April 9 [Draft Horse Show, morning]
April 9
Both Aquamarine and I woke up nice and early. It was a pleasant change to be sleeping with somepony who kept sensible hours. So she got her shower stuff and we went off to the bathroom and she said that we could take as long as we wanted 'cause it was a Saturday morning and nopony would be up this early.
I think I would have found it a little creepy if I'd been here by myself. For all the people who must live in this building and all the students who were up partying last night (which had made it a bit difficult to get a good sleep), right now the hallways were completely deserted, and so was the bathroom. Plus it didn't have a window like the one in Trowbridge did, so it was kind of confining.
We took our time—I was still pretty clean; Meghan had done a very good job, and I hadn't exercised yesterday much at all. I had to spend some extra time on Aquamarine, 'cause she hadn't had anyone to help her and plus she was still in estrus. She said that it was just ending for her, and I said that mine had been over yesterday, and any time now I'd start to have a bit of a mood swing and my feathers would start falling out. Already there were a bunch that were getting itchy.
The show didn't start until ten, which gave us several hours to eat breakfast and amuse ourselves. Aquamarine had a schedule back in her room, and she said that we could look over that and see if there was anything that we particularly wanted to watch. She also wanted to show me to some of the greenhouses where she worked, and maybe introduce me to her professor if he was around. Plants didn't require the same level of care as animals, so he didn't always come in on weekends, she told me.
Once we were all dried off, we went back to her room, where Jenny was just starting to show signs of life. Aquamarine got the schedule and set it on her chair so that we could both read it. I was interested in seeing some of the team events, because I'd always wondered how so many ponies could be hitched to one thing and not trip over all the harness stuff. Just watching a single pony pulling a plow or a cart was strange. I'd lost a bet and tried it once and it didn't work out for me at all. The harness kept sliding around on me and the wagon would surge forward and then tug back. I didn't understand how earth ponies managed.
Aquamarine wanted to see the heavy horse pull, which was the very last event scheduled for Saturday. Then on Sunday there was a plowing competition, which she really wanted to see, and there was also an event called a 'unicorn hitch,' and neither of us knew what that was, so we'd have to watch that. Maybe there were teams of unicorns competing, but neither of us thought unicorns would like pulling carts all that much.
In between times, we could wander around the campus and see other things, or just gossip.
Jenny had gotten out of bed and gone to the bathroom by the time we were done figuring out our weekend schedule. We waited for her to get back and when she did she changed into her day clothes and brushed her hair and said that she was ready to go to breakfast.
We went to the same dining hall that we'd gone to before (at least it looked the same) and it wasn't very crowded at all. There were some students with folding computers and coffee cups, and one cluster of men all wearing shirts with math letters on them that looked very hung over, and that was about it.
There wasn't a very good selection of food, but that was because it was early. The dining hall at Kalamazoo College was like that, too. If you went right after they opened, they didn't always have hot food out yet.
And their waffle maker was broken.
They had tubes of cereal like we did, but instead of the little Shredded Wheats that I liked they had giant ones instead, so I got one and some fruit and that was my breakfast. Aquamarine had cereal that had flakes and sliced nuts and shriveled strawberries, and she gave me one of the strawberries and when I put it on my tongue at first it was dry like cardboard but then my spit softened it up and it turned into a normal strawberry slice, which was really amazing. Jenny had bacon and eggs and a slice of toast with orange jam on it.
We went right from the dining hall to outside. It was chilly and snowing and I was glad I'd thought to bring my hat and scarf. I shouldn't have gotten my coat thinned so soon, I guess. It wasn't bad moving in it, but I was worried that we'd be spending a lot of time standing in it.
The three of us followed along a sidewalk for a while, and then it ended and we had to walk in the grass along the side of the road. You could see a sort of path where feet had worn the grass away, so I guess a lot of people took this route. It was a big road, so it ought to have had a sidewalk next to it. Most of the roads near my college did.
Jenny pointed to a big white building that she said was called the Pavilion, even though it looked nothing like a pavilion to me. And she said that right behind it was the observatory, which is a special building with a slot in the roof that telescopes stick through so that they can look at stars and planets.
