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And one amang, an Iyrysch man,

Uppone his hoby swyftly ran…

WAIT HANG ON - slamming the brakes on drawing this stupid picture - do you nerds even KNOW the etymology of the word “hobby”? The thing you do for pleasure? The thing you have too many of? The thing you spend too much money on and share with your friends? The thing tumblr probably is to you? Those hobbies?

It comes from a now-kind-of-extinct breed of Irish pony-horse. It was called the Irish Hobby. Supposedly the hobby got its name from the Gaelic word obann, or swift. They definitely were. They’d obann your pants clean off.

Fast tough little bastards, built for rough terrain and renowned for their speed and stamina, hobby horses belonged to the Celts, and their highly annoying style of mounted warfare. but their conquerors liked hobby horses a lot, kept them, used them for themselves, and found them useful enough, despite the fact that they also had famously useful things like mounted knights or horse archers. A lightweight Irish warrior, mounted on a hobby horse, was called a hobelar.

Reportedly and in depictions, hobelars rode without stirrups. Or saddles. Or bridles. Or - well - this is all sounding very improbable, because the hobelars COULDNT have just been charging around basically bare-assed on naked ponies, screaming, and somehow in the process undoing the composure of actual mounted armoured knights. Knights who, I remind you, had stirrups. Stirrups are useful! It’s quite likely the hobelars had some gear. And clothes. and weapons. And the ponies probably had some tack - I am picturing a bellyband that you could at least hang a saddlebag on, and a neck rope for catching the bloody thing, even if not a saddle. But the overall impression, somehow created by people on darling little ponies, was apparently quite striking and fearful.

I mean. God Forbid People Have Hobbies.

Anyway after a while, whatever people became the British had eventually conquered all of the rough terrain that hobbies were best at, and horse archers just got sexier, and mounted knights became aristos, and all the bog and forest people had been subdued, so it was time to sunset the hobelars. but WAIT! Hobby horses are still tremendously fun and appealing! They’re so fast! and you can ride them without a saddle! Sure, they’re not up to the weight of a mounted knight, or indeed a lot of guys… but surely we can still find a use for a hobby or two? In the back garden? Somewhere?

At which point an English king decided to keep hobby horses just for fun. No military application. No further development of the technology. Not for fun. Just as expensive, pleasurable, pets. Just for the joy of the thing.

And that is how hobby (activity done purely for pleasure) comes from hobby horse (small horse) possibly from obann (swift.) they’re very interesting and you should look all this up for yourself! because it sure sounds like Elodie doing a bit, doesn’t it?

Today, Irish Hobbies are functionally nonexistent. References for drawing include the Kerry Bog Pony, the Connemara, and (I personally think) Dartmoors and Exmoors. They’re said to have lent their speed to the Irish Hunter/Sport Horse and from there to the Thoroughbred, but every damn horse in the world claims relation to the Thoroughbred, and they can’t be THAT thoroughly bred.

At any rate - you can never have enough hobbies. Just be glad that yours aren’t expensive beasts with minds of their own, eating their heads off in the pasture! …Unless they are. In which case, you’re part of a proud tradition.

Also if anyone is a Wikipedia type of person, or a historian who thrives on this kind of thing, the quote at the beginning of this post: And one amang, an Iyrysch man, Uppone his hoby swyftly ran

is misattributed in the Wikipedia article for the Irish Hobby to John Barbour, the quote currently reading:

The breed was mentioned in 1375 by the poet John Barbour, who called them hobynis in his poem, The Bruce. He also mentioned them in his work Reliquiae Antiquae, noting their speed.[3]

Barbour does refer to hobynis twice in "The Bruce," but the source in the Wikipedia goes to the phrases.org.uk page: Hobby-horse - Meaning & Origin Of The Phrase

In Reliquiae Antiquae, a poetic work of Barbour’s from around 1400 and republished in 1841, he referred to them again, this time with a little more context...

