rpanons | the intrinsic sexiness of bog creatures

the intrinsic sexiness of bog creatures

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horses

every horse person i've met has been insane

jumping on this - as a foreigner, americans' concept of "horse girls" has always fascinated me

like yeah, we have people in my country that are into horses as hobbie, but it's surprising (for me) how "horses" are a thing that girls are into and it's in fact so common that it's an archetype and the term "horse girl" exists at all

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFz10dQkAEE

does this help? idk if this helps

ayrt

this is actually super interesting THANKS ANON

it's been a thing since I was a kid in the 80s - it wasn't until we grew up and started joking about being "contractually obligated to love horses" was such a widespread thing.

I blame fiction: we had a pile of books, mostly by author Marguerite Henry, that were popular despite being older, and movies based on them (Black Stallion was huge in my youth). Every girl-aimed toy had a horse (She-Ra, Rainbow Brite, even Barbie). Cartoons with female protags had horses. I guess boomers who grew up with Black Beauty were old enough to make similar content in the 80s and pairing girls with a beloved horse was very much A Thing.

as someone who is not themselves a horse person, but kinda-sorta gets the urge to be ~~and plays a lot of horse people~~, my impression is that at least some of the appeal is, like...

a horse is a surprisingly big, strong, fast animal which absolutely can and will fuck you up, which means that when you successfully ride one, you have proved that you are capable of getting its respect. this is why so much horse media circulates around a character having a personal relationship with their horse, and gaining the horse's respect and affection, and forming a bond with the horse.

because this is a thing that can happen, and does happen if you're any good at horsemanship, it gives you something to aspire to. whether you actually have a horse or are just looking at pictures of horses and daydreaming about forming an unbreakable bond with a really cool horse, it's about that sense of forming connection with an animal, and of being in communication with it in a direct, recognisable way.

it's something that goes fast and is exciting (and riding a horse often feels faster than it is, because so much of its motion is transferred to you, not just the forward momentum) and is difficult, but I think that the appeal which differentiates a horse from, idk, a motorcycle or a sports car is that it's a living animal which has its own thoughts and ideas on what it wants to do. so either you get to have mastered something bigger and stronger than you, or (more healthily) you have the sense of having a good enough relationship with an animal that you are working together to do things very fast. (I think this is one of the reasons horses often appeal to lonely girls in particular - it's a relationship that's more or less within your control, but which is also visible when it works.)

also, more pragmatically/coldly: we have centuries of history which associates horses with wealth, prestige, and power (if not always political power, then at least the physical power of a fuck-off massive Clydesdale), and there's a social cachet in associating yourself with them. like. horses are expensive - to buy, to keep, to house given how much land they need - and that makes them cool in a much more mundane way, especially now that there's no expectation (in most places) that horses are for practical purposes like ploughing or transport. they are purely a luxury purchase and hobby, and even if it's not conscious, that gives them the aura of exclusivity and coolness that people gravitate to.

they're also kind of interesting in how they intersect with class? like. having your own horse proves you're wealthy, at least a little, because horses are Expensive. but especially in the rural cowboy end of things (and in rural England, where I come from), horses are common enough that it doesn't alienate you completely from the middle class. and there's a pleasing earthiness to dealing with horses, which I think explains why so many horse people earnestly enjoy mucking out stalls: it reassures you and the people around you that even if you are well off, you're not afraid to get a bit of dirt under your nails.

tl;dr: horse expensive, horse go nyoom, horse might deign to bond with you

this is interesting to me as someone who lived in the american rural south because i absolutely would not equate owning a horse with wealth after some of the stuff i saw down there

[banjo strumming intensifies]

yeah, I thought about it some more overnight and I'll admit it's very variable. where I grew up (north of England) it's associated with the "hunting, shooting and fishing" posh crowd, but also with Traveller communities. I know in Bishop Auckland and places like that (which is to say, post-industrial hellholes with a lot of council housing and a lot of settled Irish Traveller communities) it's surprisingly common to find a horse in the back garden of a tiny row house, or even on the balcony of a block of flats.

and then there's also the travelling Traveller community, who don't all have horse caravans any more (a lot of them use mobile homes and caravan trailers these days), but I usually saw them coming to and from the horse fairs, and obviously they have horses too, which is NOT because they're wealthy.

so I will take the L on that one, because actually when I think about it I do associate horses with both extreme ends of the economic spectrum. but in very different ways, and I think since horse girls were mentioned I went more to "we go to the riding stables as a treat on the weekends" or "daddy I want another pony" than to "chavi lads riding down the motorway in a sulky" and "that one time my friend woke up to find a horse and a passed-out man in the back garden".