There was a train track that ran at an angle and crossed the road, and we looked both ways to make sure that there weren't any trains coming, and saw one off in the distance. Rather than try and scramble up the gravel embankment, we walked back to the side of the road because it was flatter and easier there, and then checked again to make sure it was still far enough away. Right after we crossed the track, the bell began chiming and the lights started flashing. Jenny was giggling like a schoolgirl as she dashed down away from the road and into the grass.
A couple of cars didn't obey the lights and went right under the fences that were coming down, and one of them that was a latecomer swerved out of its lane and around the end of the fence, and the locomotive honked angrily at it, and then it was booming across the road and I just watched as it kept on going by.
When we got to the front of the Pavilion, there was a big silver trailer outside that Jenny said was to put horses in when you wanted to take them somewhere, and it had a ramp so that we could go inside and look at it, and both of us did. Jenny said that she wanted us to stick our heads out the door so she could take a picture.
I had to remind myself that on Earth horses weren't smart like ponies. The inside of the trailer was okay, I guess, but there were walls to keep the horses apart from each other, and there weren't any seats to sit in or really that much of anything. I wouldn't have liked to ride in it.
The man at the ticket window was a bit confused when he saw us, and he said that the contestant entrance was at the back, and we said that we were just watching. We got weekend tickets so that we could come and go, and then went inside.
The smell hit me as soon as the front doors opened, and I could see that Aquamarine had caught it, too. Outside, it wasn't so obvious, but in here you couldn't miss it, and both of us stuck our muzzles up and tried to sort it all out. I think if there had been anypony I knew in there, I would have been able to pick her out, but I couldn't be sure, and that bothered me deep down.
Right up by the entrance there were some people selling food, shirts, and then a little bit down these angled hallways there were a couple of places set up selling horse things. One booth right at the top had giant horseshoes hanging from it, and I thought maybe later I’d buy one of them.
Jenny said that if we went down by the merchants, that's where all the horses were, or we could go into the main arena and see if they were competing. Aquamarine told me that maybe it would be best to go into the main arena first because that way it wouldn't be so much of a shock to me, but it wasn't time for any of the events to start yet and I stupidly said that I wanted to go back to where they were.
I could
When we
I had seen the picture of the horse with Aquamarine and the beer commercial with horses and there had even been some we'd seen from the train windows and of course pictures in our textbooks so that ought to have prepared me but it was one thing to see a picture and a very different thing to be there and they were kind of the same like us but not really and right then it hit me like a buck to the chest and I stepped back and clamped my tail and I just couldn't deal with all the thoughts going through my head all at once because any one of them could have been me, just standing there in a stall dumbly like a cow or something and I'd known, but I didn't know until right then, and I couldn't help but feel a bit sorry for them.
Then Aquamarine had her head down on my back and Jenny was in front of me, blocking my view, but she couldn't do anything about the scents or the nickers and whinnys and snorts and grunts that sounded almost like a nursery but it wasn't. These horses had grown up but they were never going to read a poem or solve a calculus problem or ride on a train or do any of the other things that I thought about or took for granted.
It felt like such a waste.
They sort of pushed me off out of the crowd of people and got me turned around and then sat me down next to the wall and Jenny took off her coat and draped it across my back and crouched down between me and the horses, while Aquamarine offered me her back and I put my head down against her mane and let her scent block out all the others.
I don't know how long we were sitting like that. Jenny was running her fingers through my mane, and she had her telephone out and was typing on it with her thumbs and that just sort of really got my attention—I'd never really focused on how efficiently people can use their telephones.
We finally moved away and back to an area that was a little less crowded and not so near the horses and that gave me a chance to relax. It had been a big shock all at once and I hadn't been ready for it at all, and I ought to have listened to what Aquamarine had said.
Jenny asked me if I wanted to leave, and I shook my head. I'd come all the way here, and I did want to see, I just hadn't been ready to see. So the three of us went to the arena and got seats that were in the middle and partway up, and the two of them sat on either side of me.
It was a little bit easier to see them from a distance, and before the teams came out, Aquamarine told me that she had first seen the herds that Michigan State kept from a distance and one day she'd been really curious and had gone over to the fence to look at them more closely, and that had been better but it had still been weird and taken her a lot of getting used to. And Jenny said that she'd come back crying the first time and then after they'd talked it all out Aquamarine had drank a whole bottle of whiskey and said that she was going to break them out and teach them to be proper ponies and then she passed out on the floor.