This doesn't appear to be correct. Reliquiae Antiquae is a bunch of random scraps of things, like falconry tips and recipes, not to do with Barbour, and with no hobbies in it. the guy writing that was confused. Instead, this is from a collection called "Political Poems and Songs Related to English History, Volume 2" which someone has kindly archived on the Internet Archive. the full passage, describing a siege of Calais, goes:

And one amang, an lyrysch man, Uppone his hoby swyftly ran; Hyt was a sportfulle sygthe, How hys darttes he did schak ; And when him lyst to leve or tak, They had fiiUe gret dispite.

I don't know much but I can take a stab at translation:

And one among, an irish man, upon his hobby swiftly ran. it was fun to watch, like sports. he was definitely playing darts. not arrows or a javelin. definitely darts. and when he was either fighting people or running away, it was extremely annoying. and they all wished he wouldn't. stop doing that, they disputed, and he disputed: god forbid women have hobbies.

so yeah you can fix that if you want to - or not!

mylittlehony

Some sixteenth and seventeenth century mentions of the Irish hobby that I have come across over the years.

John Major, 1520, Historia Majoris Britanniae (p. 38):

Equos quos Haubinos vocant, ſuaviſſime incedentes, gignit. Aſturcones antiquitus vocabantur, eo quod ex Aſturibus Hiſpaniæ venirent. Illos equos de Hiſpania ſecum attulerunt. Hos equos Haubinos ſeu Hobinos de Anglia Galli vocant, eo quod ab Anglis in Galliam veniunt.

Being lazy and using A. Constable's 1892 translation:

The island produces a kind of horses which the natives call Haubini, whose pace is of the gentlest. They were called Asturcones in ancient times, because they came from Asturia in Spain, and indeed the Spanish colonists brought those horses along with them. The French call these same horses English Haubini or Hobini, because they get them by way of England.

Cf. Stanyhurst (below) on Asturcones.

Thomas Blundeville, 1561, The fower chiefyst offices belongyng to horsemanshippe (p. 11):

THe Iryshe Hobby is a pretye fyne horse, hauinge a good head, and a body indeferently wel proporcioned, sauing that many of them be slender & pin bottocked, they be tender mouthed, nimble, light, plea∣saunt, & apte to be taught, and for the most part thei be amblers, & therfore very mete for the saddle, & to trauel by the way, yea and the Iryshe men both with dartes & with lyght speares, do vse to skyrmishe with them in the fielde. And many of them do proue to that vse very well, by meanes they be so lyght and swyfte, notwythstanding I take theym to be very neashe and tender to keepe, and also to be somewhat skyttishe and fearefull, partlye parhaps by nature, and partlie for lacke of good breakinge at the first.

Stanyhurst (below) mentions different types of Irish horses, namely nags or hackneys, used for travelling, horses of service, or chief horses, which are gallopers used for skirmishes, and the hobby, smaller than the horse of service, a good traveller, an ambler and a runner. His information contradicts that of Blundeville, with regards to which horses are used in battle. He also specifies, in contrast to Major, that the horses of service are the Asturcones, not the hobbies.

Richard Stanyhurst, 1587, 'Description of Ireland' in Holinshed's Chronicles, p. 20:

The horsses are of pase easie, in running woonderfull swift, in gallop both false and full indifferent. The nag or the hackeneie is verie good for trauelling, albeit others report the contrarie. And if he be broken accordinglie, you shall haue a little tit that will trauell a whole daie without anie bait. Their horsses of seruice are called chiefe horsses, being well broken they are of an excellent courage. They reine passinglie, and champe vpon their bridels brauelie, commonlie they amble not but gallop and run. And these horsses are but for skirmishes, not for trauelling, for their stomachs are such, as they disdaine to be hacknied. Thereof the report grew, that the Irish hobbie will not hold out in trauelling. You shall haue of the third sort a bastard or mongrell hobbie, néere as tall as the horsse of seruice, strong in trauelling, easie in ambling, and verie swift in running. Of the horsse of seruice they make great store, as wherin at times of need they repose a great péece of safetie. This brood Volaterane writeth to haue come from Austurea, the countrie of Hispaine, betwéene Gallicia and Portugall, whereof they were named Asturcones, a name now properlie applied to the Hispanish genet.

