Would anyone be interested in me talking about this in more depth as an instagram and/or youtube video?
SO...
I live in British Columbia, Canada, and in 2014 I graduated as a certified equine sports therapist by the BC College of Equine Therapy in Vernon BC. It was a two year part time course that covered an array of topics about the horses structure, bio mechanics, feet, teeth, bones, saddle fit and different ways of treating imbalances through massage, chiropractic and acupressure techniques. We attended class two times a month for two years and some of my classmates traveled monthly from two provinces away. Our policy and procedure "manual" was three pages long that covered expectations for the work handed in (in great detail), but nothing in regards to legality, representation, bylaws, code of ethics, disciplinary measures, dress code (boots? gloves? tools?) or anything. A lot of my textbooks have photocopied (plagiarized) content, on top of being sorely outdated. My certificate states that I am competent to the Art and Science of equine sport therapy. However, this is not correct, and it took me four years and a ton of independent research to figure out...
BC College of Equine Therapy and dozens of other schools like it are private institutions masquerading as legitimate schools to entice potential students, presumably for financial gain. Schools fail to evolve, there is no distinction between credible practitioners and regular people. Anyone with genuine interest in the industry is at a severe disadvantage to practice. And because practitioners aren't recognized as certified practitioners, they may put themselves at legal risk for false advertising and potentially malpractice for making false claims (registered massage therapists own the term "massage practitioner", how many equine sports therapists make that distinction?). Registered massage therapists, physiotherapist, doctors, sports therapists, chiropractors and more all have bylaws and codes of ethics to preserve their high quality standard of practice. Anything less is an imitation...
Right...?
Not only this, but horses are put at risk too when theories are blurred, assessment and treatment isn't being regulated so really who knows what could happen (yikes) and how well that practitioner is able to react in a potential emergency (double yikes).
Midway College in Kentucky is the only school that can make the claim that a graduate can be "competent in the Art and Science of equine sports therapy" with a bachelor of science.
I can't help but feel sad about the situation because I've seen horses benefit from what I've been taught but it falls short in the grand scheme of things. The truth is... a very small handful of equine practitioners have gone the extra mile and obtained formal education to the highest level in order to take special interest in horses in order to have a legitimate practice. For me personally I simply don't work on horses apart from my own, occasionally. I work at a physiotherapist office currently as a receptionist and I'm treated with tremendous respect by peers, other practitioners, lawyers, doctors, policemen and the general public as a representation of this office and its practice. But, when I approach local veterinarians as an "equine sports therapist" with questions about the legalities I'm simply ignored.
I've had a ton of fights among practitioners about theory, assessment vs treatment and techniques, who has a say and about what, etc. So, not only do we fight internally and criticize which school is best, but an association in my town is attempting to re-write bylaws that state veterinarians should be present for any diagnostic or treatment in any animal (including massage, dentistry, chiropractics, aromatherapy, reiki, etc etc etc...), in order to preserve the veterinary practice's code of ethics and keep animals safe.
I'm truly asking anyone out there... what's the problem here??
TLDR; This is ramblings I'm going to post without really rereading because it's soo complicated and long-winded. If you're interested in seeing the evolution of my gorgeous 17.1hh hunk of a rescue gelding you can follow my instagram @essentiallypua (I primarily talk about this stuff there...)
I have a friend who is interested in watching the show and learning more about the show as a whole mainly out of curiosity. He knows mainly about the Background Ponies and a small collection of fandom songs (Discord being the most played for him), but I want to take him through a journey and give him a small glimpse of Equestria...
So, what episodes, stories, and music do you think would be the best items to show him; allowing him to dip his foot into the fandom... (He is a huge nerd like yours truly; so don't hold back.)
Thanks if you have gotten this far into my post and posted your opinion; I just want to make sure I'm not missing anything that could make him laugh, cry, or smile. Cheers...
Hello and again welcome to your weekly dose of 'the choice is not as simple as 0 1]': 'This Week on the Plounge' wherein I inform you, the fine folks of the mane sub, what's been going on at your favourite sister subreddit, the Plounge, this past week.
Wait, what is this Plounge you speak of?
The Plounge, or more formally the MLP Lounge is /r/mylittlepony's sister subreddit. Designed to be a place where you can free of the tyranny of rules 3 and 4. A chill place for bronies or anyone to talk in a SFW chat centric environment. It can be found over at /r/MLPLounge. (most of us browse by /new though). Oh and BPM is nice to have. Even if you're allergic to using emotes yourself you'll miss a lot of extra context without it.
What some casual conversation with a sprinkling of ponies? Come over to this introductions thread and meet some people. Don't worry there's also a topic so it ain't just "hi!" "hi" awkward silence.
News
Regulars
Every week there are up to two Plounge member of the 'day' AMAs! You can sign up here. AMAs since last week's TWOTP are...
Sprankton is doing a classic Plounge thing, a Pokemon playthrough told via screenshots and captions. You can suggest nicknames for pokemans even, wow audience participation!
Top Posts
The top 5 link and self posts, for your browsing content.
Self Posts
Links
Highlights
(manually selected rather than just by score)
Isn't it weird that there are just Luna and Celestia, saving Equestria from evil for 1000s of years? I think Lauren Faust said that the alicorns are a race, and that the Journal of the Two Sisters referenced Celestia and Luna growing up and I assumed alicorns were a race in the book but now that I type it I don't remember.