I asked Aquamarine if that was true, and she said that she didn't remember, but that it had been a bit hard.
Then it was time for the competition to start, and the first team came into the ring. The judges had them do all sorts of different things, and pretty soon I started to get into it. I was rooting for the team with the big green carriage because I could tell that they were proud, and pretty soon Aquamarine and I were talking about the horses and pointing out things like how the wheel team on the red wagon didn't want to be there, or that the mare on the swing team pulling the blue wagon totally had the hots for the horse behind her, and he wasn't interested in her at all.
Of course, Jenny was totally lost and so we both explained to her how we knew, like how she was holding her tail up and I bet she was winking at him, too, and you could tell by his body that he wasn't interested at all, 'cause he wasn't leaning forward to get a sniff or nipping at her hocks or anything like that.
I was disappointed when the team with the green wagon came in second. I wasn't really sure how they were being judged, and I told Aquamarine that we ought to go down there and tell the judges that they'd made a wrong choice. Jenny thought that was pretty funny, and said that maybe I ought to talk to the judges because that would be hilarious. She said that it was good to see that my mood was getting better, too.
I sort of had second thoughts on my way to the judges' stand, but I said I was going to do it, so I had to follow through. I just had to remember to be respectful and polite and not yell at them for what they didn't see because there's still some stuff I can't read very well in humans so probably they aren't as good as understanding horses as a pony.
Well, they were happy to see us there, and each of the judges shook our hooves and Jenny just kind of stood there a little awkward, and Aquamarine and I made our case for why the green wagon team was the best, and then they explained what it was they were looking for, and how they scored the competition, and they admitted it had been very close. They said that they couldn't change the ranking, but that they appreciated our input.
That was kind of a brush-off, and we both knew it. I said that I wanted to congratulate them anyway because in my mind they'd won the competition and never mind how high they lifted their hooves or whatever else it was that the judges were looking at. So they gave me the name of the owners and one of the judges called back to the manager of the stable area and found out where the horses were being kept and told us how to get there. And the one lady who seemed the nicest told me that she thought it would mean a lot to them if we were to congratulate them, and she whispered in my ear that she was certain that next year they would be the champion team.
I still hesitated a bit before going back there, but I was at least a little bit prepared, and I tried to keep my focus on finding them.
Their wagon was unhitched and loose, and all the horses were in the aisle, having their harnesses stripped off by a team of humans.
I'd meant to ask who their driver was (it was so hard to wrap my head around the idea that he might be their owner) but once I got close I just had to get to know them, and it took a little while to get through because we all had to greet each other, and that was a little nerve-wracking because they were so big. They could have crushed me with one stomp, or bucked me clear out of the stables if they'd wanted to, but all six of them were calm and gentle.
Of course their driver came out as soon as he saw what was going on, but he had the good sense not to get in the middle of things, and I could see by the way he behaved that he knew a thing or two about equines. He had taken off his jacket and rolled up his sleeves, and he was big but gentle, just like his horses.
He waited until we were all done and then invited us into his stall, which was the same as the ones the horses had except that there wasn't sawdust on the floor and he had a couple of chairs.
I got straight to the point and told him what I'd thought and he smiled and said that he couldn't have asked for a better endorsement. We talked for a little bit about how he trained them, and you could tell that he had a mind that was always working because he paid close attention to everything we said and everything we'd noticed. Then he introduced us to all his horses again, one at a time, and he said what he had named them, and he gave us all a card and told us that he would love to have us visit his farm and if we had any suggestions for how to improve it he would love to hear them.
After we'd left, Jenny said that she thought he was a really nice man, and we started arguing about which horse was the best, and pretty soon that turned into how their names didn't really suit them. But I guess since the horses probably didn't understand their names it was okay.
The only thing that bothered me about his team was that none of his stallions had balls, and looking around it wasn't only his team. They were all missing, and I mentioned that and said that maybe earth horses had really small ones or else they were tucked away or something like that and Jenny's hands tensed and then Aquamarine explained how people took them away from the stallions so that they would be more compliant.