Volaterane is Raffaele Maffei, whose description of the Asturian horse in his Geographia quotes both Pliny's Historia Naturalis 8.166 (or 8.67, depending on how you like to organise your Pliny) and Silius Italicus' Punica 3.332-7. Pliny says:

in eadem Hispania Gallaica gens est et Asturica; equini generis hi sunt quos tieldones vocamus; minore forma appellatos asturcones gignunt, quibus non vulgaris in cursu gradus, sed mollis alterno crurum explicatu glomeratio, unde equis tolutim carpere incursum traditur arte.

The Bostock and Riley 1855 translation, from good old Perseus:

Gallicia and Asturia are also countries of Spain; they produce a species of horse known to us as thieldones, and when smaller, asturcones; they have a peculiar and not common pace of their own, which is very easy, and arises from the two legs of the same side being moved together; it is by studying the nature of this step that our horses have been taught the movement which we call ambling.

The phrase about the gait - mollis alterno crurum explicatu glomeratio - is a little tricky to translate, "a gentle gathering of the limbs by alternate extension", and tolutim is given as "on a trot, full trot" in Lewis & Short, neither of which are a clear-cut reference to gaiting. (Also, a quick look through the Packard Humanities Institute texts on Diogenes suggests that glomeratio is a hapax in our surviving texts.) However, the modern Asturcón pony of Asturies is gaited, and is believed to descend from the horses mentioned by Roman authors. See further Camden (and Holland's translation) below.

While on the tangent about Asturian horses, Martial has a nice little epigram on them (14.199):

Hic brevis ad numeros rapidum qui colligit unguem, Venit ab auriferis gentibus Astur equus.

Loeb translation:

This little Asturian horse that picks up its fleet hooves in rhythm came from gold-bearing peoples.

Which sounds a bit like a paso fino, with the emphasis on rapidity, but there is no way of knowing.

Silius Italicus describes the Asturian horses in Punica as not jostling their riders (3.335ff.):

his paruus sonipes nec Marti natus, at idem aut inconcusso glomerat uestigia dorso, aut molli pacata celer rapit esseda collo.

A. S. Kline's translation:

Asturian horses are small, not notable in battle, yet pick up speed without rattling their rider about, or with docile manner draw a carriage quickly in peacetime.

The emphasis on the smoothness of their paces is certainly more typical of a gaited horse than of a horse that trots.

I don't know whether Major and Stanyhurst link the hobby to the Asturian horse because there was a genuine Irish tradition that the horses came from there, or whether they ran with the idea that the Irish horses must descend from the Asturian horses mentioned in antiquity on the grounds that both of them ambled. I have certainly seen hippological texts from around this period which catalogued breeds of horses according to Greek and Roman writers, rather than describing the horses of their time.

The internet says - though I have found no reliable sources on this - that due to the belief that horses from Asturia were used to create the Irish hobby, efforts are being made to recreate the hobby using Asturcóns. Given that the Asturcón is itself endangered, I am not sure that the internet is correct.

For what it is worth, while Radovic et al. 2024 did not include Asturcón ponies in their Y chromosome samples, the Kerry Bog ponies and the Connemaras clustered under sub-haplogroup Ad_b, while the Iberian breeds belonged to the Ao and Hs sub-haplogroups. Luís et al. 2007 also had no Asturcón ponies, but they did find that the Garrano ponies they sampled clustered with Connemaras, so there is some shared ancestry between Portuguese and Irish pony breeds.

Thomas Carve, 1666, Lyra sive Anacephalaeosis Hibernica, 2nd edition (p. 43):

Sunt etiam in hâc Inſulâ præſtantiſſimi equi adeò ut Munſterus, l. 2. Coſmograph. indeſcript. Hibern, aſſerat, gignit Hibernia multos equos, qui gnaviter incedunt, ſtudentque velut data opera mollem facere greſſum, ne inſidenti moleſtiam ullam inferant: Et Jovius, equi tota Hibernia incorruptá ſobole gignunt, mollissimo inceſſu Hobinos Angli vocant, & ob id à delicatis expetuntur, ac in Galliâ, Italiâque nobilioribus fœminis dono dantur. Ex hoc genere duodecim candoris eximÿ purpurâ, & argenteis habenis exornatos in Pompam ſummorum Pontificum ſeſſore vacuos duci vidimus.

