noise."Worldbuilding X: Harnesses, pt. 1 · 3:26am May 27th, 2018
Harnesses.
They come in many shapes.
Uh . . . let's start over, shall we?
In canon, we've seen ponies wear harnesses to tow wagons and such. Now, the way that they're illustrated in the show almost certainly wouldn't work, unless they're magical and stay on the pony somehow. Which, given the nature of the show is certainly possible.
And if that's a solution that you like, there isn't much point in reading further, unless you're curious about how they work on actual horses.
I should also say before we get too far into this thing that I am by no means an expert, and if anyone who's reading this is, feel free to correct me. Also, I'm going to be oversimplifying some stuff, and there's also some variations in what things are called, so keep that in mind.
This is gonna be a multipart series, 'cause it's really too complicated a subject for just one blog post unless I want to go on and on and on and on. Plus, that will give me a chance to correct things in the following blog posts, if needed.
Let's start with the principle of a harness. It's basically meant as a way to turn a horse's forward movement into the forward movement of some kind of trailer (for lack of a better term) and also for a way to turn the horse's weight into a brake to stop that trailer when needed.
The first part is the pulling part. Those belly bands that they wear in the show would simply slide off and bang up against their hind legs as soon as they tried pulling the load, unless they were cinched down so tight that the pony in question couldn't breathe. If you don't believe me, get a backpack, wrap a belt through the shoulder straps, load it to capacity with books, and then strap it to yourself by means of the belt just below your breast. Remember, it's got to be tight enough so that the backpack doesn't slide right down to your hips.
If, by some miracle, it stays put, walk around with it and see how long it stays there, or how long it stays comfortable.
The easiest way for a horse to move an object is to push into it, and therefore the most simple type of rig for pulling is a breastcollar harness.
The forwardmost part of this harness is the breastcollar assembly. It basically wraps around the breast in front of the forelegs. If it's too high, it can cut into the windpipe, which is uncomfortable and obviously makes it hard for the horse to breathe. Too low, and the forelegs hit it, so there's a sweet spot that you want to hit with the harness.
That's only good for light loads. The breastbone/top of the ribcage isn't all that strong, and while it might be fine for a pony carrying a light cart to and from market, it isn't going to cut it when you've got a field to plow. For that, you need a yoke.
We should all know what a yoke is, since Big Mac wears one pretty much all the time.
That puts the load on the shoulders, which are much stronger, and it's just the thing for pulling plows or dragging sledges or anything else like that.
Next, we're gonna move to the middle of the pony. Many harnesses have a center bit, basically like the belly band that we see the ponies in the show wear.
This has nothing whatsoever to do with moving the load or stopping the load.
This handles the weight of the load.*
Those of us who tow trailers with cars know—or should know—that you want a certain amount of tongue weight. You need force pressing down in order to control the thing, and that's what the top band is for. That goes over the saddle (that part of the back of the horse is called the saddle) on a rigid shaft wagon, and carries the tongue weight of the wagon.
The rule for trailers is typically 10% tongue load if you're bumper-pulling. I don't know what the rule is for gooseneck trailers and fifth wheel trailers, nor do I know if the weight rule is the same for horses.
Obviously, if you have a strap across the top you need some way to keep it there, and that's half the function of the belly band. The other half of its function—the most important half—is to keep the wagon down when the weight shifts to the rear. As can be seen in the episode where AJ's wagon falls in a hole and it lifts her up, it's possible for a wagon to be too heavy in the back and lift the horse.
This is not something you want to do, especially when the wagon's moving. But for short periods of time, say when you're unloading, or occasionally when going over uneven terrain, it's okay.
Well, as long as their hooves stay on the ground, anyway.
_______________________________________
*It's also worth noting that the middle part of the harness is also often used to keep loose lines in place (like if the horse is pulling a sledge or a plow), although in that case it's just serving as a guide.
Moving back, we now get to the rump. If the trailer has wheels, that means that it will roll freely (obviously; that's the whole point of wheels). To counteract this, there must be some kind of strap across the rump which presses forward and stops the wagon. You can't use the belly band for this, for the same reason that you can't pull with it, and you also can't use the breast collar or yoke, since they'd simply slide off the front of the horse, and then the horse would get run over by the wagon.
Once again, placement is everything. You don't want to put it so high that it's going to ride up across the tender bits and then the dock; you also don't want it so low that it's going to contact the legs. That's going to be uncomfortable for the horse.
