AShetlandBitMeOnce
Well-Known Member
I came across the following article re: Appleby and I completely despair at the captions on the photographs.
I am not making direct comment on the fair, nor the community for which it is held, but more that the writer clearly did not know the first thing about horses, did not try to gain any knowledge on it, and has therefore completely mis-interpreted what is going on.
This seems harmless but when they have written 'a horse gives a toothy grin' when what is actually happening is it's being yanked so hard in the mouth by the boy who is leaning back on the reins, that it's putting pressure on the horses gums/roof of his mouth and the pain is therefore making him/her open it to relieve said pressure.
Or the other 'this horse is clearly enjoying it's time in the river' when again, the horse has it's mouth wide open trying to avoid the pain being inflicted by yanking hands, it's mid-taking off which would indicate to me that it's either spooking or received a hefty kick (looking at the riders position, this is most likely).
On top of that there is another photo of two men in a cart, being pulled by what looks like a 12hh scrap of a yearling/2yo. I may be wrong on this, but something about the hooves (shod) and the width of it's chest just says to me that it's not quite old enough.
It isn't a good thing to normalise this imagery of horses, especially under the guise of them being happy. Very disappointing but I wouldn't expect any better from the DM.
Rant over, promise!!
Article in question: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7111401/Hundreds-traveller-families-Appleby.html
On a slightly more entertaining note, two horses apparently 'stopped for a chat', a man is pulling on the 'restraints' of one horse, and a third horse is getting ready to stand up (read: rear).
I am not making direct comment on the fair, nor the community for which it is held, but more that the writer clearly did not know the first thing about horses, did not try to gain any knowledge on it, and has therefore completely mis-interpreted what is going on.
This seems harmless but when they have written 'a horse gives a toothy grin' when what is actually happening is it's being yanked so hard in the mouth by the boy who is leaning back on the reins, that it's putting pressure on the horses gums/roof of his mouth and the pain is therefore making him/her open it to relieve said pressure.
Or the other 'this horse is clearly enjoying it's time in the river' when again, the horse has it's mouth wide open trying to avoid the pain being inflicted by yanking hands, it's mid-taking off which would indicate to me that it's either spooking or received a hefty kick (looking at the riders position, this is most likely).
On top of that there is another photo of two men in a cart, being pulled by what looks like a 12hh scrap of a yearling/2yo. I may be wrong on this, but something about the hooves (shod) and the width of it's chest just says to me that it's not quite old enough.
It isn't a good thing to normalise this imagery of horses, especially under the guise of them being happy. Very disappointing but I wouldn't expect any better from the DM.
Rant over, promise!!
Article in question: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7111401/Hundreds-traveller-families-Appleby.html
On a slightly more entertaining note, two horses apparently 'stopped for a chat', a man is pulling on the 'restraints' of one horse, and a third horse is getting ready to stand up (read: rear).
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