That explained why that one horse hadn't had any interest in the mare.
And then I was shivering again, because that was a hard blow. He had seemed so nice and understanding, but he must have been a part of the gelding; he'd said that he'd raised every one of his horses from a foal and it was hard for me to understand how somebody could be so kind and compassionate and yet do that to a stallion so that he would be easier to work with.
Did they think that stallions would just go out of control and mount any mare who showed the slightest interest in their advances? How could people take something away like that?
After that I had a closer look at all the stallions and sure enough. . . .
I was still fuming at the thought when I suddenly saw Miss Parker. She came over and crouched down and greeted us and said that she and Mister Barrow had just happened to be here and wasn't that an amazing coincidence, and I might not be all that good at reading people, but I could tell it wasn't an amazing coincidence at all. I probably ought to have been mad but I was just so happy to see another familiar face.
So when Mister Barrow showed up and we got to talking a little bit the truth came out and probably they hadn't meant for it to, but Jenny had sent them a message because Aquamarine had told her to, and they'd come right over and had been looking for us.
Once I told them that I'd figured it out, Miss Parker laughed and said that I was too clever for my own good, and Mister Barrow said it was funny how hard it was to find two ponies at a horse show.
We got in their van and went to Menna's for lunch, because Aquamarine insisted that I wouldn't get the complete experience of East Lansing unless I did, and Jenny said that it only really counted if I was drunk and it was two AM and I accidentally ordered one with beef and ate the whole thing and spent a couple of hours the next day sitting on the toilet and loudly saying that I wished I was dead, and Aquamarine said that had only happened once and it could have happened to anypony.
So we got a booth in the back and I read the menu carefully because I had no desire to be sitting on the toilet for a couple of hours and wishing I was dead, even if that was part of the East Lansing experience. There were a couple of people sitting in the booth next to us, but they got up and left not long after we sat down.
We talked about horses and their relationship with humans, and Mister Barrow said that it was a really complicated thing especially now that ponies were here. He reminded me that the most important thing to keep in mind was that they weren't smart like we were, and Miss Parker set down her wrap and told him to shut his mouth because he couldn't explain anything without falling back on his training.
Then she leaned across the table and said that I ought to imagine that our positions were reversed, and that we had humans in Equestria who were full grown, but no smarter than an infant, and so we trained them to do things to help us out because they had clever hands and were tall enough to reach things that we couldn't. And then imagine that suddenly smart humans showed up and how would we deal with that. Mister Barrow just shook his head, but I got it.
She said that we didn't really know how lucky we were, because our civilization had so many different intelligent species, while theirs only had humans and maybe (depending on who you asked) dolphins and some primates. She said that while Princess Celestia had extended her hoof in welcome, and President Obama had done the same, everyone else had been running around like the barn was on fire.
Jenny put her head down in her hand and shook her head when Miss Parker said that.
I kind of got the idea, though. And I thought back to what Professor Amy had said about judging other cultures, and that didn't make everything all right, but it made it better.
And I thought how maybe if we could tell one person who really cared about his horses that there was a better way, he'd change, and if he did, maybe someone else would, too, and that was progress.
I knew then that I would have to go visit him, and I was already composing a letter to Miss Cherilyn in my mind.
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I wonder when, during Silver Glow's study of English, she first saw the translation for gelding.
She mood flipped pretty quickly at the end of the horse show.
I thought she'd stay a bit more upset and maybe ask about it later
Earth cows or Equestria cows? Sure Applejack keeps cows (for some reason) but I wouldn't call them dumb, they could talk!
Little bit hypocritical there Silver. Just a few moments ago she was very tense with how big the horses were compared to her. She was accurately aware that they could smoosh her if they wanted to. Horses can be dangerous and when working with animal labor fighting the animal while trying to work it is a losing strategy. Also if sh's a bit upset about gelding I wonder how she will react to the breeding process itself (you know what I mean), the concept of cavalry in war and courier services. When it comes down to it horses are a tool/resource that we have used for thousands of years. Sometimes we used them until they broke, although animal cruelty frowns on that nowadays
I'm starting to wonder if you're secretly a pony
I think you mean "that way."
Obama has hooves?