Before moving on, I'm going to give a really quick summary of what we've covered so far—one of the main bullet points, as it were. Any full harness can be divided into three parts: the front part, the middle part, and the back part.
The front part is the part that moves the load forward. That's what the horse pushes against.
The middle part is what keeps (some) wagons from dragging their shafts on the ground, or rising up.
The rear part is what stops the wagon.
There are also a bunch of other bits to the harness that we don't need to consider for our ponies. Real horses typically need some kind of driver to tell them where to go, which means that there need to be bridles and reins, and some way of keeping them with the horse and not pulled when you don't want them to be. Presumably, ponies typically don't need those; in the case of Applejack pulling her applecart to market, she knows where she's going and the best route to take her there. She knows when to stop and when to go without anyone steering her.
It's worth mentioning that IRL horses that do regular routes can learn them and in that case don't really need a driver to tell them what to do; however, since horses can't think like humans, if something goes wrong, the horse won't know how to react without a human telling them what to do.
One thing that's easy to forget in our modern world of mass-produced goods is that lots of things are surprisingly cheap, especially given all the technology and whatnot goes into them. The earlier into an industrial society you go, the more expensive this stuff gets.
What that means for ponies is that most of them are unlikely to own more than one harness, so they'd want the one that best fits for what they do for a living. Big Mac is going to want something strong that he can use to pull a plow through the fields all day long, but he's also got to be able to pull farm wagons with it.
Contrast that with a pony like Fluttershy. She probably rarely pulls a wagon at all, unless she's got to relocate frogs to Froggy Bottom Bog. She might take one shopping sometimes, if she's got to get more than will fit in her saddlebags, but any wagon she owns is going to be small and light, and so she wouldn't need a very heavy harness.
I think that a reasonable way to consider harnesses is the same way that we consider automobiles. Most of us can only afford one vehicle, so we try to buy something that will accomplish all the functionality and economy that we desire. For most people, there's no need to buy a second vehicle that has a specific function that might only be used once or twice a year, for example.
Overall, most universal harnesses are going to have all these parts I mentioned earlier, and they're also going to have some additional straps to keep everything in the appropriate positions. A breeching strap (the one that stops the wagon) is part of the hip strap assembly, which typically has one strap that runs along the spine and has a loop that goes around the dock, and it usually also has a couple of side straps to keep everything where it ought to be. Some pleasure driving harnesses (lightweight breastcollar types) have an overcheck that runs along the horse's spine to keep things in place.
Now that we've built a full harness, we're going to start to take some pieces off.
First off, if the trailer doesn't have rigid shafts, or if it has four wheels, the belly band/saddle piece isn't always needed. Obviously, if a four wheel wagon's attached by ropes or chains, they can't put an upward or downward force on the equine who's pulling it. Likewise, plows and sledges aren't going to pull up, so unless the harness needs that part in order to work as a whole (for example, some breastcollar harnesses have the breastcollar attach to the belly band), or there's the possibility that the pony can tangle her hooves in the lines, it can be left off.
Likewise, if the trailer in question can't roll, there's no need for a breeching strap. Sledges and plows are a good example of this; if the horse stops, so does the plow. The scene in one episode where somepony is trying to pull the plow with a rope tied to just a yoke might actually work as animated (I say might, because if I remember, the rope's too high on the harness and wouldn't actually allow the plow to dig into the soil). Again, it might be left in place to keep the tow line from getting tangled around the hooves. In this particular use, instead of a wide breeching strap, a thinner strap could be used, just to keep it from sliding side to side too much.
There are probably some cases where the breastcollar or the yoke aren't required, but I can't think of any off the top of my head. However, I do know in some cases extra horses were used to provide braking, and those horses might have only had breeching.
Thus far we've only considered one horse pulling one trailer, but in real life heavier loads meant more horses, and there's no reason to assume that it isn't the same for our ponies. We've occasionally seen multiple ponies pulling wagons, most notably in that Dodge Junction episode with both the wagon and the coach.
We're not going to get into wagons and other types of trailers; that's a matter for the next blog post. Instead, we're going to take what we've learned so far and apply it to ponies.
Real harnesses have lots of buckles and fiddly little bits. In fact, looking at some of the pictures I've provided thus far, you might be wondering how ponies could possibly put them on without opposable thumbs or horns.
Well, I can't give you a canon answer; since they don't show proper harnesses in canon, they obviously don't show putting them on, either, but it's not a huge stretch.