So . . . What happened to the alicorns? Are they this god-like, near-immortal race that all died off somehow except for two individuals? Did the royal sisters become alicorns for some reason and for some reason? Is the only reason for Cadence and Twilight being alicorns because Luna and Celestia are getting older? If not, why has Equestria only seen two pairs of adult alicorns spaced 1000 years apart? Is Equestria just two dead alicorns away from being fucked in ways it could never have been fucked before? Or does the fact that Celestia and Luna are alicorns even matter beyond their ability to raise and lower the sun on their own without magic depletion? I mean, the sisters used the elements of harmony to banish Discord and Sombra, not alicorn magic.
In general, what is the deal with alicorns? Did something happen to them? Why are they so rare? Why did they come about in the first place? And does Equestria need them?
She's been wormed, floated, checked out, she's just finally, rapidly, succumbing to age. I'm worried about her going down on the ice this winter in rural Vermont. She get studded shoes already for the winters, but she's just different this year. I love her so much - she's the sweetest mare I've ever known. When is it too soon? I don't want to be too late.
Hey guys, I am not very experienced in Horses or horseback riding, but found this very interesting and dangerous. Was wondering what you think? These safaris are on Horseback and they encounter all 5 big game dangerous animals. They don't accept novice or intermediate riders however. I just think this is super risky and dangerous, even if I was an experienced rider, I wouldn't do it. I'm deathly afraid of lions.
Only 3 left to go! We're now moving onto the F table.
If you have no idea what is going on, please consult the original post to get up to speed on what is happening.
Choose an emote, remake it, then get given another one and so on. Check the original post for the requirements of the remade emotes you need to create.
Hi there! It's Thursday again and that means another chance to talk about what's been happening around here and how you feel about it!
Same as every other time, feel free to discuss whatever it is you'd like regarding our little subreddit good or bad. If you're unhappy we'll try our best to fix whatever problem you're having!
If you want to talk about the MLP fandom in general, that's fine too!
But some people may not want to talk about comics or anything else that hasn't happened yet, so you should be nice and hide those conversations from those people by using the spoiler tag.
If you don't know how it's as easy as making an emote:
[It has ponies!](/spoiler)
Becomes: It has ponies!
And if you're not wanting to discuss the subreddit or community specifically you can also check out the weekly off-topic thread here!!!!!
I'm just putting down the results of my last research frenzy. I've been trying to find the exact instrument that Lyra's cutie-mark represents, partly because people often mistake it for other barely related instruments and partly because I'm a massive nerd.
Though, it's mostly the former.
Well first of all, it's not a harp, it's a lyre! No, they're not synonymous, they're entirely different instruments.
The harp has its strings attached directly into its hollow body, while the lyre has more in common with lutes, as its strings are attached to a bridge which transmits the vibrations.
Got it?! Good! Let's not harp on that any longer.
But of course, lyre is a very diverse family of instruments. Would you believe that this is also a lyre? Would Lyra be able to play that? Probably. But we're not here to talk about all the instruments that she could play (though you're free to discuss that), but to talk about what kind of lyre does her cutie-mark specifically represent.
Because it's one of those horseshoe shaped lyres (how fitting). The last time I made the same research, when I was writing my song Jammin' with Lyra (man that song was a pain in the ass), I somehow came to the conclusion, that Lyra's horseshoe shaped lyre has only seven strings.
But this time, I've found that such lyres don't actually exist. Well, not ones that are so streamlined looking. There are lyres that are horseshoe shaped, but not this simple. The iconic horseshoe shaped instrument, is just a simplified stereotypical representation.
So let's talk about the possible candidates.
First, you have the chelys lyre, said to have been invented by Hermes, using the shell of a tortoise for the hollow body.
Another lyre of ancient greek origin is the cithara, which does have that horseshoe shape, and is said to have seven strings. Though a more skillful citharode could use strings more than that. The cithara however is also said to be a virtuoso's instrument, because it requires a great deal of skill to play, what with all that extra stuff added onto the top. Which I don't doubt Lyra could deal with.
But lyres weren't exclusive to ancient greece. Many other cultures had their own lyres as well. Which leads us to the jewish lyre, or kinnor. It does have that horseshoe shape and it is played with a pick. And apparently the minimum number of kinnors to be played in the temple is nine, with no upper limit... Interesting.
It's also a jewish national symbol, which is interesting. I have seen greek Lyra and Irish Lyra, but I don't think I have seen a jewish Lyra before.
Now that I brought up the Irish, there's also a gallic lyre. It also has a horseshoe shape and it does commonly have only seven strings. It also lead me to the lyrist Atelier Skald, go check him out. In fact, the gallic and jewish lyres are the ones that resemble that simplified U shape the closest.
So those are the instruments I found, that are the closest to Lyra's cutie-mark. The chelys tortoise shell lyre, the more advanced cithara, the jewish lyre also known as kinnor and the gallic lyre. Which do you think it is? Do you perhaps have a better proposition? I probably overlooked a lot of things, so if something I said doesn't match up, then you should know that I'm just simply wrong and not a liar.
Perhaps Lyra herself could say a lot on the subject.
Big shoutout to Michael Levy, who's got an extensive work on many different types of lyres and a youtube channel where you can listen to his work.
I'll also be posting a song I wrote myself, for a seven string lyre.
Here's a download link to it until then.
Would Twilight have kept "deleting" Pinkie Pie's clones if they actually realized what was happening and started crying/screaming and saying, "Please don't kill me!"?
It's a common fandom joke to assume that Twilight is bloodthirsty and would have kept doing so, but, canon-wise, what would she do?