Translation:

There are in this island most excellent horses indeed as Munsterus, l. 2. Cosmograph. indescript. Hibern, claims: Ireland produces many horses, which go along carefully, and take pains, as if given the task, to step softly, lest they bring any trouble to their riders: And Jovius, in all Ireland horses are produced of a pure race, with the softest pace, which the English call Hobini, and on account of this they are sought by the pampered, and in France and Italy they are given to noble women as gifts. We have seen twelve white horses of this race, distinguished in purple and adorned with silver reins, led in the Pope's procession with empty saddles.

Munsterus is Sebastian Münster, whose Cosmographia was first published in 1544; the earliest Latin translation was published in 1550. In the German text, he says something like:

Es bringt Hibernia vil pferd die gar ſenfft ghan un ſich darzů flißen daß ſie nit hert ghan und dem rütter nit überleſtig ſihed.

My German is not strong enough to be certain of every word there, especially given the age of the text and the differences in spelling between it and modern German, e.g. vil > viel, ſenfft > sanft, ghan > gehen.

Jovius is Paolo Giovio; I have not located the work Carve is quoting.

Gervase Markham, 1607, Cavelarice (pp. 9f., pp. 16f.):

Againe, for swiftnesse, what Nation hath brought foorth that Horse which hath exceeded the English? for proofe whereof wee haue this example: when the best Barbaries that euer were in my remembrance were in their prime, I sawe them ouer-runne by a blacke Hobbie at Salisburie of maister Carltons, and yet that Hobby was more ouer runne by a horse of maister Blackstones called Valentine, which Valentine neither in hunting nor running, was euer equalled, yet was a plaine bredde English Horse both by Syre and Damme ...

Next and last, I place the Irish Hobbie, which is a horse of a reasonable good shape, hauing a fine head, a strong necke, and a well cast bodie; they haue quicke eyes, good limbs, and tollerable buttocks: of all horses they are the surest of foote, and nimblest in daungerous passages, they are of liuely courage, & very tough in trauell, onely they are much subiect to affrights and boggards. They will hardly in any seruice ioyne with their enemies, the reason I imagine to bee these: first, they are for the moste part bredde in wilde races, and haue neyther communitie or fellowshippe with any man till they come to the Saddle, which many times is not till they come to seauen, eight, nine, or ten yeares olde, at what time the countrie rysing, doe forciblie driue the whole studd, both Horses, Mares, Colts, and Fyllies into some bogge, where being layde fast, they halter such as they please to take, and let the rest goe. This wilde bringing vp, and this rude manner of handling, doth in my conceite ingender this fearefulnesse in the Beast, which those ruder people know not how to amend. This Horse though he trot very wel, yet he naturallie desireth to amble: and thus much I thinke sufficient, touching these seuerall kindes of Horses, and their generations.

William Camden, 1607, Britannia:

Equi item optimi (hobies vocamus), quibus non idem qui in caeteris in cursu gradus, sed mollis alterno crurum explicatu glomeratio.

Philemon Holland's translation of Camden:

They have likewise excellent good horses (we terme them Hobies) which have not the same pace that other horses in their course, but a soft and round amble seting one legge before another very finely.

Note that Camden has lifted in cursu gradus, sed mollis alterno crurum explicatu glomeratio directly from Pliny, but applies it to the Hobby, rather than to the Asturian horse of the original text. Holland uses 'amble' in his translation, which is consistent with Stanyhurst and Markham's description of the Hobby as an ambler.

The fact that they were amblers, i.e. gaited horses, is interesting, as gaited horses are often considered to have weaker canters and gallops, though when gaiting they cover a good deal of ground at high speed. Gaited horses, however, were prized for being a smoother ride than trotting horses; see the tangent on the Asturian horse above.

Lady Wentworth, who should be treated with caution due to her bias towards the Arab horse and her liberality with the truth when it suited her interests, mentions in The Book of the Horse (1949, ed. Brian Vesey-Fitzgerald, p. 131), that "There is a description of a race between pacers, A.D. 1170 , outside London. The races of these noble horses were not run at a gallop but by the fore and hind feet moving in pairs together." Unfortunately, she does not care to share with us where she found this description. However, it is evidence of a sort that gaited horses were historically raced.