Part of the reason for all the buckles and whatnot is for a universal fit. Those of us who wear belts or suspenders know that they come with some manner of adjustment, and once they're adjusted, that stays the right size for us (hopefully). And while a harness designed for a Clydesdale isn't going to fit a Shetland Pony no matter what, they presumably come in a range of sizes much like shoes do. So, once Applejack gets her harness set up for her, unless she grows, it's going to fit her the next day, and the day after that, and so forth.
The breastcollar/yoke and the belly strap would go over the head, probalby as one single assembled unit. Once it slips into place, the breastcollar or yoke will stay where they need to, and the belly strap only needs to be fastened in the middle somehow. Actual equines are almost bendy enough to do this, and our little ponies are bendier.
Not to mention that whatever buckle they designed on the middle part is probably meant for them to use.
The hip strap assembly is a little bit more difficult. Specifically, the crupper dock. Depending on exactly how prehensile pony tails are, getting it through a little loop is easier said than done (long-haired hippie freaks feel free to try it and prove me wrong). Since it doesn't have to carry too much load, a larger loop with a snap on the back might work.
Option b is that they have help.
Just like an IRL equine doesn't put on its harness by itself, so too our ponies might not normally put on their harnesses alone.
To most of us living in a modern society, the idea of needing help to get dressed is weird. There's plenty of historical examples of it, though: a knight needed his squire in order to put on armor; proper Victorian ladies needed help to get into their bodices . . . and there are plenty of outfits in the modern age that you can't easily put on yourself. Things like hard hat diving suits are best put on with an assistant (at least, that's what I've read), and for that matter, theater people are constantly helping each other get dressed and undressed.
So I think it's entirely likely that most ponies have help putting on their harnesses. Not only is it the most practical way to make sure that everything's where it belongs, but it's just more efficient overall, and it fits their touchy social interactions.
Before we conclude part one, it's worth mentioning that in most families pass-me-down harnesses would likely be a thing. There's a good chance that Big Mac grew into his father's harness; before that, he might have worn Pear Butter's old harness, which possibly even with adjustments wasn't quite the right size for him. Going further back, the family likely owns a more foal-sized harness which might have been the first one that Big Mac wore . . . and then when he outgrew it, it was passed down to Applejack, and then Apple Bloom. And when Apple Bloom outgrows it, if it's still serviceable, they're going to keep it, because sooner or later another foal will come along who's gonna need a harness.
In fact, for working ponies, getting their own harness might be as much of a sign of adulthood as getting a cutie mark.
There would also obviously be room in Ponyville for a harness maker. Depending on how much your headcanon says that Equestria has industrialized, there could very well be mail-order harnesses that can be shipped by train or pegasus post, but a pony who's using them all the time might very well want one customized to her particular needs.
Likewise, there would be a decent market for used harnesses. Most parents probably aren't going to want to buy a new one if they can help it, and depending on circumstances there might not be an appropriate one to equip a youngster with. Or, as a pony advances in her career, she might want a better one for her job, espeically if it's a departure from what her parents did. Maybe Cherry Berry's parents have a cherry orchard and only need a harness for a market wagon and for a plow, whereas Cherry Berry works part-time pulling garbage wagons and needs something more substantial for that task.
From the episode, with questionable closed captioning
And naturally, any harness can break, both through simple wear or outright abuse. It's hard to say if Ponyville would need a full-time harness repairpony, but there is certainly somepony in town who can fix them when needed. Probably—based on my experience with actual farmers and how they maintain their stuff—simple repairs are handled on the farm with some degree of skill; more complex fixes are taken to the professional.
Stay tuned for part 2, where we talk about teams and singletrees!
So I take it harness will be coming up in one of your stories soon. Either that or you need to cover all of this after all of the harness usage in your stories.
Very interesting!
Oh man, I'm going to be just bursting with knowledge after this.
Also, thank you, Biscuit, I know I'm going to be using this kind of knowledge for my own story.
This was an oddly fascinating read.
One of the things that Peter did well in Jake and the Kid was to research the kinds of tack that Jake wore. Really made him feel authentic.
(Sees the picture)
...aaaaand thank you, Admiral, my testicles just receded so far into my body cavity that they are now acting as the replacement tonsils that I never wanted.
4870508
... Da f*** is that supposed to mean?
The extra straps and links for handling the stresses of lateral directional control and force distribution are teh point o the tree post, as long as Single Trees dont turn into Tree 3?
