Ponies, Horses, and Other Equines In Real Life (And Now Dinosaurs, Apparently)

This is for discussing actual equine animals, whether they are pets, fun things to ride, part of the local wildlife, or anything else.

My personal experience with horses is rather minimal. I used to live across the street from a family with a pair of horses, yet I've only actually ridden any twice, though I found it extremely enjoyable. My great aunt has a horse, but I don't get to see either of them much.

Grew up going to Churchill Downs with my mother, who is a semiprofessional handicapper and equine photographer (and gambling-and winning-by proxy), my aunt works on a farm for retired (rescued) thoroughbreds and we visited easily once every three or four months, and I've spent maybe a total of ten to twelve hours in the saddle for some light trail riding. So quite a bit, for someone who spent pretty much their whole life in a fairly large city. Always loved horses (platonically), and that might have contributed to my initial interest in MLP.

I've always had a thing for horses (not in that way... okay, yeah, in that way too) and I've always been kinda disappointed that anything having to do with horses on a more horse-centric level is usually extremely girly, as if a man riding his trusted stallion companion and the two becoming deep friends is too emotional for men. FiM's really been a wonderful development, and I hope it gets horses a little better recognition as 'not just a girl thing.'

Simple answer:

"Horses are girly."


"The charge of the Light Brigade. The Polish lancers in WWII. The Mongolian Empire. The Pony Express. Pretty much every war before WWI."

Great. Now I'm stuck imagining the Charge of the Light Brigade in Equestria... that's despite only vaguely knowing what actually happened there.

On topic, I don't think I ever had any particular affinity towards equines. Sure, there was the usual child-phase fascination with these humongous fleshy motorcycles, but I can't remember myself ever thinking that it'd be a good idea to own a horse or pony. It might've had something to do with the fact that I encountered Dino Raiders rather early into my childhood, so cybernetic dinosaurs with laser cannons overshadowed any predilections towards horses I might've had. In this light, me liking MLP:FiM is all the stranger.

My family except for me consists pretty much exclusively of horse fangirls, so I've had way to much exposure to them since... Well, not even birth, probably conception. So I don't particularly like them for the simple reason they've been forced upon me to much.

Also horses look WEIRD, I probably wouldn't have gotten into MLP if they weren't so heavily stylized.

My childhood was all about dinosaurs and ants. I could name a dozen exotic scaly killing machines and very literally write a graduate thesis on ants, but I was never really interested in horses until I found MLP. Now, I'm still not really interested in real-life horses all that much.

I grew up in a rather small town and our neighbors had horses which I rode a few times. It was always fun and I really do like horses. It's just the riders I have a problem with.

Debesh wrote:My childhood was all about dinosaurs and ants. I could name a dozen exotic scaly killing machines and very literally write a graduate thesis on ants.

Heh, my childhood was all about scary deep sea fishes. Once in like second or third grade, we had to draw a fish. Every one of my classmates drew something fantastical, ridiculously colorful, incredibly generic.
I drew a pelican eel.
My teacher was actually freaked out by that and she asked my mother whether there was something wrong with me, whether I had some sort of early depression or something, interpreting my picture beyond belief. My mom just told her to ask me what I drew. I told her. Of course, I had no idea what's going on or why that was even unusual. It's a fish, right?

Ah, sorry, I'm rambling again, but I like that anecdote, so there you go. ^^

Debesh wrote:My childhood was all about dinosaurs and ants. I could name a dozen exotic scaly killing machines and very literally write a graduate thesis on ants, but I was never really interested in horses until I found MLP. Now, I'm still not really interested in real-life horses all that much.

Let's see...

Ceratosaurus, Carnotaurus, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Velociraptor, Eoraptor, Hererrasaurus, Noasaurus, Giganotosaurus, Baryonyx, Deinonychus, Dromeosaurus, Utahraptor, Oviraptor, Dilophosaurus, Tarbosaurus, Spinosaurus, Allosaurus, Microraptor.


I've got three huge three ring binders full of dinosaur fact cards.

I had one of the biggest collection of dinosaur models outside of a museum.

MC Dirty wrote:I grew up in a rather small town and our neighbors had horses which I rode a few times. It was always fun and I really do like horses. It's just the riders I have a problem with.

Debesh wrote:My childhood was all about dinosaurs and ants. I could name a dozen exotic scaly killing machines and very literally write a graduate thesis on ants.

Heh, my childhood was all about scary deep sea fishes. Once in like second or third grade, we had to draw a fish. Every one of my classmates drew something fantastical, ridiculously colorful, incredibly generic.
I drew a pelican eel.
My teacher was actually freaked out by that and she asked my mother whether there was something wrong with me, whether I had some sort of early depression or something, interpreting my picture beyond belief. My mom just told her to ask me what I drew. I told her. Of course, I had no idea what's going on or why that was even unusual. It's a fish, right?

Ah, sorry, I'm rambling again, but I like that anecdote, so there you go. ^^

This is awesome.

You should try turtles.

Turtles are equine.

rural enough here that horses are just kind of something other folks we know had. not been riding that much.. Got the badge at summercamp in boy scouts. of course, that was more or less "let the horse know you are paying attention, and they'll do the rest." but I think I can more or less remember how everything is supposed to go.


Overall, I'd say they're a bit more interesting than cows, or at least, more expressive in turning to look at folks passing by.

Never liked horses really. They smell bad and have a bad habit of pooping whenever their backside is turned toward me.


I can see why people find them cute and whatnot, but yeah, I'll stick with my stylized cartoon ponies.