I do wonder to what extent the Hobby was a landrace and to what extent it was a type associated with a particular function - was it, in effect, an Irish term similar to palfrey, courser or rouncey? Stanyhurst's division of Irish horses into nags and hackneys, chief horses and mongrel hobbies certainly looks to be drawn up according to function, with the added details that the chief horses do not amble, but hobbies do (and that the chief horses do not hold up to being ridden on journeys). The softness of their paces and Jovius' statement that they are gifted to noblewomen are attributes associated with palfreys.

Barbour places hobbies in battle in his 1375 poem The Brus 14.63-70 (the invasion of Ireland by Edward, younger brother of Robert the Bruce):

Thar mycht men se a gret melle For Erll Thomas and his menyhe Dang on thair fais sa douchtely, That in schort tym men mycht se ly Ane hundreth that all bludy war. For hobynis, that war stekit thar, Rerit, and flang, and gret rowme maid, And kest thame that apon thame raid.

The term hobelar also indicates that in the Middle Ages, hobbies were war horses. The earliest surviving citation of hobelar is from 1296, according to Morris 1914:80, possibly from the Exchequer Accounts: two hundred and sixty hobelars accompanied Sir John Wogan as part of a force attacking south-west Scotland. Jones 2018 also discusses the hobelars and their horses, and points out that Ayton 1994 pp. 63f. has observed that most horses taken on campaign were not destriers, but coursers and rounceys. Given their use both in battle and on journeys, as well as their speed, I am leaning towards hobbies not being a landrace as such, but the Irish equivalent of a courser or rouncey. See Forster 2022 and Oliveros Calvo 2021 for descriptions of the various types of mediaeval horses.

References

Ayton, Andrew. 1994. Knights and Warhorses: Military Service and the English Aristocracy under Edward III. Woodbridge.

Barbour, John. 1909. The Bruce. Ed. W. M. Mackenzie. Adam and Charles Black.

Blunt-Lytton, Judith. 1949. 'The world's Horse'. The Book of the Horse. Ed. Brian Vesey-Fitzgerald. Nicholson & Watson.

Forster, Loïs. 2022. 'The Typology of Horses in Burgundian Chronicles of the Fifteenth Century'. Echoing Hooves: Studies on Horses and Their Effects on Medieval Societies. Edd. Anastasija Ropa and Timothy Dawson. Brill.

Jones, Robert. 2018. 'Cum equis discoopertis: The "Irish" hobelar in the English armies of the fourteenth century'. Military Communities in Late Medieval England. Edd. Gary P. Baker, Craig L. Lambert, David Simpkin. Boydell & Brewer.

Luís, C., R. Juras, M. M. Oom and E. G. Cothran. 2007. 'Genetic diversity and relationships of Portuguese and other horse breeds based on protein and microsatellite loci variation'. Animal Genetics 38:20-27 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2052.2006.01545.x

Morris, J. E.. 1914. 'Mounted infantry in mediaeval warfare' Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 8:77-102

Oliveros Calvo, Cristina. 2021. 'Straight from the Horse’s Mouth: A Study of Horse Type Terms in English, French and Spanish'. The Liminal Horse: Equitation and Boundaries. Edd. Rena Maguire and Anastasija Ropa. Trivent Publishing.

Radovic, Lara, et al.. 2024. 'The global spread of Oriental Horses in the past 1,500 years through the lens of the Y chromosome'. PNAS 121 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2414408121

This literally deserves academic praise and recognition for being, like, an absolute REFERENCE ESSAY on a type of horse. I wish I was a better person to give it the recognition it deserves.