I need to bookmark this. For... research.
4870421
He's already had harnesses come up quite a bit in the Pony Pull story and Ordinary Day.
Very good and informative post. I have often wondered how real harnesses work but have never really felt compelled to go find the info myself. So i quite enjoyed this. The worldbuilding is a rediculiously fun thing to do, and is generally all my stories try to do (now if i can ever get one to take off thatd be good...) So its fun to read through all your ideas.
I can come up with a couple of reasons that ponies in the show might not use the rump strap (sic). 1) They are generally pulling their carts at no more than a walking speed. This would limit their accumulated momentum, and may have led to those straps being as out-of-date as we consider corsets, especially since 2) I can completely imagine AJ stopping a cart by just kicking back one hoof against the leading edge of the cart. I easily see this becoming something of a point of pride among the working ponies, not needing those "fancy high-falutin' carriage straps".
I have now sidetracked myself. I must be off, and learn how high a medium-, or indeed low-, falutin gets.
I could easily see Ponyville having a common bridles-maid (hah) who specialises in crafting and repairing harnesses. They could also be handled alongside the farrier, either out of the same shop or by the same pony, since the two involve some kind of metal-work to craft the shoes and the buckles on the harness.
Also, also, I liked that Big Mac pic.
I'm sure recreational harnesses could also be a thing. (The kind they wear for show, in public, at the Gala. Get your minds out of the gutter, you)
Are those the one from the first picture?
Is a Big Mac trap gay?
4870616
The main problem with 'stopping' is when you are going downhill... maybe consider replacing the concept of 'stopping' with 'avoiding being run over by your own cart'. Without a breeching strap (rump strap) the wagon would tend to dislodge the rest of the harness and then would proceed to try to run over the poor pony who was meant to be in control of it. Sure, there may be the 'gung ho' types who would simply let the cart bump them in the plot and then try to brace from there but the chances of this going 'badly' are pretty high on a steep hill.
High falutin' things is fer those fancy, schmancy city ponies not for honest, hard working ponies.. low falutin' is things done by those low life, dodgy, up to no darn good ponies.
As to how ponies pull carts with just a belly strap, there is actually a very simple answer... Cartoon Physics!
4870421
Yeah, it's more covering all the research I've done to date, plus more I had to figure out for this blog post. The idea here is as a community service for other writers, since harnesses would feature prominently throughout Equestrian life, the ones that they picture in the show wouldn't work at all, and it's a detail most writers don't include in their stories.
4870426
Thanks!
4870432
I hope you do--I hope lots of people do. That's why I wrote it.
4870440
Thank you!
4870468
That's a very important detail, IMHO. I personally tend to like stories that include realistic details like that, because it shows the author cares, and I also usually learn something.
4870508
That was about the safest image I could lead the blog post with.
And to be fair, that is a more or less authentic (albeit much simplified) harness. He hasn't got any breeching, but if he's pulling in the swing team or further forward, he doesn't need it.
4870558
I think he's intimidated by Big Mac's hawtness.
4870565
A lot of the metal singletrees (and more) do have extra bars to help strengthen them. And on the horse end, a lot of the extra straps are to keep everything in place, especially when the load is unevenly applied (on turns or braking, for example).
4870571
It's really info that writers on FimFic need. Harnesses for the purpose of pulling things would be ultra common in Equestria--every working pony would have one. Yet it's a detail that hardly ever crops up in stories.
That would be like writing a story set on Earth in small-town rural America and forgetting that tractors and automobiles exist.
4870576
How you use the information is totally up to you.
4870605
Thank you! Stay tuned for parts two and three, where we cover the middle bits and then actually hooking to different wagon types.
Worldbuilding is one of the most fun things to do, IMHO. I often get ideas for plot bunnies strictly from doing research, and it also adds a very excellent air of authenticity.
4870616
You are wrong. Perhaps if the cart has brakes that can be triggered by the pony pulling it, they might not bother, but I think that even then they would. If the cart's really free-rolling, it's going to be surging forward every now and then just due to variations in the road. And you're also wrong about the accumulated momentum; I can say from being dragged down a driveway by a truck that wasn't even going walking speed that it isn't fun at all and there's more than enough that if you don't brace fast enough and firmly enough, you'll get carried off: I was caught on the truck and I couldn't free myself until the truck stopped on its own. I've also been pinned against a wall by a piece of equipment that I couldn't stop and that wasn't exactly fun, either.