7280204 I'd guess the ponies keep cows around for milk. They might have some kind of trade going on. Pinkie's probably got a bunch of pastry recipes that need it.
Unicorn hitch: a trio of horses hitched to the wagon, one leading the other two. Apparently it's more complicated than simply hitching them three-abreast.
7280248
Some would argue
LOL @ "math letters"
7280240 bruh Admiral is canonically a pony
Also, gelding. I hadn't thought about that but yeah that freaks me out thinking of it from their perspective.
I was surprised by how extreme Silver's reaction to the horses was. I get where she is comming from, I have been confronted to very similar feelings when meeting with a second degree cousin that is mentally retarded and will never grow up. I suppose the horses' living condition were an aggravating factor, but with how good she has been so far at dealing with cukltural shock I wasn't expecting her to be unresponsive like this.
Someone's read "Your Human and You" by MadMaxtheBlack.
I dunno. Do people normally freak out the first time they run into chimpanzees? Just because Earth horses have roughly the same form factor as ponies doesn't mean that they'll feel this kind of kinship.
Ponies can be the teeniest bit racist. I point to the way they treated Zecora in Bridle Gossip or the way Rarity talked about donkeys in Dog & Pony Show.
For ponies, Earth horses are existential horror.
Question for my fellow commenters: If there was a spell to uplift a horse and give it intelligence, do you think Equestrians would have a moral imperative to cast it?
wow what ? should i leave cause uhm nut muhrikan
enoughat all ?i like her, very much!
And that kids, is how Silver stayed on earth ...
"A couple of cars didn't obey the lights and went right under the fences that were coming down, and one of them that was a latecomer swerved out of its lane and around the end of the fence,..."
Yeah, the problem with these Darwin Award nominees is the possibility that they might take one of us intelligent people who actually YIELD for the multi-ton-can't-stop-within-a-mile train with them.
"I just couldn't deal with all the thoughts going through my head all at once because any one of them could have been me, just standing there in a stall dumbly like a cow or something and I'd known, but I didn't know until right then, and I couldn't help but feel a bit sorry for them...."
Somebody needs to watch Planet of the Apes, the one with Charlton Heston.
From my understanding, the reason is somewhat 'yes.' The way horses are bred isn't just because humans want to control what happens, but also because the extensive history of complete domestication means there's a good number of horses who never learn breeding season etiquette. Many don't know how to properly communicate their intentions while others don't know how to react to that communication, and horses can kill each other in the mix-up.
I'm sure it's not as dire as that makes it sound, but part of the reason for current practices is definitely horse safety.
But, if Silver actually has a better way...
"You really want to mate with her, don't you?"
Affirmative rumble.
"Well, sorry buddy, but she's not interes-"
Upset snort.
"Sorry! But no. Now, before you get all upset, there's a lovely but shy bay mare on the far side who can't keep her eyes off you, and who lifts her nose every time you walk by."
Interested nicker.
"Yeah, go get her, tiger!"
Excited whinny.
...
"I dunno' how you do it Silver."
"I speak horse. Duh!"
(Hmmmm... I didn't have her swearing enough, did I?)
Elephants as well, in fact I would say they are far closer to us intelligence wise then the dolphins are.
7280199 I wonder if ponies of Equestria have gelding?
Another modern wonder. If Galileo could see one of those I bet his eyes would pop right out of his head.
7280398 ...I think that one of the reasons she freaked out is that, while chimps are smaller than men (even though smart people DO remember that they're much, much stronger), Earth horses are HUGE compared to an Equestrian pony. Imagine meeting a chimpanzee for the first time - or, possibly, a bonobo since, unlike chimpanzees, bonobos aren't psychos - and finding out that said chimp is the size of a bull elephant. Cue panic.
7280204
A lot of black people are taller and bigger and stronger than me, and most of these people probably could serious hurt me: does this mean we ought to go around chopping their balls off to make them 'gentler'?
Now, you've probably identified that as a semi-racist hyperbolic remark, but I think it's useful for framing Silver's perspective on things, in which she's actually rather skittish about people who are particularly tall or whatever, such as the group of african americans she's become friends with. Witness last chapter when she more or less freaks out because she forced a confrontation with one of them--and believes that he, being bigger and stronger than her, means all he'd have to do is grab her and it'd be over.