Places where I nodded sagely and said “same”:

- I’m neashe and tender to keep

- I’m a little tit that could amble all day without a snack

- I’m very brave but perpetually afflicted by boggarts and frights

- I have a soft and round amble 😚

I’m sorry, I’m doing jokes to displace how impressed I am. Was anyone planning to read about enchanting extinct horse breeds - TOO LATE! THIS IS YOUR HOBBY NOW

alternatefuturesao3

Ooh I wonder if Irish hobbies have any relation to Icelandic horses (small and thrifty and gaited!)

mylittlehony

They might have! Jansen et al. 2002 looked at mitochondrial DNA in domestic horses, and found that Icelandics, Fjords and certain British native breeds clustered together:

The clearest association between cluster and breed is evidenced by cluster C1 (n = 48): in our sample, it is geographically restricted to central Europe, the British Isles, and Scandinavia, including Iceland (Fig. 1). A total of 17 of 19 documented horses with C1 are northern European ponies (Exmoor, Fjord, Icelandic, and Scottish Highland). Additionally, 14 of 27 undocumented horses (3) with C1 are ponies, including Connemara ponies. The cluster is younger than perhaps 8,000 y (Table 1), but definitely older than 1,500 y, because C1 was also found in two ancient Viking horses. Furthermore, mtDNA cluster E (n = 16) consists entirely of Icelandic, Shetland, and Fjord ponies. Taken together, this suggests a common late glacial or postglacial origin for these pony breeds.

Radovic et al. 2024, though, found that the Icelandic horses have a completely different patriline from most of the British native breeds, as they belong to what is currently called the non-Crown group, while the majority of the British native breeds belong to the Crown group. The non-crown British breeds are the Eriskay pony and the Shetland. As the Shetland Isles and the Hebrides were both under Norse control for about four hundred years, ending in 1266, it makes sense that their pony breeds would be more similar to the Icelandic horse.

Most of the Connemara and Kerry Bog ponies tested by Radovic et al. 2024 belong to a British sub-haplogroup, labelled Ad-b. The draught breeds, both pony and horse, mostly have the Y chromosome haplotype Ad-bS, most of the Dartmoors have a unique haplotype Ad-bF, and the Connemaras and Kerry Bog ponies share the haplotype Ad-bA with Welsh ponies and cobs descended from Old Welsh Flyer. (Some of the Connies and Kerry Bog ponies did return a Thoroughbred sire line instead of the British one, which is no surprise.)

So, according to genetics studies, the Connemara and Kerry Bog pony, descendants of the Irish hobby, share maternal ancestry with the Icelandic horse, and paternal ancestry with other British breeds.

References

Jansen, Thomas, et al.. 2002. 'Mitochondrial DNA and the origins of the domestic horse'. PNAS 99 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.152330099

Radovic, Lara, et al.. 2024. 'The global spread of Oriental Horses in the past 1,500 years through the lens of the Y chromosome'. PNAS 121 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2414408121

#happy ace day!#not pod #emma trosse my beloved!!!

Argh I found a moderately academic reference stating that “hobby” is from Gaelic “swift”, WHICH IS GOOD because there are a lot of search engine results saying it’s from a English rhyme for “Robert.”

Which I like to see.

https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/77656/1/CHP%202008.1%20Jones.pdf

It’s also a shared beef with myself and academic Robert Jones that nobody cares about hobelars. Cheap and effective distinctive mounted unit! Where’s the representation! But they were probably celts and mounted on little ponies and didn’t have shiny armour, so less sexy, apparently.

makingqueerhistory

There is a rich queer linguistic history in Germany. Many of the words still used to talk about queerness originated there with people like

"There is a rich queer linguistic history in Germany. Many of the words still used to talk about queerness originated there with people like Magnus Hirschfeld, a man whose contributions to the modern queer community cannot be overstated. A lesser discussed name is Emma Trosse, and with her, the beginnings of asexuality as an identity can be found. Standing on the legacy of Karl Heinrich Ulrichs and possibly writing some of her work defending queer identities before Hirschfeld, her name deserves more discussion."

#i currently have 14 jstor tabs 2 google books tabs and the registration form for alumni library access open #my poor laptop #one day ONE DAY i will get this phd application ready #gowongo mohawk

Hey there! I just listened to your Go-won-go Mohawk episode and I'm doing a research project on her here in New York centering on the historical marker that (poorly) commemorates her. Could we chat about sharing the incredible work you've already done around her? And I can share the work I've been doing too. I look forward to your response!

Hi!!!!

So so excited to see this in our ask box of course you can chat with me about her I would love nothing more!