Once their hooves get knocked out from under them, they're getting run over by the cart. Full stop. And while at low speeds that probably wouldn't result in any serious injuries, it would be extremely unpleasant. Plus, now they're jammed up under the cart with all the other harness lines pulled tight. If it's a single-axle wagon, the shafts are on the ground, which means that the pony is also held down to the ground by them--the saddle part would really be pulling down hard, because the shafts are now angled the wrong way through the harness.
teamsterlingdriving.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/IMG_3970.jpg
Imagine trying to get out of this when your rump is up against the front of the wagon and the shafts are on the dirt
Sure, there are 'manly men' (i.e., idiots) who do things like weld with welding goggles and they're the ones that are half-blind at 40.
I could maybe see a young pony doing it once, and then after getting grass burns and a mouthful of dirt, never trying it again.
One possible origin of the term in America is that it refers to the high flutes (stacks) of a steamboat, since the fancy people went by riverboat and the common scrub went by horse.
etc.usf.edu/clipart/54600/54683/54683_riverboat_md.gif
4870626
I think that Ponyville probably does have a harness and saddlebag maker. I don't think that the farrier would do the buckles and stuff; I think that a separate blacksmith in town does that work. Assuming that Shoeshine buys most of her shoes pre-made (which she probably does), the vast majority of her work is cold work--she wouldn't even need a forge. She only has to make adjustments to fit them to individual ponies.
In my own headcanon, Apple Honey is the town's expert at temporarily repairing harnesses, but she doesn't build them new. Presumably, like you think, the same pony that makes harnesses also does more lasting repairs on them. I don't think that we've seen any ponies in canon who are good candidates for this, in terms of cutie mark.
They wear dress saddles, so it's not impossible to imagine that there are dress harnesses, too. Or show harnesses, maybe especially in places like Canterlot.
I'm going to quote Cynewulf here, because she expresses this so much better than I can:
Wearing a good harness, and using it properly, is a mark of pride in towns like Ponyville.
4870628
No, those are the really lightweight ones.
4870629
Canon suggests not, but I don't think that there's ever been absolute word on that.
4870696
Yeah, you hit it on the head there. Having been dragged by a car once I can confirm that you don't want a situation where the load can get out of control and you don't have the means to stop it.
Downhills are risky, and there are actually several ways that was dealt with historically. Brakes, drags, and additional horses behind the load acting as extra brakes were used. In fact, apparently some notorious hills had opportunistic people who owned teams of horses that were trained to be used as brakes, and they'd rent them out to people who needed them.
And I forgot to mention this specifically in my reply to 4870616, but the other problem with letting the cart move around like that is it's very likely going to shift and twist other things on the harness, which will make it even less pleasant to pull.
4870744
Yup, worked with my grandfather's horses many years ago but we lived on pretty flat land so our teams had it pretty easy but even a small incline could lead to trouble. In the high country over here they often used bullock teams because they could brace the off torque loads better than horses.
In the mechanised world, I had the experience of having a load 'take control' on a steep decent. Almost ended poorly when a trailer brake drum fractured. All braking was lost on that axle... no issue, right? Except the mechanics had left the cage bolts in after working on the second axle so I actually ended up with only one axle worth of trailer brakes and they cooked quickly... let's just say that I suspect divine intervention was all that kept me from either rollover or wiping out other traffic before I could swing it into an emergency gravel trap.
4870732
Cynewulf is a she btw
4870821
I knew that but still forgot. Stupid gender-specific pronouns.
4870558 It means I saw something so horrifying/wrong that my body experienced a Full Pucker Factor of 18.5 out of 10.
not exactly interesting comment, but because I hardly make any of them lately, anywhere (one can guess why) ......
Another possibility of why Equestria on screen looks so..incomplete: it was really a show, or more like theatrical performance. Quite big one, but because many ponies from their side like those real performing acts, and can do quite a lot of magic (instead of technology, to the point I even can say they live in some kind of post-industrial world, where small groups again can do BIG things, without invoking millons of beings from all over the globe (semi-involuntary)) - why not& They did something they assumed will work on another side as child tale, and our side just additionally edited (dumbed down ) it ..simple :}
Well, really are humans want to build their different new worlds not only in imagination? Or it really impossible thing today? Do I want to build anything at all, considering my experience with, eh, friends doing bigger-than-average things against current currents was basically net negative? It really quite sad for me whole thing apparently revolves again around rel (this world) humans, leaving real ponies/horses and co at the side of road at best. But even if it more about humans, then it definitely not about this particular human, me ...because everyone already have enough friends/commentators/whatever. Sure, whole thing is good excuse to write some email and walk to my few remaining friends - but it also constant reminder (for me, at least) how real-world chages just ..broke me? Attempting at making real-world changes, even ... I think this time I'm really broken, because I basically stopped to believe in anything, in any possibility, and lost all motivation for doing anything ..above very basic (for me) level.
