obsidian
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Posts posted by obsidian
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The American women's gymnastic team was simply phenomenal, every one of them. I really loved Laurie Hernandez's floor routine.
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So disappointed for Lauren Kieffer and Clark Montgomery yesterday, especially Lauren, because I love her horse, and she's been 2nd at Rolex the past two years. Also very impressed that the German team managed all double clears after their (relatively) disastrous cross country yesterday. Phillip Dutton went from 15th to 3rd after a seriously impressive save on cross country yesterday.
And I can't wait to watch dressage tomorrow, as many of my favorites will be there -- Verdades, Nip Tuck, Legolas 92, and of course, Valegro. The US also has a seriously impressive show jumping team this year; I'm rooting for them to get gold. :)
(Aside from the equestrian events, i think women's gymnastics tonight will be fun to watch.$
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Clinton Nomination Goes Down In History
Pic of supporters with signs with her logo.
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??? An aide was WITH the autistic man. What more do you expect than a 1:1 aide when the autistic man was not dangerous? And the aide got shot, while trying to explain his patient's situation to the police.We have yet to hear from the medical facility..their plan to protect and supervise this patient did not work. Perhaps someone called in sick, a walkie-talkie broke, who knows, but it sounds as if the facility did not request any form of assistance at all once the patient left the grounds.
ETA: Posted at the same time as Ravin. :)
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And Tamir's 14yo sister handcuffed and put in the back of the squad car when she ran over to her brother after he was shot. :( That article is so sad.http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5682cef0e4b06fa6888140d6
Have we discussed this aspect, the way several of the high profile killings have been treated as they lay bleeding? This article is very disturbing. And if we're only speaking here of the therapist, he claims to have been handcuffed and bleeding in the street for nearly 20 minutes.
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I hear a lot of anti-Muslim sentiment & most of the people I hear it from also seem to think Arab = Muslim.
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I understand what you're saying, but Alton Sterling had arrests that warranted jail time. The fact that he had been arrested 3 weeks prior to the incident in BR, and had so many other arrests (including domestic violence and battery I believe), leads me to think he should've been serving some time.
I did watch a very small portion of the Alton Sterling video, and I saw some still shots someone did while analyzing the video. I still maintain that it is difficult to play judge and jury when you aren't the one handling a perpetrator with a weapon.
He had been tased (so impossible to keep completely still) and was restrained on the ground. How much room for judgement is there?
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One of recent shooting victims had been pulled over by local law enforcement more than 40 times. Seriously. He had zero convictions on his record and arrests only for unpaid fines and driving on a suspended license due to unpaid fines.
Philandro Castile: pulled over 52 times. The number of times he was pulled over is crazy to me. Granted, I am young, but I've never been pulled over, and I drive quite a lot.
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I found some of the Mrs. Mungo threads. If you scroll down on this page, I had quoted her then, too. (Her posts had made quite an impression!)
Post #29
Here's a paragraph from one of the articles linked in that post describing a situation in which the military de-escalated under circumstances in which not doing so would be understandable:
Bravery inspires men, but brains and quick thinking win wars. In one particularly tense moment, a company of U.S. soldiers was preparing to guard the Mosque of Ali -- one of the most sacred Muslim sites -- when agitators in what had been a friendly crowd started shouting that they were going to storm the mosque. In an instant, the Iraqis began to chant and a riot seemed imminent. A couple of nervous soldiers slid their weapons into fire mode, and I thought we were only moments away from a slaughter. These soldiers had just fought an all-night battle. They were exhausted, tense, and prepared to crush any riot with violence of their own. But they were also professionals, and so, when their battalion commander, Chris Hughes, ordered them to take a knee, point their weapons to the ground, and start smiling, that is exactly what they did. Calm returned. By placing his men in the most non-threatening posture possible, Hughes had sapped the crowd of its aggression. Quick thinking and iron discipline had reversed an ugly situation and averted disaster.
