Horses in your culture!

[Varislintu]

I surprisingly happen to know quite a few horse owners here, and there's some small stables not far from my house. A lot of my friends have big backyards where they keep their horses though.

In Long-Island, New York ?

You do realise that Long Island is larger in area in than Gotland, don't you?

Hey hey hey, calm down... I found the idea of horses in the backyards of what I typically imagine to be New York funny, that's all. It wasn't meant as any kind of jab at you Americans' self-esteem, so no need to feel offended by my failure not to have the wrong kind of mental association.

But thanks guys for explaining that in more detail .

[JackFrost]

Don't worry, it amazes me sometimes that Long Island is not one completely urbanized bloc.

It's just a matter of thinking like this: Long Island =/= NYC.

[ILuvEire]

Can we also talk about equestrian vocabulary? Here's what I know in English, I bet other languages (anyone know Mongolian?!) have even more terms:

horse
foal - horse less than 1 year old
weanling - horse between 6 mon
yearling - horse greater than 1 year old
colt - male horse less than 4 years old in racing, 3 years elsewhere
filly - female horse less than 4 years old in racing, 3 years elsewhere
stallion - intact (non-castrated), adult, male horse
gelding - castrated, adult, male horse
mare - adult, female horse

I bet there are more terms. These are just the few I could pull up with a little research. I was familiar with all of these terms (except for gelding), although I couldn't define them if you needed. I think it's true for many Americans--we know, for example, that a foal is a baby horse, but not that it's purely used for horses under 1 year.

I wish I could find some info about Mongolian horse vocabulary. I remember reading an article about it, they're ridiculously complex and fascinating. I also remember similar stuff in a book about Sámi culture regarding the role of reindeer.

[Johanna]

Horse riding is the 2nd biggest sport among kids here, and the biggest one among girls. Just like in Finland most who do the sport don't own a horse themselves, they ride the horses their club owns, usually 1-2 times a week and in a group of 8-12 riders.

Living outside the big cities it's not that expensive to own your own horse though, my sister has one, and she got it while she was studying and living on about 10,000 SEK a month (1,130 EUR, 1490 USD) after taxes (student benefits, loan and working in the weekends), she had to keep it in a stable where the horse owners had to do most things themselves in order to keep the rent down, but she also had money to get lessons once a week and participate in competitions about once a month.

I grew up on horseback pretty much, my grandparents have a small farm just 300 m furhter down the road where my grandfather bred Swedish Warmbloods on a small scale. Haven't done much horseriding the past 6 years or so though, got fed up with the attitude at the local club, then I moved to Gothenburg where it was too expensive, especially if you wanted to participate in competitions, and after that it has just felt like meh.

[Hunef]

You do realise that Long Island is larger in area in than Gotland, don't you?

Manhattan is the southern tip of Long Island, right?

Horse riding is the 2nd biggest sport among kids here, and the biggest one among girls.

How can it be bigger than football? You're probably correct here, but it sounds strange. Sure, not many girls in this village don't have a horse (estimating the accumulation of dung piles in the streets between the horse fields and the horse tracks), but I'd assume there are more girls playing football than riding horses.

[Johanna]

Horse riding attracts girls who generally hate sports as well as those that do more than one, since you don't have to want to win in order to do it, you can be worse than everyone else your age and stil no one complains since it only really affects you and not an entire team, and being overweight is much less of a problem.

Looking at my classes in grundskolan, in the one in lågstadiet and mellanstadiet, three girls played football. That was the number of girls from that class in my group only at the horse riding club, apart from us there were another three who rode horses. In högstadiet we were two who played football, three who rode horses on a regular basis and another two who did the latter from time to time.

There's some overlapping of course, but that doesn't really matter, those that do both sports will show up in the statistics for both too.

[Bao]

I used to do equestrian vaulting and I rode a teensy weensy bit. I'd like to go back to the vaulting, but I'm ashamed because I'm an adult now and out of shape )=

Horse-riding is very much seen as a phase in adolescent girls' lives here, or at least it used to be.

Vocab:
Fohlen - foal, weanling
Jährling - yearling
Zweijähriger - two year old horse
Dreijähriger - three year old horse
(Vierjähriger - four year old horse)
Stute - mare
Hengst - stallion
Stutfolen - filly
Hengstfohlen - colt
Wallach - gelding

[linguoboy]

Hey hey hey, calm down... I found the idea of horses in the backyards of what I typically imagine to be New York funny, that's all. It wasn't meant as any kind of jab at you Americans' self-esteem, so no need to feel offended by my failure not to have the wrong kind of mental association.

Wow, way to completely read into a comment what wasn't there at all. I mean, how is your ignorance of American geography any skin off my nose?

Manhattan is the southern tip of Long Island, right?

Um...yeah. And Fire Island is where the Statue of Liberty is located.

[Hunef]

In högstadiet we were two who played football, three who rode horses on a regular basis and another two who did the latter from time to time.