4870719
i feel that is something a lot of stories lack honestly. There needs to be more of a basis for everything. but at the same time, room to grow and flesh out different details. Being that i am an industrious sort i tend to fall into more of the factory/mechanized space in equestria that hasnt really been explored. Kinda seems folks that like that sorta thing are few and far between.
4870767
Hopefully as someone with actual experience, you didn't find any glaring errors in the series (and if you did, let me know: I'll correct them).
I've also had the joy of experiencing complete brake failure once (which was my own fault, due to lack of maintenance); I managed to get into a parking lot without hitting anything and coasted to a stop just before hitting the tree I was aiming at as a backup to actual brakes. I also had nearly complete brake failure in a tow truck while hauling a car--I lost the front brakes, and the rear brakes weren't particularly effective. Once again, I managed to dodge everything and bring it to a safe stop . . . that was as much luck as skill, honestly.
I've learned to never ignore brake problems. The vehicle not starting is annoying; the vehicle not stopping is a huge issue that usually ends badly.
4871044
That's an interesting take on it, but I'm not sure what that would amount to in terms of writing fanfiction. Obviously, there are lots of different niches . . . I prefer to go for the more realistic view and ignore stuff in the show that's really 'out there' (in my 'verse, an anvil dropped on a pony's head would probably kill her), but that's of course no reason that everyone has to take that tack. That's what I like, that's what I'm comfortable with, and in regards to this particular blog series, it's a potentially valuable resource for other writers.
I think that we all build things, in one way or another. Whether that be with our hands directly, like houses or walls or grow food; or if it's more a pursuit of the mind, like building computer games or writing poetry or what have you. I think that one thing that sets humans apart from other animals--as far as I know--is that we are masters of imagining things that are not. Some of them are things that could be--like us looking at the moon and deciding that we're going to build a rocket so we can land men on it--and others are things that could not be. Things like fantasy worlds or sci-fi or whatever. I guess some times we're tilting at windmills, so to speak, but maybe windmills need to be tilted at. I don't know, but it seems right to me.
4871976
I personally love the stories that fill in the gaps in the show with details like that. What kind of machines do the ponies have? What things are commonplace for them, and what things aren't? Small steam locomotives seem fairly ordinary to the ponies of Ponyville, but what would they think if a Union Pacific Big Boy came rumbling down the rails? I think it would blow their minds.
I also like writing stories that explore the relationship of ponies to the technology they have and that they want to have, and it's tons of fun to research this stuff. I just ordered a bunch of books from the library about horse-powered farm implements, and have a couple more books holding in my Amazon cart on that subject.
Heck, for a story I'm working on currently, I had to do some research on outhouses! I learned that pail houses were a thing--basically, where you s
t in a bucket, and every now and then put a new bucket there. I didn't know that was a thing back in the day, and now I do.
>> Admiral Biscuit,
I think I just pulled this idea out of my hat, simply because it allows to decouple 'real' (imaginable) Equestria from what we saw in show in some sort of 'natural' way? And explore very different angles of imaginable world. Like, Equestria can be future of Earth (or any other planet somewhere) in future, talking to its own past (not something we know to be possible now, but this doesn't mean you can't write good story about such informational time travel. Do humans care more about things they do today and now if there is some, even tiny, possibility something considered unimaginable really WILL be someday? I'm very skeptical now .. but lets put my feelings aside for now).
So, 'real imaginable' ponies finally free to live in their own, more fitting for them, world, and even play various forms of anthropomorphic/anthropocentered (alien for them, to some degree) acts of magical cinema/theatre/virtuality (even if their stage magic only works on someone's imagination - it still can be recorded ..like, by drawing it with computer. Well, this is by itself very old idea, human author writing like it was influenced by (time/space traveling) alien voice/mind in his/her head ...but at this grand level most ideas are already invented). For me one really important advance I wish to see one day 'conquering' humans is some kind of 'good power of will', allowing us to overcome some of our psychological traps. So, while we can't do it en-masse now - why not imagine some another kind of being who was free for some significant time already from some of this weight? They not free from laws of their universe, or their psychology/thinking errors/historical process, yet they moved further than humans on some important matters..yes, they don't use heavy-technical/scientific jargon for their self-explaining, but why should they? So, magical little horses are magical not because they can levitate things, but because they can levitate their own society via at least partially reasoned/controlled way....