From her point of view though, these so called 'scary men' actually turn out to be nice, wonderful people--friends, if not best of friends, certainly people she knows and enjoys spending time with. Surely at the back of her mind she must be thinking something very similar in this case--yes, they're huge and could seriously hurt her, but they're gentle and nice once she gives them the chance. Only to find out the stallions have all had their balls removed in order to make them 'less aggressive or dangerous'*.
And it's worth noting that a poorly trained horse, male or female, intact or not, is still pretty huge and still pretty dangerous, but I suspect from Silver's point of view it's probably the case that, where she can read horse's emotions so easily, that there's less chance of a pony accidentally getting hurt by one of them.
7280398
In general, no, but people have spent most of their lives under the assumption that all animals are, well, animals. There's a reason many researchers worker with chimps have become advocates for things like the Great Ape Project, because after spending time with and working with them, they've come to realize they're really quite intelligent.
----------------
I really liked this chapter, even if it turned out more depressing than amusing, Admiral, and I think I can really understand Silver's reaction to these horses. Despite their physiological differences, it appears that these horses experience and express the same range of emotions, more or less, that Silver herself experiences, but are obviously unable to 'grow up' into intelligent adults. It's probably key that you have her mention that it's like a 'nursery'.
Admiral please!
From day one, one of the weakest parts of this story is that you don't really explain anything that's been happening in the background of the world beyond Silver's campus, don't tease us like this unless you're intending to go further!
------
*Part of me remains slightly skeptical as to whether or not neutering really does anything significantly to alter the over all temperament of animals in general, in horses or not. The typical wisdom is that castration will make animals less aggressive/prone to 'bad behaviors', yet I'm not sure if anyone has actually carried out large scale studies on whether or not it actually does anything, or if the better temperament is the result of training and other behavior modification, such as aging. All we really have is anecdotes and anecdotes are not data, and conventional wisdom is not 'fact'. I don't think its a terribly novel thing to say that an untrained horse, regardless of sex or intactness, is going to be dangerous around people who don't know what they're doing. A mare not used to riders or being ridden will not be happy with you if you climb on her back unless she's the sort who has a naturally docile temperament, and god help you if she rolls over.
7280588 I was picturing those guy yelling "YOLO!" at the top of their lung while doing it...
7280398 Horses are still closer from Ponies then Chimps from Humans. It clearly is in the uncanny valley.
7280638
Relevant:
orig04.deviantart.net/6d37/f/2015/265/4/5/sunset_helper_by_uotapo-d9ahvt7.jpg
7280588
The worst I ever saw was an open railroad x-roads (no dropping bars) in town. The lights were going, the train's horn was a-blowin', and the nose of the train was in the first lane (of two). That minivan just had to go, apparently. Sure, the train was only going like .25 mph at that point, and yes, the minivan was in the 2nd lane (farthest from the train), but that's still a game of chicken no sane person wants to play.
I really wanted to get their info but, y'know... there was a train in the way.
7281077
7281077
Yes. Gelding a stallion changes temperament. Two examples: #1 On the one farm I boarded my horses at there was a very nice QH stallion. He headed, heeled, and calf roped. You could tie him next to any horse on the fence between runs and he wouldn't cause a problem. However, at the farm sometimes he'd get it into his head to break out and round up the mares and kick the @#$% out of the geldings. That was eventually solved by gelding him. #2 An Appy Stallion shown in halter and several in hand events. He was an ill-tempered stallion and he was sneaky. He'd bite if he thought for one minute you weren't paying attention. He was a handful when he was switched to western pleasure. Gelding him improved his attitude and willingness to work. However, it takes 3 or so weeks for the testosterone to leave the system so you won't necessarily see an immediate improvement. When training horses the saying is: you tell a gelding, ask a mare, and you negotiate with a stallion. Nature's way to insure good horses is to have stallions fight for mares. They want to win and they don't give up easily and they're prepared to use violence to get the upper hand. The prime reason for this attitude is the sex drive. Gelding severely reduces, but not necessarily stops the sex drive. I've known several geldings that would mount and breed mares when they were in season in the same pasture.
...uh, yeah, kinda.