Here's the section of the thread those quotes came from.
http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/534719-ferguson/?p=6042878
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That said, I predicted this (more innocent people being shot) because of all the cop ambushes in recent weeks.
You think this particular situation was expected because of ambushes? Police shooting a man with his hands in the air who's being respectful and communicative?
This is not the type of situation that happens just because an officer was on edge. It's an example of someone seriously unfit for duty & I hope he spends time in jail.
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Thanks for the info. This may be on my rising-junior DD's list in another year. I know that Massachusetts state schools can be picky about GED's and accredited diplomas. Is there a similar problem with private U's like BU? DD may have a diploma via dual enrollment, but not 100% sure on that at this point.
They had no issue with my homeschool diploma.
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I applied to BU, and was accepted, though decided not to attend. They gave me a decent merit scholarship, but ultimately it was not enough. Anyway, I did visit the school, and I loved it. As others mentioned, it's in the middle of the city. Personally, I liked that -- there seemed to be a lot going on & plenty of interesting things to do. When I visited, they emphasized interdisciplinary connections quite a lot, and talked about a senior project engineering students were required to do, which involved engineers from different disciplines working together to create a product to solve a problem of their choice. There're a lot of opportunities for study abroad and tons of international students, and of course, it's in Boston, which is a vibrant city with all sorts of museums, cultural events, etc. :)
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She's adorable! I think either sabino or a minimally marked tobiano is possible. Personally, I'd lean toward sabino. She may also lose the spots as she grows, and just be a flashy palomino.
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Also definitely need pictures. :)
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Perhaps she's sabino? What color is the mare and what markings does she have? Sabinos generally have the stockings & blaze & sometimes the belly spots or more white on the body.
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I know people that are involved in horse sports and its fine - they are ethical about it. The bigger their operation though, and the higher the level, the less I see that. And yes, it costs significant amounts of money, which is why they are as business-like about it as any other low-margin business - a non-performer or a young horse that shows it isn't going to be useful, which means quite a lot of them - if they can sell it as a pet they might, but that isn't always easy, and they certainly aren't going to sit around paying for the animal to eat if there is no such buyer. That even seems to be the case in the lower-pressure horse sports. It's the hobbyists that are most often the ones who treat the animals like pets with a job, people who have another primary source of income. But it isn't the hobbyists that go to the top, it's the people who are willing to dope their animals or cull the non-performers. And that determines what the culture will be like at the professional level.
I've seen the opposite. The very highest level operations can afford to find a horse a different job if it's just not working out. It's more the middle and lower tier operations that might fall prey to that. Even so, in my involvement in the sport horse world, I've known 0 people that send horses to auction or euthanize them for being non performers. Unless you count selling a horse as culling it, I'm just not seeing that top eventing or show jumping riders regularly kill horses for not performing.
I will say for myself that to get up in two point on a thoroughbred running at a full-gallop on nice soft footing, or taking one over a jump, are among the most thrilling activities I've ever enjoyed.
Thoroughbreds make my heart race, just thinking about them.
I miss riding,
Bill (who has the dog version of a thoroughbred)
:iagree:
Yes, I totally agree. I think the thing with eventing, though, is that the courses are designed to make you fail (sometimes fail=fall.) They have to be difficult enough that people can't complete it. Otherwise, it is just a dressage competition.
Honestly? I'm ok with people choosing to participate in sports where there's a risk of death. Just about any extreme sport has a risk of death; I think that's ok if people choose it willingly, and I don't think wanting to push yourself to your limits is really necessarily a bad thing. It's their choice (hey, it's my choice). Does that mean we shouldn't try to make a sport as safe as possible? Of course not. And with eventing, there's also animals involved, and it's our responsibility to make sure they are as safe as possible. This is where I start to have issues with some of the top events (hello, Badminton had SO many falls this year). I thought Rolex was better done this year, actually. The majority of people I know make good choices and safe choices about the level they compete. And so, I'm ok with competing, choosing the level that's safe for me and my horse & choosing to be around people who do the same. Though I really just go to shows because it's fun to ride new places and I don't particularly care how I do. (To the extent that I was doing a dressage test this weekend & my horse started rearing because he didn't want to go past some flowers, & I found the whole thing amusing and just carried on once he was done. :lol: )
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I think they know that accidents happen, but young riders in particular, are still at the stage where they think it won't happen to them. They think they are invincible. There are plenty of young people at the CCI* level. With the right horse, it doesn't take that long to get there.