I was reading your other short story, "The fixer' (https://writeoff.me/fic/3497-The-Fixer), and obviously (for my current state!) come to line of thinking where Clemence actually starts to fix our politics, because, you see, it really can be fixed only with magical unicorn, no less (really, some out-of-humanity factor). So, if you accept Equestria-as-possible-future-for-Earth, this one can be little start with giant consequences...
So, do i still really ope for someone this flexibility of thinking will allow to create different future, even if for some few beings? I think without such hope one can't exist ....but may be this is specific for some types of humans.
4873874
Yup, not getting going is far less of a heart accelerant than suddenly realising that stopping is an issue. "If the brakes even vaguely seem suspect, fix NOW!" has been my motto for a while. ;-)
Well, it was near thirty years ago now and, just as you mentioned, we have different names for many things over here but for someone who has done all his research in theory you have nailed it pretty well. Nothing stands out as a glaring mistake and you have the physics of the team work and the difference between cart work vs implement work, spot on.
I have had experience with both the bucket and long drop systems. These were what we had in remote areas and even forty years back, out of town, there were some older folks I knew of who still used the bucket system as it was what they grew up with and they did not trust these fancy 'sceptic tank' things. On the outstation I worked on it was the rostered job that everyone wanted to trade. I worked with three wusses and could regularly swap doing their duty for a mix of cash and getting them to do jobs I disliked/preferred... like a full week of chaff cutting or taking their turn at the monthly flying to the main station for supplies. It is also where the saying "Flat as a s
t carter's hat" came from. In the old days the s
t carter (Night Soil Man was his proper title) would come around weekly in the town and swap your can over for an empty one (hence the old slang for a toilet here is 'dunny can'). He would cart it back to the truck on his head on a padded cap. Over time the cap's padding would get flattened and, as the Night Soil bloke was low on the council employee totem pole, he'd rarely get issued a new hat hence the saying. Long drops are easier on farms or rural areas as you simply build the outhouse as a small movable shed with a seat and a hole in it. Then drill a 'long hole' about 6-10' deep and place the shed with seat over it. When the hole gets full or too 'fragrant' you drill a new hole, move the outhouse over it, fill in the old hole with some of the dirt from the new hole and then go again. In mining areas you often used old abandoned mineshafts for the long drop. There was a story I was told when I was in Coober Pedy about some blokes in the 50s who used to mine for opals and then travel the world for many months with their proceeds before returning to find more opals in their mine. They apparently used a 'fake' hole as their supposed mine so that if anyone tried to mine their opals while they were away they'd not fine any in the fake hole. One time while they were away for over a year some new blokes staked a claim near theirs and set up camp. The new blokes found the real mine hole under a tin and dirt cover and, assuming it was an abandoned hole, set up their outhouse over the top. When the other blokes returned they were less than amused but had to take it on the chin as by rights they had been away so long that their claim could have been declared void if the new blokes pushed it. In the end they had the fun job of digging almost a year's worth of 'leavings' from their mine shaft so they could start finding opals again. 
I have probably disturbed most of the people who may read this so I'll say feel free to PM me if you want to know more of the joys of ultrabasic sanitation!
4875547
One of the better quotes I've heard about brakes (in a CW McCall song) is 'sort of like stepping on a plum'. Not the feeling that you want.
Whew!
I was actually fixing mistaken assumptions of mine during the process of writing the blog, to be honest. There'd be a point where I'd go to write something and think I knew how it worked, then look up a YouTube video to find out for sure and then find out that I was completely wrong (like how eveners work, for example, or how to hitch to a single-axle wagon).
Long drop . . . that's a term I've never heard before.
That's the nice thing about being willing to do the s
t jobs (no pun intended). At one of the group homes I used to work at, nobody liked doing the logging, so I'd usually volunteer for it and get out of med-passing and making dinner, which was fine with me. I could bang out daily logs for six guys in an hour, and wind up with that being my only real responsibility in an eight hour shift.
