North Florida Nesties
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Re: will you be watching the KY derby?
Here I go... This is a total tangent, but sorry. I'm fired up.
Thoroughbred racing is total crap. I am adamently against it. Growing up, I always wanted to go to the Derby & part of me still does, but I will not until they reform the sport... Which will never happen.
They start riding & training the horses when they're barely a year old. Their leg bones haven't fully developed & grown together at that point. They make their racing debut at 2-3 years old. The Kentucky Derby is only open to 3 year olds. That's why you see horses breaking down on the track. Not every hurt horse has owners like Barbaro who will spend millions in an effort to save it. Most of the time, the injured horses end up at auction & inevitably are slaughtered. I strongly believe that if training was held off until 3-4 years old, like we do in the stadium jumping world, the rate of injury would decrease.
I've worked with a lot of thoroughbreds from the track & so often the story is the same: they're skittish around people, don't know how to trust & can literally run only in one direction in a circle. Horse racing is not glamorous. Most of the time, the horses aren't treated that well as abuse is rampant & training methods are shady to say the least. Racehorses are a dime a dozen & the ones you see racing in the Triple Crown & Breeders Cup are the exception. Granted, there are good trainers (Michael Matz) & owners out there, but they are the exception.
For the most part, it's all about the money & has little to do with the actual well-being of the horses.
So yeah. I won't be watching the Derby.
ETA: For further reading.... http://www.chai-online.org/en/compassion/entertainment_racing.htm
I'm so glad you posted all of this! When it comes to anything with animal rights/welfare, I tend to be against it (racing, zoos, sea world, etc) but I didn't know the real story with horse racing since it seems so glamorized.
Now I'm for sure against it!
The horse I had growing up was an OTTB (Off-Track Thoroughbred). Thankfully, because of a confirmation flaw, he was never really raced. He was sweet, loving & wonderful.
Here he is in a rare moment of asshattery:
I had another horse named Shark who was also an OTTB. When we got him, he would bite anyone that came near him (hence the name) & when you got on him, if you asked him to canter in a circle going clockwise, he'd literally trip & nearly fall on his face. I only had him for about six months, but it was amazing how much he progressed when he saw me every day & began to trust me.
you should check out this blog: http://fromheytohorses.wordpress.com/
they bought a horse farm in rural SC and just up and left their lives in charlotte, nc to raise horses. no prior experience. they're just learning as they go. you might have some good insight
Hold up... Like... No prior experience at all?