(I also have no idea what it's like in the rest of the world, I imagine it varies a lot depending what roads are like and what the costs/expectations of animal care are)

i have nothing constructive to say but this was very interesting to read, thank you for taking the time to type it up.

i think the scifi/fantasy equivalent to horse girls is dragon girls who are really into pern and httyd and things like that for the reasons you described above - big powerful animal that you form a bond with and can ride around on (and for most girls, owning a horse and owning a dragon are both equally unfeasible). i wonder if monster tamer fandoms (pokemon, digimon, etc.) have some of that appeal, too.

Speaking as an ex-horse girl, you are spot on in a lot of that, and I'll give my own personal perspective on it all. I started riding, as many horse girls do, as a young child. I was probably around 5, so way before I even got into all the horse girl literature like The Saddle Club and The Black Stallion series. At that age, I was fascinated with all sorts of animals big and small. Being socially awkward, shy, and later on in life finding out I had some neurodivergency, I was much more comfortable around the company of any kind of animal than my own peers. Hearing there was this great big animal I could actually ride all on my own sounded amazing, especially after I rode a pony at one of my early birthday parties. I also (a little stupidly but that's kids for you) had no fear of even animals I should have like Rottweilers or horses that weighed thousands of pounds and could have crushed me in an instant.

My parents encouraged this because you do pick up a lot of good skills when you own or even just ride a horse. There is a LOT of upkeep involved with horses like the grooming, putting on the tack, and mucking out the stalls. The riding is just a small percentage of everything else, so responsibility is a skill picked up very fast. And you do indeed bond very fast with your steed and learn a great deal of empathy for what goes on in the mind of an animal. Horses, despite their size, are really like big babies once you get to know them. You really are in charge of everything to do with them, encouraging them to do things like move past their fears of a sheet flapping in the wind, their reluctance to step into a mud puddle, or just motivating them to move up from a trot to a canter.

And although it is an expensive hobby, you CAN find ways around that if you really want to do it. My dad impulsively bought me and his other two daughters a horse for the rock-bottom price $500 even though she was a full-blooded Arabian with papers and a lineage you could trace. She was old and the owners had enough after she threw them too many times. As it turns out, they only belatedly realized they were using the wrong kind of bit with her, and it was cutting up her mouth, which is why she was tossing them. Despite her age, she had a wonderfully good temperament, and it really was the classic girl-horse bonding scenario with us. The horse in the stall next to her had owners that literally showed up once a month just to check on him, so he was often bad-tempered and frustrated being stuck in a tiny box, so we offered to exercise him. They agreed and that's how we essentially ended up with a second horse for free.

Also once a horse girl, always a horse girl. My older sister had too many drinks at a wine tasting being held at a stable a year or two ago and went off to happily go make friends with the horses. My brother-in-law was absolutely terrified when he realized how big a horse is standing next to a human being and refused to come any closer despite all her encouraging, only then realizing just what kind of a horse girl his wife had previously been as she happily interacted with the big baby horses.

funnily enough, while I was never a horse girl (I was scared of a lot of animals as a child), the pony that very nearly won me over did so by being less "big baby" and more "shitty little toddler". he delighted in trying to scrape me off against walls and stopping dead mid-canter to see if he could throw me over his head. it probably says a lot about me that i was like "ah, you're a little shit, I respect that. we should be friends."

(he didn't dislike me, to be clear. he came running when he saw me, and he never actually tried to hurt me, and according to the woman who ran the stable I was actually one of his favourites. he just liked messing with people. and it's weird in hindsight to think that the animal that kept trying to throw me into puddles was disproportionately responsible for me being less scared of animals - it reframed animals as things with minds and intentions rather than terrifying automata with big teeth, I think. moved me into my adult state of "i might still be a bit uneasy about animals or even dislike being around them, but that's a me problem and i respect that they're just doing their own thing".)

no1curr but man i haven't thought this much about my experiences with horses in A Minute. now i miss that pony. who's probably dead because it was over 20 years ago. :(

a sports car that gives you affection

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transformers

checkmate horse girls

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the intrinsic sexiness of bog creatures

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ayrt

Re: ITT: NAME A THING YOU DON'T GET AND SOMEONE WILL EXPLAIN THE THING

Re: ITT: NAME A THING YOU DON'T GET AND SOMEONE WILL EXPLAIN THE THING

ayrt

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