more on horses/racing, and a mental health day

[lagilman]

Saving Horses, one Thoroughbred at a time

The line that killed me: "On occasion, Condurso-Lane said, a pair of horses standing in the field together will appear to nudge one another, then dart off together in a straight line, as if reliving their past."

*sniffle*
-----------------------

In other news, I fled the computer to have a Day Out, which included the Superheroes costume exhibit at the Met (interesting but not, IMO, amazingly well-done unless, like me, you adore certain designers and can have fun mocking academic copy-writers), kamikazi shoe-shopping, post-theater dissection of the current staging of Macbeth over a carafe of wine and damn good Italian food, and one of the top ten phrases you never want to hear a tourist in Times Square say: "is that a real gun, Maureen?"

(it wasn't)

[also? I should not be allowed anywhere near Times Square/the Theater District on Wedesday afternoons or Saturdays. The urge to kill is nigh overwhelming. Farking tourists, learn how to walk!]

EtA: best street theater sight: a guy waving a variety of bumper stickers on a theme of "Cheney/Satan in 2008: The worst possible President"

Tomorrow, back to work. For now -- falling over and making like a sleeping thing.

Comments

[nycdeb.livejournal.com]

"is that a real gun, Maureen?"

I love New York.

[lagilman]

Totally. I am so very glad to be home.

[nycdeb.livejournal.com]

and I agree about the Superheroes exhibit. I was sort of "whelmed" by it. Neither over- nor under-. I was pleased they took another shot at using a different space - as I think the usual space isn't particularly well used. But it was not nearly the show that a) I was expecting or b) it could have been.

Actually, much prefer the stuff I've seen at the FIT Museum lately.

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

Wonderful story, that horse story. Thanks for the link!

[quarkwiz.livejournal.com]

Oh! So you didn't see the Preakness then, I'm guessing? Boy was it impressive to see Big Brown pull away and leave the others in the dust. Next time we talk I have a couple of horsey questions for you. Stuff that's probably taken as given for horse fans, but I iz cluless.

[lagilman]

After events of the past few years, I haven't had the heart to watch any of the races. And ask away....

[quarkwiz.livejournal.com]

OK! This was probably explained on TV, but I only tuned in in time for call to post so I missed a lot. Why are the racehorses all accompanied by another horse when they're paraded in front of the grandstand? Is it to calm them down somehow? If so, how does that work? Also, the announcers were referring to these companion horses as ponies. I'm looking at all the four-legged critters and seeing similar size, but I realize there must be a distinction between 'horse' and 'pony'....I don't know what. I could google or dig out the encyclopedia, but here we are. :-)

[lagilman]

other folk with more experience can fill in the gaps, but to answer your second question first, "pony" is a) a term referring to specific breeds, b) a term referring to a horse under 14 hands (and yet a pony breed may often be over 14 hands and a horse be under 14 hands, so confusion reigns), and c) a term of affection (i.e. Judy's "fat white ponies")

To answer your first question, horses are herd animals, and prefer to have companions. The lead pony (sometimes, I think, called a companion pony) is sort of their workout/travel buddy, who can reassure them if something goes wrong. Lead ponies tend to be of a calmer disposition than your average racer, and not so easily freaked by things. Some horses (racehorses and non) have goats, dogs, etc for companions.

[mevennen.livejournal.com]

It's only an American thing. Here (UK), they don't use lead ponies (although my cousin had a non-racing horse who would only go to shows if accompanied by its friend, and T's own horse, who died at Xmas, had a Shetland friend from whom he was inseparable).

[allaboutm-e.livejournal.com]

Thanks for making me feel better about missing the exhibit at the Met.

[lagilman]

It was a nice way to spend part of the time at the museum, but not worth a separate trip, yeah.

The associated books they had for sale were interesting from a costumer's and a social historian's POV [we had both in our group], and if you're interested in the topic, the exhibit book's not bad...

[allaboutm-e.livejournal.com]

Good to know about, but probably not something the comic geek boy would get much out of...