Sorry, Silver sweetie, but it's kind of a thing with Earth horses.
Kinda sensing a theme here. I get the feeling that Silver's first book on her experience here is going to be titled "Dear Humanity: Please Fix Your Celestia-Damned Waffle Makers".
Fun fact: There are only a handful of species we know of which are capable of "metacognition", which some consider to be a defining trait of sapience (rather than sentience; there's an important difference)- in short, it's "knowing yourself", being able to consider yourself, your skills and your knowledge as a factor in problem-solving. Those known species: Humans, rhesus monkeys, apes, dolphins, a few species of birds... and, possibly, rats. (Studies are a little unclear regarding our little rodent friends; they're clever enough to trick us!)
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Your examples are anecdotes, which I mentioned in my post are not the same thing as evidence gathered using the scientific method. This isn't to say you're wrong, but rather that without setting definitions and going out and making a proper study of it--with a control group and defined definitions of behavior and so forth, and that applying statistic to see whether the change is really significant or just appears to be so.
I haven't devoted a great deal of energy to researching it, but in this example study in 1997 on dogs suggests that while some dogs might become less aggressive, it only has a marked improvement in about a third of dogs. Obviously dogs are not horses, yet it's seemingly difficult to find relevant research on the castration of horse--presumably because most colts are gelded and most people don't give a damn.
One study that I found, with regards to domination, however suggests that at least some of the behavior remains in the gelded horse after being castrated:
which may suggest that it really doesn't do very much except prevent the gelding from being energetic.
Without doing the research, we don't really know, and we can't really know without going out and doing the research. Because conventional wisdom and anecdotal evidence is not really worth very much. For example, in race horse breeding, it might be assumed that the stud fees for a stallion are correlated with their offspring doing better as race horses (ie earning more) but a study carried out in 2008 shows that it isn't really correlated. (I had a better citation that I'm thinking of but I don't have access to it, but this might be it.)
a vary good chapter I love it.
the detailing is really good.
and for those who do not know and who are just wondering, unicorn hitch is rather hard to drive I think it is about the same as driving 6 up I have drove 8 up one time out side in a huge field and I can say that is a real job just the leather rains are around 50 pounds.
would I do it agene hell yes.
ok here is the unicorn hitch.
Oh! And Elephants! They can pass a lot of the same tests dolphins do!
...which makes poaching all the more tragic now I think about it.
Oh, and rats can pass quite a few of those intelligence tests as well though I'm not sure how far they'll ever go. And magpies. Magpies are cool.
Math students... always getting in trouble and drinking past their limit.
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Everyone should watch that movie, regardless of its relevance in this context.
Hey now, in AppleBuck season we learned that cows could talk just like ponies.
We just learned that Silver Glow is racist. 
No I take that back, she's a bovinist. 
There aught to be a protest.
She ought to fail her cultural anthropology class, for not being culturally sensitive. 
I assume there's supposed to be an 'a' before the word plowing.
Would Silver Glow really not know what an observatory is?
judges'
Also, I now feel a deep horror.
Wow this was truly an interesting chapter. Silver experienced quite the culture shock there. She had a lot of information and knowledge bombarding her all at once and it became too much. I can see what she must have been feeling. It was good that Miss Parker was able to put it into perspective for Silver.
I like how you did that. It reminded us readers that this format is that of Silver sitting down at the end of the day and writing in her journal. Gives it a little more believeability through writing mistakes that she is writing personal thoughts that are being jumbled up through a mixture of feelings. I like that. Perhaps do more of this to make reading the story more involved.
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and Crows!
Okay, just binged this whole story today.
It's, well, to put it bluntly, fucking lovely.
It's amazing how well you've set the tone, or maybe I should say captured the voice, of Silver. You've really created a unique and intricate character, here. She's flawed in interesting ways, with a naivety you'd expect about certain things, while at the same time being far from innocent.
My only regret in reading this is that now I have to wait for more. C'est la vie, I suppose.
I have to say, though, there's a certain sense of dread I feel as our polyamorous little heroine's night maneuvers threaten to spill out into the light of day, a tidal wave of misery washing away her friendships because she failed to consider the intricacies of human mores and sexuality.