What bothers me most is when cross country people just shrug and say, "Oh, well." Someone dies and the event continues like it's no big deal. "She died doing what she loves." Seriously? I'm pretty sure she would prefer to still be riding. :(
On one hand, I don't know that anyone ever seriously thinks it will happen to them. You don't start out a cross country course thinking you're going to die on it, kwim? On the other hand, I think just about everyone knows it's a possibility in the abstract.
That sort of attitude would bother me as well. I haven't seen it at my barn, and the latest accident has been felt pretty deeply, as a lot of people competed with Philippa or knew her. I do think some people take comfort in knowing she was doing what she loved; it's something of a coping mechanism. But I don't think anyone isn't grieved by her death. All the statements I've seen from people at the event - Boyd Martin, Philipp Dutton and the like -- were obviously heartbroken. From reports I read, the decision to continue the competition wasn't made lightly, either. & I know the events where Olivia and Caitlyn had accidents were cancelled.
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What is killing the eventers is the same thing that is killing the horses....rotational falls. The worst part is that plenty of the riders are teenagers. They just have no clue the danger that they are in, but horses are dropping left and right along with the riders.
I'm not sure it's accurate to say riders are unaware of the dangers. Fatal accidents generally occur at an international level, and you'd have to be pretty naive not to know the risks of competition by the time you reach that level. I agree that rotational falls are a serious issue.
It's not so much the inherent risk of riding horses. My daughter rides constantly, and we are at an eventing barn. The problem for me, is that, at some point, you have to stop pushing the limit on the cross country courses. You can only jump so high/far and turn so tight. I just think we might be pushing it too far sometimes.
We have many horses at our barn that were former racehorses. They have lots of problems, especially the damage done from running in a circle in the same direction all the time. There has to be a balance. You can enjoy riding without killing yourself or your horse, barring something unforeseen. But the number of dead athletes, both human and equine, on the cross country field of late is concerning, not to mention the number of severe injuries.
I agree that sometimes the limit is pushed too far on cross country courses. Also, though, cross country is dangerous by its nature, people are working to make it safer, and it is safer than it used to be. Obviously it's not yet enough, but I also don't think people are doing nothing. This is a thoughtful article on safety, and these two articles delineate reasonable solutions to make the sport safer (1, 2).
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This is why my personal mortality doesn't stress me out. I got over it long ago when I decided to ride. ;) I'd much rather "live" and die young than grow into old age and have done absolutely nothing. That motto still runs my life.
It's not senseless at all. For some of us, it's enjoying life to its fullest doing what we enjoy.
Quite honestly, I'm far more "afraid" of a nursing home!
:iagree: Related to the recent eventing deaths, this is a pretty good take on things.
Ah, but horses do have choices. Those who don't like their jobs either won't do them or won't do them well. I've seen horses that don't like competing, trail riding, being lesson horses, jumping, etc. Racing/eventing are no different. Many of the horses we got in to work with at the stable of my youth were those that had no interest in racing. They enjoyed other jobs instead.
No, horses don't really have a choice. They can make their opinions known, sure, but at the end of the day, they aren't the ones deciding to enter a race, or to take drugs, and so on. Ideally, their owners take the horse's preference into account and find the horse a job they enjoy, but realistically that doesn't always happen.
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Even more disturbing is the number of eventers that have been killed in the past few months. It's even more tragic when it's the riders who are dying. It is senseless.
While also horrible, this is a different issue, I think. The riders can choose to compete or not; horses don't have the same choice.
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Well...you can't sell it for more to a 4H kid than a kill buyer if the horse is lame or extremely hot or whatever.
