[wheredidiputhatpony]

Talking to the void here but

What do you do when you’ve been on a few dates with someone who’s been relatively open about the fact that they’ve had substance abuse issues in the past, which fair chat I’m actually pretty ok with seeing as I come from a family of active and ex addicts so judge not less ye be judged and all that

But you tell your friend about said dates and she tells you with no context not to touch them with a barge pole? Bare in mind she’s not seen him in years

I’m not really in a position to just bounce on this due to the fact that polo is a very very small community and we’re now neighbours

Everyone who’s only met him in the last few months since he’s come back into the area seems to get along with him and like him well enough and he’s not done anything even vaguely red flaggy to me

Should I be trusting my friend on this? Am I doing mental gymnastics to justify seeing a guy who I know has a past? Or is the past irrelevant to who he is now? I know I was a very different and much more volatile person 5 years ago and would hate to still be judged on that

I’m planning on talking to him about it because the last thing I want to do is get it from the polo rumour mill. But like 🤷‍♀️ I don’t really know what to do here seeing as I have horrific taste in men to the point that I don’t trust myself to date and this is the second time in 3 years I’ve not put the kibosh on something even resembling a relationship

[great-and-small]

I can’t stop getting emotional about how tenderly a shepherd caresses his dog’s face on this marble sarcophagus from the third century

The dog’s face is just so lovingly crafted and it’s much more finely detailed than some of the other animals in the piece. The expression is pure contentment and devotion. This scene is a tiny portion of a huge elaborate sculpture but I really feel like the artist was trying to capture a specific emotion with these two. The way that you feel when you look at your dog is thousands of years old.

[maskofketer]

An extract from Cynegeticus [On Hunting (with Dogs)], by the Greek writer Arrian (86-160 CE), about his dog, Horme [Dash]:

While I am at home she remains by my side, and accompanies me when I go out, following me to the gymnasium, and, while I am exercising, sits by me. On my return home, she runs in front of me, often looking to see whether I had turned off the road; and as soon as she catches sight of me, shows symptoms of joy, and again, turns and trots in front of me. If I am going out on any government business, she remains with my friend, and treats him exactly the same. If she has not seen either of us for a short time, she jumps up repeatedly by way of greeting, and barks with joy. At meals she pats us, with one foot and the other, to remind us to feed fer. Having been beaten with a whip as a puppy, if anyone, even to this day, mentions a whip, she will come up to the speaker cowering and begging, and will jump up and hang on their neck, applying her mouth to theirs as if to kiss them, and will not let go until she is appeased. Now really I do not think that I should be ashamed to write the name of this dog; so that it may be left to posterity. [I] had a greyhound named Horme, who was of the greatest speed and intelligence and, was altogether excellent.

[a-book-of-creatures]

[wheredidiputhatpony]

Today is 7 years since my best friend passed in her sleep.

She was 20

I look back with as much joy at the time we had together as sadness at the 7 years we’ve lost

I’m glad for every second we had and I think I grieve as much for the loss of the person I was with her as I do for the loss of what may have been the greatest love and friendship of my life

[orcboxer]

Should go without saying but never date a cop and christ never marry one. Rule of thumb if he's legally untouchable he's ethically unfuckable. You don't like that cop, you like buff men in tight clothing. I can show you more of those, better ones. Take my hand.

[orcboxer]

Hi guys. This post ain't about stereotyping random professions (farriers????), it's about how cops are effectively legally untouchable and if they hurt you, you have virtually no recourse. A quality that none of those other professions have. It's the inherent power imbalance of being bound to someone who can't be prosecuted.

The "firemen cheat" thing is actually a myth, union workers are both hot and professionally stable, paramedics are stressed out but otherwise fine, physical workers are not inferior to "thinkers" don't be fuckin classist, and "watch out for Farriers" is maybe the funniest thing anyone's ever said on this post.

[orcboxer]

like the fuck are they gonna do lmao

[lesbiansandgayssupporttheminers]

Selfie takers forced pony off cliff in Gower, farmer says

The farmer is having to rethink keeping ponies on Gower's cliffs because of visitors' behaviour.

Just a quick reminder that living things aren't there for your entertainment, and also that prey animals get scared, and we should respect that.

Animals that graze on common land in the UK tend to be very lightly handled, they're effectively feral, even though they legally belong to someone.

Grazing on common land is an important tradition and often important for the wider ecosystem, so it would be a shame if this was lost.

If you want to interact closely and take photos with horses, common land isn't really the right place to do it.

(also please remember horses can't be sick, so be careful what you feed them if at all).

[probablyasocialecologist]

Transforming Food

Mim Skinner describes how a small band of dumpster divers has become a driving force for food rescue and redistribution in northeast England.

We serve pumpkin soup in November and mince pies in January. The vegetables might be chopped by Ronnie, who trained as a chef after being trafficked to the United Kingdom. She put herself through cooking school before she had a fixed abode. Those same veggies might be roasted by Maz, who came to the café to fill the void of sudden widowhood, and served up by Sarah, who came to gain confidence and cooking skills to use back home for her two children. She’s a paid employee now, working as assistant café manager and running food workshops in schools.

There’s Tattoo Dave, our caretaker, who has stayed on for years after a probation-mandated community service placement; Fireman Dave, who drives the van; and Take-Away Dave, who brings his own Tupperware to reduce our reliance on single-use plastic.

