade from oxen, and were never built to be fast or agile in a battlefield situation.
More importantly, just because a horse is imposing and huge doesn't make it a good candidate for carrying heavy weights. A real thing that I had to be part of enforcing when I worked at a teaching ranch was a weight limit. Yeah, it felt shitty to tell people they couldn't ride because we didn't have any horses strong enough to carry them due to their weight, but it's a matter of the animal's safety. A big/tall/chonky horse is more likely to be built to pull heavy loads, but not carry them flat on their spines. Horses' muscular power is predominantly in their ability to run and pull things, and too heavy a rider can literally break a horse's spine and force us to euthanize it.
Some of the best war horses out there are from the "hot blood" family. Hot blooded horses are often from dry, hot, arid climates, are very small and slight (such as Arabian horses), and are notoriously fickle and flighty. They're also a lot more likely to paw/bite/kick when spooked, and have even sometimes been historically trained to fight alongside their rider if their rider is dismounted in combat; kicking and rearing to keep other soldiers at a distance.
-Any horse can be ridden if it likes you enough.
Just like it can take a lifetime to learn to ride easily, it can take a lifetime of training for a horse to comfortably take to being ridden or taking part in a job, like pulling a carriage. Much like service animals, horses are typically trained from extremely young ages to be reared into the job that's given to them, and an adult horse with no experience carrying a rider is going to be just as scared as a rider who's never actually ridden a horse.
Just as well, the process of tacking up a horse isn't always the most comfortable experience for the horse. To keep the saddle centered on the horse's back when moving at rough or fast paces, it's essential to tighten the belly strap (cinch) of the saddle as tightly as possible around the horse's belly. For the horse, it's like wearing a tight corset, chafes, and even leaves indents in their skin afterward that they love having rinsed with water and scratched. Some horses will learn to inflate their bellies while you're tightening the cinch so you can't get it as tight as it needs to be, and then exhale when they think you're done tightening it.
When you're working with a horse wearing a bridle, especially one with a bit, it can be a shocking sensory experience to a horse that's never used a bit before. While they lack a set of teeth naturally, so the bit doesn't actually hurt them, imagine having a metal rod shoved in your mouth horizontally! Unless you understand why it's important for the person you care about not dying, you'd be pretty pissed about having to keep it in there!
-Horseback riding isn't exercise.
If you're not using every muscle in your body to ride with, you're not doing it right.
Riding requires every ounce of muscle control you have in your entire body - although this doesn't mean it wasn't realistic for people with fat bodies to stay their weight while also being avid riders; it doesn't mean the muscles aren't there. To stay on the horse, you need to learn how it feels when it moves at different gaits (walk, trot, canter, gallop), how to instruct it to switch leads (dominant legs; essential for precise turning and ease of communication between you and the horse), and not falling off. While good riders look like they're barely moving at all, that's only because they're good riders. They know how to move so seamlessly with the horse, feeling their movements like their own, that they can compensate with their legs and waists to not bounce out of the saddle altogether or slide off to one side. I guarantee if you ride a horse longer than 30 minutes for the first time, your legs alone will barely work and feel like rubber.
-Horses aren't affectionate.
Horses are extraordinarily affectionate toward the right people. As prey animals, they're usually wary of people they don't know, or have only recently met. They also - again, like service animals - have a "work mode" and a "casual mode" depending upon what they're doing at the time. Horses will give kisses like puppies, wiggle their upper lips on your hair/arms to groom you, lean into neck-hugs, and even cuddle in their pasture or stall if it's time to nap and you join them by leaning against their sides. If they see you coming up from afar and are excited to see you, they'll whinny and squeal while galloping to meet you at the gate. They'll deliberately swat you with their tails to tease you, and will often follow you around the pasture if they're allowed to regardless of what you're up to.
-Riding crops are cruel.
Only cruel people use riding crops to hurt their horses. Spurs? I personally object to, because any horse that knows you well doesn't need something sharp jabbing them in the side for emphasis when you're trying to tell them where you want them to go. Crops? Are genuinely harmless tools used for signalling a horse.
I mean, think about it. Why would crops be inherently cruel instruments if you need to trust a horse not to be afraid of you and throw you off when you're riding it?
Crops are best used just to lightly tap on the left or right flank of the horse, and aren't universally used with all forms of riding. You'll mainly see crops used with English riding, and they're just tools for communicating with the horse without needing to speak.
-There's only one way to ride a horse.
Not. At. All. At most teaching ranches, you'll get two options: Western, or English, because they tend to be the most popular for shows and also the most common to find equipment for. English riding uses a thinner, smaller saddle, narrower stirrups, and much thinner bridles. I, personally, didn't like English style riding because I never felt very stable in such a thin saddle with such small stirrups, and didn't start learning until my mid teens. English style riding tends to focus more on your posture and deportment in the saddle, and your ability to show off your stability and apparent immovability on the horse. It was generally just a bit too stiff and formal for me.
Western style riding utilizes heavier bridles, bigger saddles (with the iconic horn on the front), and broader stirrups. Like its name may suggest, Western riding is more about figuring out how to be steady in the saddle while going fast and being mobile with your upper body. Western style riding is generally the style preferred for working-type shows, such as horseback archery, gunning, barrel racing, and even rodeo riding.
-Wealthy horse owners have no relationship with their horses.
This is loosely untrue, but I've seen cases where it is. Basically, horses need to feel like they're working for someone that matters to them in order to behave well with a rider and not get impatient or bored. While it's common for people to board horses at off-property ranches (boarding ranches) for cost and space purposes, it's been historically the truth that having help is usually necessary with horses at some point. What matters is who spends the most time with the animal treating it like a living being, rather than a mode of transport or a tool. There's no harm in stable hands handling the daily upkeep; hay bales and water buckets are heavy, and we're there to profit off the labor you don't want or have the time to do. You get up early to go to work; we get up early to look after your horses. Good owners/boarders visit often and spend as much of their spare time as they can with spending quality work and playtime with their horses. Otherwise, the horses look to the stable hands for emotional support and care.
So, maybe you're writing a knight that doesn't really care much for looking after his horse, but his squire is really dedicated to keeping up with it? There's a better chance of the horse having a more affectionate relationship with the squire thanks to the time the squire spends on looking after it, while the horse is more likely to tolerate the knight that owns it as being a source of discipline if it misbehaves. That doesn't mean the knight is its favorite person. When it comes to horses, their love must be earned, and you can only earn it by spending time with them hands-on.
-Horses can graze anywhere without concern.
This is a mistake that results in a lot of premature deaths! A big part of the cost of owning a horse - even before you buy one - is having the property that will be its pasture assessed for poisonous plants, and having those plants removed from being within the animal's reach. This is an essential part of farm upkeep every year, because horses really can't tell what's toxic and what isn't. One of the reasons it's essential to secure a horse when you aren't riding it is to ensure it only has a very limited range to graze on, and it's your responsibility as the owner/rider to know how to identify dangerous plants and keep your horses away from them.
There's probably more. AMA in my askbox if you have any questions, but that's all for now. Happy writing.
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