I cannot remember if this blog has DMs, but if not feel free to DM me (jess) @stormleviosa

wiigiwaamcore

Psssst @dandyvampydyke @stormleviosa can we start a Gowongo Mohawk fanclub

stormleviosa

omg can we actually? we could get tshirts! or badges! and chat about our favourite playwright and her fabulousness (and also her horses)!

Technical difficulties mean this week's episode will unfortunately be delayed. Watch this space for updates as Jess battles spotify to get it sorted.

#hey!ilikepod #not pod #urgh

It's up!

After several hours of troubleshooting and running updates and restarting everything multiple times, the episode is now uploaded and available for the world to see.

Go have fun!

Technical difficulties mean this week's episode will unfortunately be delayed. Watch this space for updates as Jess battles spotify to get it sorted.

We broke a record again! Jess, Arlo and Nora love Murderbot so much they talked about it for over 2 hours. It would absolutely hate that. (C

Unlike Murderbot, we have not consumed 35,000 hours of media about our blorbos but we can talk about it for over 2, so who's winning really?

Today, we welcome Arlo (@enchantingruinscandy) and Nora (@selvaqueenofhiii) to the podcast to talk about the wonder that is The Murderbot Diaries! If you ever wanted to find out more about the ace/aro/agender/autism robot books that everyone keeps talking about, look no further.

#hey!ilikepod #podcast #the murderbot diaries #murderbot spoilers #bc we do talk about stuff from the last book

Hi!!!!

So so excited to see this in our ask box of course you can chat with me about her I would love nothing more!

I cannot remember if this blog has DMs, but if not feel free to DM me (jess) @stormleviosa

#not pod #gowongo mohawk #ask answered #pls do message me so i can relay the absolute shitshow that is the project i worked on

Me: I'm going to look at horse forums, I bet the drama there is so funny

Me after 4 hours of horse forums: Damn....those people really love and care about their horses...

See, I think horse people are Like That because you can't do anything with a horse without entering into The Mind of the Horse. Like yeah, to ride a horse you need an intimate understanding of how its body moves and how your body is in contact with it and everything it is seeing and hearing and feeling in its own body and how your body responding to the horse's movement and reactions creates feedbacks upon the horse's response—which in itself is borderline spiritually merging yourself with the horse consciousness —but you can't even clean a horse's feet or lead it into a pasture without some power to understand What It Is Like To Be A Horse, because a horse is a Giant Beast with strong instincts that can drive it to kill or maim in a heartbeat, and it's the horse's trust and confidence in you and by extension your trust and confidence in the horse that keeps you both safe.

So being a horse person seems to be 90% stuff like standing in the stall trying to telepathically Enter The Consciousness of the Horse to try to unlock why the horse is fucking scared shitless of mops

and subsequently to Understand the Deep Psychological Foundation of Horse Self-Confidence so as to create a Scenario where the horse can encounter a mop and feel empowered and strong rather than Murderously Terrified

@osedaxworm yeah i think the "why" comes into play when they're trying to figure out what the common thread is in the set of related things that make the horse freak out

A lot of the people I was reading about had horses that came from previous owners and it seems like a long string of bad training practices in the past can leave the owner of a rescued horse with a LOT of work

watching-constellations

The most wild thing about horse training to me is that the horses start to try and do it back if you telepathically Enter The Consciousness of the Horse correctly.

I acquired an abused and neglected horse a few months ago. She spent the earlier days of our interactions trying to bite me, kick me, run me over, and buck me off through any means necessary. I empathized with her. I was very gentle with her and showed her that I didn't plan on bringing her any additional harm. She started letting me introduce her to people, and she even started letting the vets I brought in help her instead of trying to fight them.

A couple of weeks ago, I asked her to jump over a scary obstacle for the first time. She was really uncertain and kept checking in to make sure I thought it was fine, and when she realized that I was sure, she did the horse equivalent of saying, "well, okay, we can give it a shot since it seems like you really want to". Lately when she's unsure if something is okay, or when she doesn't want to do something, she's taken to simply stopping instead of bucking. I think she's trying to take care of me. We still need to get through the stopping problem, but I'm beyond grateful to her for trying to keep me safe even when she's feeling strong emotions.