Making tea and coffee behind the counter are a group of young people who joined us after one of our volunteers gave an assembly at their school. The group made a replica café using the online world-building game Roblox, and when the real café is closed they meet virtually instead.

Ours is a local project seeking to provide solutions to a global problem. The carbon value of the food we intercept is 440 tons annually, the equivalent of a gas car driven two million miles. Across a year the volume of food we handle is equal in weight to twelve double-decker buses.

This is a minuscule fraction of the food which is wasted globally. Between 30 and 50 percent of food produced around the world goes into bins rather than bellies – more than enough to meet international food demand.

We talk a lot about value at REfUSE: the holy task of recognizing the value of places, people, and food which the governing political, cultural, and economic systems have artificially drained of worth and designated as waste. We seek to acknowledge the carbon, time, labor, and natural resources that are expended before food can reach our plates.

The efforts of each of our two hundred volunteers are a challenge to the value judgments of large retail firms, such as Amazon, which devalue this food because its sell-by date is built into their retail model. Hanging by the till in our community café is a sign which reads “This food is not free! It’s valuable. And so are you, so ‘pay as you feel,’ in money, time, or skills.”

[wisteriascented]

not-so-friendly reminder that hunting is an important part of conservation in many cases and that painting all hunting as morally, ethically, and/or environmentally "bad" does a major disservice to indigenous people, poor communities, and our environment

[muirin007]

“Victorians were stuffy prudes.”

[frenchfrysplash]

PEOPLE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN PEOPLE

[natequarter]

i think we as modern humans have a tendency to forget that historical people were also humans who had thoughts and feelings and dreams just like we do

[natequarter]

bear in mind that i'm mostly interested in medieval english history, but... do you really think that all women suffered miserable, joyless lives? that no man ever loved his wife? that no gay person ever lived in peace? that no child ever grew up to live a life they loved? that no parent ever saw their disabled child and cared for them anyway? that nobody ever had sex, and enjoyed it? that no priest was ever truly virtous, that nunneries were always places where women were sent away to be locked up? do you really think that it was just suffering day in, day out, unless you were the richest of the rich? do you really think that simply living in a different time made people stupid, senseless, violent? do you really think that people living in the past were so different from us, that they never had thoughts and feelings and dreams to rival our own?

do you really think that people in the past were not people?

[wheredidiputhatpony]

Born to be wild plays faintly in the distance

[junerouclere]

oh to be at an irish pub right now

[wheredidiputhatpony]

Trying to work out if I have enough money to quit my job because my bosses girlfriend is a bully who has now decided to take her shit out on me and my dog

like who fucking bullies a dog

[whywishesarehorses]

Humble at Mulatto Meadows

Many of you may recognize this photo of Brianna Noble from the 2020 BLM movement. (yes, posting pictures of activists is dangerous, but in this case, Brianna actively uses this photo to advertise her program). Brianna is the owner and founder of Mulatto Meadows, and their Humble program, which aims to provide enrichment for under-served youth, especially youth of color. This enrichment utilizes the therapeutic qualities of horses.

Mulatto Meadows is a ranch run and owned by Black equestrians. They provide lessons, sell trained horses, and do other community work. Key in that is Humble, an after-school program that targets students who are low-income and/or nonwhite.

Her program is sponsored by Ariat, and works to create day-long visits or multi-session programs to help these youth work towards success.

Please, please go check them out at their website, here. I highly recommend donating if you are able - consider it a sort of reparations. This is a really extraordinary project that works to give opportunities to youth who could benefit from being equestrians most.

[wheredidiputhatpony]

Love is stored in the teeths

[wheredidiputhatpony]

My puppy has decided she is in fact a baby

[slowspinningredemption]

I say this as an Irish person who is very anti-British imperialism for very obvious reasons, but I think a lot of people need to think about just who they mean when they insult English people or make fun of English accents.

for a start, the English accent that is almost universally mocked is a working-class accent. light-hearted joking is fine, everyone does it, but the insinuation that the English are all uneducated, incapable of pronouncing things "correctly", or jokes about how they all have bad teeth and that's why they can't talk "right"? it's straight-up classist.

class divisions in England have not changed much since the Victorian era. a lot of it has been forced underground, but it's very much alive. people with working class accents are judged, unfairly profiled, and often lose out on job opportunities. certain fields are completely closed to them. there is an entire system within a system that ferries upper class people through private schools and elite universities, right into the highest jobs in business and government -- the ""sexy"" ~British~ accent that a lot of foreigners find preferable, and see as the "proper" English accent, is the accent of the upper class and is shockingly rare once you get out of London amd the surrounding counties. the accents being mocked are those of regular, working-class people, and historically, working-class English people have always been the first victims of British imperialist greed.

when we insult "the English", we need to be sure that we're not throwing fellow victims under the bus. working-class English people, especially from the northern counties, often live in extremely deprived areas with some of the highest poverty rates in Europe. slums are very much still alive here, and the government has zero interest in changing the class system that so benefits it. I support the English working class the same way as I'd support any other victims of oppression, prejudice, or discrimination, so I think it's probably better that everyone went back to ridiculing the royal family and the politicians and left regional dialects and accents from historically deprived areas alone.

[wheredidiputhatpony]

My very working class accent is so far removed from that of the upper class that they can’t identify it as an English accent even though I probably grew up in the same county as them and that should say enough about how rigorous the class devisions are here

[suspiciousmammal]

We give horses a lot of shit for being weird but if I had to deal with equestrians every day of the week I too would just develop 400k blood types and then break a leg