Do you play any football these days?

Um...yeah. And Fire Island is where the Statue of Liberty is located.

Ah, Statue of Liberty is a nice sight.

BTW, what's the name of that 100 miles long peninsula on which, e.g., Brooklyn and JFK Int. Airport are located?

[linguoboy]

BTW, what's the name of that 100 miles long peninsula on which, e.g., Brooklyn and JFK Int. Airport are located?

"Red Hook". From the Dutch for "hook of reeds". At Passover time, the marshes connecting it to the mainland flood so that it resembles a tremendous island.

[Johanna]

In högstadiet we were two who played football, three who rode horses on a regular basis and another two who did the latter from time to time.

Do you play any football these days?

Nah, I only did for about two years, in a team anyway, I played a lot at school during breaks before that though.

Then my club didn't have enough players my age and the only club available was one of those that had two teams, one for "winners" and one for "losers", and I didn't like that.

[WallOfStuff]

BTW, what's the name of that 100 miles long peninsula on which, e.g., Brooklyn and JFK Int. Airport are located?

"Red Hook". From the Dutch for "hook of reeds". At Passover time, the marshes connecting it to the mainland flood so that it resembles a tremendous island.

You guys have some weird sarcasm system going on, or...?

[JackFrost]

BTW, what's the name of that 100 miles long peninsula on which, e.g., Brooklyn and JFK Int. Airport are located?

"Red Hook". From the Dutch for "hook of reeds". At Passover time, the marshes connecting it to the mainland flood so that it resembles a tremendous island.

You guys have some weird sarcasm system going on, or...?

Naw, it's just Hunef being Hunef.

[Varislintu]

Hey hey hey, calm down... I found the idea of horses in the backyards of what I typically imagine to be New York funny, that's all. It wasn't meant as any kind of jab at you Americans' self-esteem, so no need to feel offended by my failure not to have the wrong kind of mental association.

Wow, way to completely read into a comment what wasn't there at all. I mean, how is your ignorance of American geography any skin off my nose?

Are you always this disdainful to people? Because I read a lot of contempt into both your replies here but I don't understand why you would react that way. I wasn't trying to ridicule you or anything. But you seem to want to ridicule me. Like I need to be scolded for having gotten on your nerves or something. What's up with that ?

But well, I don't want to fight you or make a scene. Seems futile since we actually had this same discussion in the Politics Forum years and years ago. Perhaps I am reading things into your posts, who knows.

[Hunef]

Naw, it's just Hunef being Hunef.

It takes two to tango, though.

Nah, I only did for about two years, in a team anyway, I played a lot at school during breaks before that though.

I played in a football team for about ten years in total (I actually did two years in the town's "A team" in high school - but that's 30 kg ago and I was too heavy back then too).

Then my club didn't have enough players my age and the only club available was one of those that had two teams, one for "winners" and one for "losers", and I didn't like that.

I hate when they do that.

[loqu]

Horse meat has become rare here. Wikipedia says there are only 100 horse butchers left in Germany.

I don't think horses have a special value in our culture. Unlike North America with its famous Wild West horses like Fury, Jolly Jumper or Mr Ed.

Except that little girls love horses and read magazines like Wendy...

I wrote once on my blog about how German girls are so obsessed with horses. That is totally unheard of in Spain and I was really shocked to find out.

After all, only German girls could turn this song into this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csPqCHgRUV0

[PortoCruz]

awwww so cutee haha

[Spaigelploatje]

Horse riding is pretty popular in the Netherlands. I know of several friends who ride horses, I know several breeders. I'm not exactly sure HOW popular it is.

Horse meat is eaten pretty regularly here, it's not frowned upon and it tastes a bit better than beef and much better than pork or chicken. yeah well, it's just a kind of meat.
The image below shows a package of slices of horse meat meant to be used as cold cuts on a slice of bread.

[Sol Invictus]

Except that little girls love horses and read magazines like Wendy...

I wrote once on my blog about how German girls are so obsessed with horses. That is totally unheard of in Spain and I was really shocked to find out.

I think something like that is bound to happen when "parents won't buy me pet'' takes whole different level... you know when you are little you need all you see and when you already have all other popular pets, you go into "gotta catch them all" mode given horses are large and poo everywhere they just make terrible animal to share house with

[Halfdan]

Horse riding is pretty popular in the Netherlands. I know of several friends who ride horses, I know several breeders. I'm not exactly sure HOW popular it is.

Horse meat is eaten pretty regularly here, it's not frowned upon and it tastes a bit better than beef and much better than pork or chicken. yeah well, it's just a kind of meat.
The image below shows a package of slices of horse meat meant to be used as cold cuts on a slice of bread.
[img]http://farm2.staticflickr.com/1417/1247277945_78a8f38499_z.jpg?zz=1[/image]

That's kind of taboo here, but I still get some at the local Dutch store.