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I've got mixed emotions about horse racing. It can be done well, and the horses do generally like racing. Unfortunately, it's not often done well, as evidenced by Mercy's statistics. :( It's horribly sad what happens to many horses after they race. And many of those that meet awful fates could have had happy second careers. I work at a barn that retrains racehorses, and we get in tons of sound horses that go on to live happy lives eventing, doing dressage, trail riding, etc. We get in some not so sound ones too (one that had EPM, one found in a killpen with a broken hip, and so on), and they've all found good homes as well.
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NPR & BBC for general news
Wired for tech news
538 for election specific news
A couple other sites for local news
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Let me know the ins-and-outs, please.
Looks like riding lessons are about $45-ish a hour.
So $200 a month or so. Weekly lessons are the way to go right?
Plus we'd need helmet, boots.
Is that all?
Is it worth it?
All you need is a helmet and boots, and weekly lessons are definitely a good place to start. You can find good boots fairly cheaply on eBay -- Ariat is a good brand. Cheap is fine for helmets, so long as they meet ASTM/SEI certifications (basically all helmets should meet those certifications).
Western or English? I apparently have a lot to learn!
Is it, find a good horse place and do what they do (like the old adage about college, pick by professor not subject?)
Or for an anxiety-ridding kid, is it best to find a specific type of riding and seek that out?
Western is generally what you think of when you think of cowboys; English is what people jumping horses do. The most obvious difference is the tack, but there are other differences as well. If she's interested in jumping, I'd say go with an English barn, but otherwise it doesn't really matter. :) It sounds like, for you, the most important thing is going to be the instructor, so I'd make sure that you meet the instructor and see if they're someone your dd will like. I would also want to make sure the horses are treated well (stalls are relatively clean, ideally turnout each day, water buckets are clean and don't smell, horses don't look skinny) and as other people have mentioned, make sure she is responsible for grooming and tacking up her horse. Learning to take care of the horse is an important part of riding.
I started as a newbie mom, and honestly, one has to be incredibly lucky to end up in the "right" barn right away. There's just so much information to absorb, so many subtle things to learn. What seemed great 5 years ago seems absolutely horrible now, I can't believe I brought my kid there. Yet, it was perfect then, it really was. (How does a non-horsey mom choose a barn? Well, people were so nice and friendly! lol) She learned so much there, including that she couldn't stay there, at some point. Even what seemed perfect a year ago is not so "perfect" now, as the more you learn, the more you can evaluate what's happening and the more you know, the more the tiny little things become prominent.
It truly is a jorney.
This is definitely true. Start with a barn that's right for you, but be ready to move on if it's no longer a good fit. I personally wouldn't change too often, as continuity of instruction is a good thing, but if things really aren't working out, start looking somewhere else.
It could be a barn where corrections to horses are never punitive (and yet effective), where horse psychology is taken into account, where horses are kept outside 24/ 7 (imagine that! Don't we want them all "cozy" and oh so clean in their stalls?), where horses are happy and calm and will ground tie for grooming instead of being cross-tied. (And there are barns where cross-tying is never questions, because this is how things are done, period.)
Out of curiosity, why do you not like cross-tying?
I wouldn't get too wrapped around the whole NH thing, because that is a hot bed of opinions and arguments - for instance, I know a number of people who regard Clinton Anderson as very controversial (note: I don't have any personal experience with him, so I don't claim to know, - my point is that if you start getting too hung up on methods and trainers and terminology and competing opinions , you can easily get overwhelmed, and that's unnecessary as a beginner). If your daughter goes to a barn for lessons and likes it and is calmed by it, continue with the barn. If not, switch. Keep it simple - your experience (and your daughter's) should be your guide.
Yes, I usually see Parelli and the like used as an excuse to let a horse run all over people. I'm sure it can be done well, but it's not by people in my area.
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What is your favorite kind of weather?
in The Chat Board
Posted
Don't care about the weather, so long as the high temp is somewhere between 50 and 70. :p