...Or maybe everyone's gonna be just fine with everything and there will be hugs and smiles and cake! T-that could happen, right?
...Right?
7281974 I'm preeeeeeety sure those are frat brothers with their fraternity letters on their shirts.
Preeeeeety sure.
...kinda sure?
I kind of knew that this visit wasn't going to go as smoothly as Silver thought it was. Looks like I was right.
On a technical note, the part where she has two false starts and crosses out what she wrote is great subtle characterization. It plainly shows her pain and conflict when she was writing this, which adds to realism of the chapter. Nice job.
Dang, Miss Parker, cut the guy some slack! He's doing his best, all right? Yeesh.
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I agree. And right after that she pours out this enormous paragraph-length run-on sentence, and then two mid-length ones, and then one that's super short. The writing style here doesn't feel like writing--it feels like speech. Not generic speech either--the impassioned speech of a particular pony whom we've come to care about. Bravo!
7282202 Yep. Now if she'd said it about pigs or chickens, based on the evidence we've seen on-screen, I'd say she's right. But cows... we've heard them speaking. Not too intelligently, granted, but speaking.
7280199 7280726 I wouldn't be too surprised if there's a tradition of geldings in ancient Equestrian history, something like eunuchs in Earth history. That'd mean Aquamarine wouldn't be surprised to see it in a dictionary, but encountering it as something routine in the present would be different.
Guess I'm not entirely sure why the horses are so disturbing. They're dumb animals. Do many people go into freak outs over chimps or bonobos?
Ah well. Still, in the gelding thing... Heh. They oughta let her see some stallions in action. Uncooperative, temperamental, and violent in the wrong circumstances.
7282464 I know. She is still right, though. Those frat guys do wear math symbols on their shirts.
"Beware the beast Man, for he is the Devil's pawn. Alone among God's primates, he kills for sport or lust or greed. Yea, he will murder his brother to possess his brother's land. Let him not breed in great numbers, for he will make a desert of his home and yours. Shun him; drive him back into his jungle lair, for he is the harbinger of death.”
— The Lawgiver, (as spoken by Cornelius in Planet of the Apes)
I love how you write Silver's shock at seeing horses for the first time.
This seems like an eminently feasible plan.
Oh Celestia! Even ponies are arguing who is Best Pony now.
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> just learned
Nothing too egregious, but she's had some unexamined notions about dragons and unicorns this whole story. Though she's getting smarter about that, it seems.
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"Take yer stinking hooves off me you damn dirty horse!"
In previous chapters she said she'd have moods swings for a day or two after her estrus.
Right on schedule with the tipping point being seeing terrestrial horses up close for the first time.
In another fimfic (Twilight makes first contact (abandoned)) the ponies deem the horses 'differently sapient' but still admire their friendship and harmony.
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That'd be a pretty advanced word, so probably not until she was a ways into her studies. I assume that it would serve as both a translation for castrate/eunuch and possibly some other related terms.
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I thought she'd stay a bit more upset and maybe ask about it later
She's still processing it.
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Equestrian cows--they're not all that smart. Smarter than Earth cows, sure, but not as smart as a pony.
Yes, but to her mind that means that she should be careful around them until she either makes friends with them or determines that they're her enemy. Mutilating them to make them more compliant doesn't even enter into her mind as an option.
The same way we would react if we found out someone was doing that to humans.
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Come to Bronycon or Trotcon and find out! I'll be dressed in my finest human costume.
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iambrony.steeph.tp-radio.de/mlp/gif/169447__UNOPT__animated_magic-duel.gif
Like this, basically.
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LOL @ "math letters"
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You're not supposed to tell people.
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The whole thing, from her not really having a good understanding of how big horses are (and these are draft horses, so they're one size larger than any she would have seen pictures of), to their boarding conditions, to the overwhelming smells, and she's coming into it totally unprepared.
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For what it's worth, I'm not one of those people. It's on my RiL, but I haven't got to it yet.
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I think it would depend on the circumstance and the person. But if you see them in the zoo, in a 'natural' habitat, that's one thing. Imagine seeing them all kept in individual stalls and made to work for their human masters, and castrated unless they're a breeding male. I think a lot of people would be unprepared for that.
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I prefer 'speciesist,' but yeah. They are.