Huh. That's a bit of slang we don't have over hear (which is too bad). I do know about "Night Soil;" in OPP and Apple Honey's Perfectly Ordinary Day, there's a pony named Night Soil who's responsible for emptying out pits and whatnot. Another slang term is Honey Dipper, and that's the name of the pony in my upcoming fic. She doesn't wear a hat, though. Maybe I should add that detail in.
I have her working in town, so instead she moves the outhouse off the pit, shovels it out, and then puts the outhouse back. I've heard that if you use lime, and design it right, the smell never gets too bad . . . although I have no personal experience. Pit toilets at most of the camps I've been to stank all the time. They also usually had wasps.
I could see how that would happen. I didn't know until recently how opals were mined, and then I saw an episode of Smarter Every Day about it.
Really interesting stuff, at least for me. I don't know how you'd even know which pit was yours and where the opals were, but I guess that the guys that do it for a living know.
Actually, I just started a group for the sharing of this type of information (really, any information that people are knowledgeable about). I'll probably get around to blogging about it in a day or two, but until then, have the second official invitation!
The Circle of Knowledge
4874451
There's been some fan speculation that Equestria is an engineered planet, built by someone in the past potentially for the purpose of moving it somewhere else (which explains why none of the natural systems work like they ought to).
I think that we humans do care more about some stuff than we used to in the past. Things like conservation are getting more important than they used to be. We've got a long way to go, of course, but we're moving past the days of just willy-nilly polluting things . . . at least, in developed countries. . . .
As for things that we can't imagine being real, well, when I was a kid, the idea that I could carry a small, flat computer around in my pocket that would have access to a large swath of human knowledge nearly wherever I was . . . that didn't even register as a possibility. That was for 'out there' science fiction stories.
I don't know exactly where ideas come from, but from a purely biological point of view, it's me (or any author) mashing together people they know, things they've experienced, things they've seen, stirred together with a bunch of 'what if?' Assuming that I somehow had the idea, there's no way I'd come up with the things I do if I had spent my whole life in a cave, for example.
I don't think that we can completely overcome our humanness and human nature, but we can certainly work towards it. We humans do have the ability to ignore our instincts in most cases and go with what we know to be right.
I don't see her fixing our politics--or anything else, for that matter. I really don't see the story ultimately having a happy ending. She's being something that she isn't meant to be, and it'll catch up with her sooner or later. How, I don't know--somebody does get the drop on her, or maybe she tries to go back to her faerie glen and they're pissed at all the human junk that she's been pushing through that they have to deal with. Maybe they'll be the ones to come and get her.
Yea, computers (and their networks) mostly play in their own league ..Because you see ... " smpboot: Total of 4 processors activated (30401.22 BogoMIPS) " - more and more computing power in basically same physical size, consuming basically same amount of electricity. This kind of magic doesn't affect everything else at same scale.
Well, there are not only instincts in purely ethological sense, but also ideas installed by our society, directly or indirectly. And they can be wrong, while probably from inside you hardly can tell instinct from learned impulse or lately installed via speech dogma, without some additional thinking.
Meant by whom? Yes, being part of criminal group not something she or her parents (?) wanted, but my guess story can make another , unexpected turn. Like if she started to think about bigger picture behind crime, society, politics ....read books and probably think about all this in a bit paradoxal for most humans ways ... and decide to try something else, not so much for fame/money, but simply for trying it (if our literature can move unicorn in any direction at all. May be not literature even, just observations and further talks..and..experiences.).
re:
Not quite? i.imgur.com/Wdce6N5.png - from s04e11 .... Train from Crystal Empire ..one can even start guess why someone (king Sombra?) moved that far north and created something quite unusual for times after ..... Anyway, I think for beings whose normal life quite comfortable around Everfree forest (and who even can cross part of it simply for delivering some food to somepony), various destructive kinds of magic and many other things futuroshock is not a thing .....
But that thing's tiny compared to a Big Boy (or a C&O 2-6-6-6).
Pony locomotives are roughly the same size as smaller switching locomotives, like 0-4-0s. This video might be a good example:
Bearing in mind that UP's Big Boys are literally twice the length of Pere Marquette 1225.
I think that while a lot of our tech wouldn't completely amaze them (after all, for much of it, there's a spell for that) the sheer size of things would. Cities that you could walk across for an entire day and still be in. Fields stretching on as far as the eye can see, tended by enormous machines. Shopping malls that are probably larger than Ponyville. Ships the size of islands. Things like that.