The past few days, she's spent a lot of time licking me from head to toe. Not even just my skin, but my clothes, too. This wouldn't be super significant, except that I have a dissociative disorder, and I've been in and out for the past few days. It seems like she's trying to keep me here.

If you try to understand the horses, they try to understand you. They're truly unlike any other kind of animal I've worked with in how deeply they try to understand their people.

#hey!ilikepod #podcast #olympics #paris 2024

*gently holds this post* hornse...

littlest-xb

Horses are deeply perceptive animals and to some degree understand human emotion and empathize with it. They do start to see you as their herd mate, their friend, their protector, and in return they will protect you in their own way.

I can sit outside on the ground in my field with my horses, and if I'm feeling happy and relaxed, they think, "Oh, our human is resting here. We will stand vigil." And one will position themself over me. Others will stand watch. And the great thing is, if you take up the position of standing vigil among horses that trust you, they'll say, "My human is here watching over me. I can rest now too." And having a horse trust you enough to lie prone on the ground and sleep is a wonderful feeling.

Alternatively, they pick up when things are wrong too. If I am scared, you can believe they will be wary, which is why it's so unbelievably important to work through fear rather than expressing it uncontrolled when you're around a horse. They will respond how you do. They also can tell if I'm upset. Going back to the situation where I go out and sit in the field. I've done that a couple times while deeply upset. The horses that aren't mine, that I don't share as close of a bond with, are a little unnerved by it. They investigate, but ultimately are more worried. However, the horses that I do have a bond with have seen me and thought, "There's something wrong with my human. They're upset about something. I might be able to help." Now, their version of helping is standing over me, chewing on my hair, pulling on my shoelaces, and chasing off other horses who try to investigate, but those are behaviors that tie back into me being part of their herd. Grooming, play, and protection. And again, getting a bond like that isn't easy, but it is so worth it.

#not pod #horses

Have you been seeing memes about the pommel horse guy? Have you been wondering why horse sports were all over your news feed for over a week

Elizabeth and Jess have tea to spill about this year's olympics and they will not be silenced!

In this first episode of a new season, Kent brings us an explanation of the weirdest post-apocalyptic novel anyone has (n)ever heard of.

WE'RE BACK! (did you miss us?)

This time Kent (@inquisitorpsyduck) returns to tell us all about A Canticle For Leibowitz - a totally bizarre post-nuclear-apocalypse sci-fi story set in a catholic monastery. If that sounds like your kind of thing, congrats! You've found a friend!

#hey!ilikepod #podcast #books #post apocalypse #weird books #a canticle for leibowitz

Pride Month!

It's been a minute so here's a bulk update for pride months because WOW we've been busy.

We have not one, not two, but three whole episodes this month that are super exciting.

Up first, we have an episode with Rook talking about our beloved queer elders

Kicking off our month of pride is Rook with the story of how they beat heteronormativity by accident!

Next up, Lucy returned with more Shakespeare, except this time it's Shakesqueer

The (not so) long-awaited return of Shakespeare! Lucy returns with an explanation for all our crypticism. Shakespeare is queer and anyone wh

And finally today's episode, which is all about our favourite queer characters and how they are described

As we say goodbye to another fabulous pride month, Rook leads us through a discussion of our favourite books with queer characters, and what

Hope you've had a fantastic pride month and we'll be back with more updates soon!

#hey!ilikepod #podcast #queer pride #pride month #shakespeare #queer elders #lgbtq books

crystallizedtwilight

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knottahooker

#when you set out for revenge dig two graves#unless you’re hamlet#in which case you’re going to want to rent a backhoe (x) YOU’RE NOT LEAVING THAT IN THE TAGS BUDDY

Lucy and JJ are back! This time to talk crafts. Ever wondered if you should try to make lace? Get into crochet? Sew your own clothes? Look n

In this episode, we are joined by the crafty pair, Lucy and JJ, to discuss current protects, the epic highs and lows of bobbin lace, and the ultimate ranking of yarn. If you disagree with any opinions in this episode you are simply incorrect.

And as a special treat, here are the projects we were working on while recording this episode!

This is JJ's attempt at beating second sock syndrome.

Here be (unfinished) dragons, courtesy of Lucy.

And this is Jess' preschool-aged WIP.