Rollkur Ban
Horse competition is a controversial topic and some of the training techniques enforce the stigma that horse training is horse abuse. One of the biggest contentious training topics is the use of rollkur.Rollkur is the hyperflexion of the horse's neck by force, this can lead to severe physical damage. The use of rollkur in the dressage ring has become so severe the FEI has had to ban rollkur, now they need to enforce this ban to stop this horrid training technique. One of the physical effects that rollkur has on a horse's body is the obstruction of the airway. Dutch scientists have concluded that the position the neck is in during the use of rollkur has an effect on the horse's breathing. The studies have shown that during the rollkur position the neck is crushing part of the windpipe which makes it harder for air to pass in an out of the horse (Lasserre). Affecting the horse's ability to breathe for competition should not be seen as morally right. This technique borderlines abuse due to the damage it can do to the horse's windpipe and their lungs along with their overall physical condition if there oxygen levels dropped for an extended period of time. Another physical effect rollkur can have on a horse is on the neck muscles and bones. Dr. Heuschmann explained that rollkur can have a horse have its head up to early in its training by using force which can cause little true muscle development in the neck along with separating the third and fourth vertebrae in the neck (Report of the FEI). The force and cruelty it takes to separates a horse's neck bones is an extreme that this training tool promotes for a desired head carriage. The separation of the vertebres can be serious but lack of the true muscle developing in the neck can lead to the horse having a life full of health issues. This physical damage is something no one can morally agree with. What this training system promotes in the industry is far worse than most physical damage. The Chairmen of the British Horse Society has called for an investigation to be done into this technique prior to the olympic games in order to determine whether it is brutal torture (Protest’s). This is what everyone needs to be doing in order to stop rollkur or else the horse industry will continue in a downward spiral towards harsher and harsher training. The last thing we need is top trainers that are using rollkur try to supporting and promoting this spiral. In contrast to this horrible new fad of training the real classical dressage ways need to be brought back to help restore the industry. Classical dressage, as written by a famous dressage trainer, has no ties to titles or winning money. They don't stress the horse's training; similarly,they will not follow the new fad of the competitive world. They also allow their training to benefit the physical and mental health of the horse (Dressage). This sport can be something so much more then what rollkur, but in order for the sport to rise above itself the ban on rollkur needs to be enforced. Anyone who looks at ‘modern’ dressage would be horrified at rollkur but anyone who looks at classical dressage would be pleased with the way they train their horses and the stigma of not using abusive training techniques. This is what dressage should be moving towards. The FEI has took an action and banned the use of rollkur. According to the FEI round table conference they have labelled rollkur anything that makes a horse have an inverted neck alignment due to extreme force and have thus made it illegal to do this during any competition. ("FEI Round-Table Conf Resolves"). This was put into place five years ago, however, rollkur is still being used. It was a good act to ban rollkur, but the FEI now needs to enforce the ban.After the FEI banned rollkur, no one stopped using it. The biggest question is why the FEI has not enforced the ban on rollkur? . The Society for Equitation Science did a study at the 2012 Olympics and found rollkur was still heavily used, but the FEI did not place sanctions on anyone there ("Open Letter to the FEI 2015"). The FEI won't touch any of the big trainers that have large sums of money and influence; otherwise, they would have been charged with horse abuse.. The top trainers endorse big brand name companies and if you remove these top trainers the big companies will turn their lawyers onto the FEI. While the use of rollkur exists in a world of horse's, politics still have an influence. Due to the severity in the physical damage rollkur places on the horse and the stigma that it creates of saying horse abuse is ok the FEI needs to enforce the ban on rollkur. The FEI needs to stop worrying about themselves and worry about the well being of the horse's. When the ban is finally enforced it will present a clear precedent on the standards of good horsemanship. Works Cited “Dressage.” writingofriding. N.p., 19 Nov. 2011. Web. 4 Nov. 2015. <http://www.writingofriding.com/in-the-media/the-difference-between-classical-and-competitive-dressage/>. “FEI Round-Table Conf Resolves Rollkur Controversy.” FEI. N.p., 8 Feb. 2010. Web. 9 Nov. 2015. <https://www.fei.org/news/fei-round-table-conference-resolves-rollkur-controversy>. Lasserre, Christa Leste. “Artificial Head, Neck Positions Effects on Horses’ Breathing.” TheHorse. N.p., 21 June 2012. Web. 3 Nov. 2015. <http://www.thehorse.com/articles/29302/artificial-head-neck-positions-effects-on-horses-breathing>. “Open Letter to the FEI 2015.” no-rollkur. N.p., 31 Aug. 2015. Web. 9 Nov. 2015. <http://no-rollkur.com/open-letter-to-the-fei-2015/>. “Protest’s over Horse Cruelty as Equestrian Fans Threaten to Boycott 2012 Olympics.” dailymail. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Nov. 2015. <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1240281/Protests-horse-cruelty-equestrian-fans-threaten-boycott-2012-Olympics.html>. “Report of the FEI Veterinary and Dressage Committees’ Workshop.” FEI. N.p., 31 Jan. 2006. Web. 3 Nov. 2015. <https://www.fei.org/system/files/Workshop_Report_Final_050306.pdf>.
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Fear
Walking down the street at night I feel like there is a weight on my chest. A gasping breath rattles out of me, I start to panic. My eyes flick to the left then the right wondering what creature is lurking in the darkness next to me. I question whether this creature is a wild beast that will tear me apart, or am I simply manifesting a shadow into my nightmares. I come to a shocking realization that by doing this I am letting fear control not only my physical body but my mind as well. Previously in my life I had a deep rooted hatred for all things that were different then me. I would look on the T.V. and see jihadists and this fear would fester inside me. I would find myself agreeing with politicians on how we need to kill more Muslims and bomb the middle east. I wanted our borders to be shut down and all ties to Islamic nations to be cut of. Now I have realized that when I let fear control me it planted saplings of hate. To regain my humanity I needed to separate the Muslims that I feared and the innocent victims. In my mind I realized that I can't hold entire nations accountable for a someone's crazy actions. I realized this and I became a better person, I let my fear go and I regained my compassion. I believe that fear inspires hate. I believe that when we see something that threatens us instead of finding an understanding of what that is we generalize what we see, I believe we blame everyone that fits into that category. When we do this I believe we lose our compassion we blame the sad, scared and lonely group of people we have divided ourselves from instead of showing them kindness. I believe that if we learn not to fear we will learn to love and that will win in any conflict we experience in life. The Crazy Cat Lady
During a period of someone's life, they have known a crazy cat lady stereotype. What many don't know, is there are stereotypes inside of a stereotypes. The types of crazy cat ladies are the classic cat lady, rich cat lady, married cat lady and the cat lady in training. Every small town has that one small building. The building with even smaller apartments that houses the high school dropouts, people who should be arrested for drug use and the little old lady who has too many cats to count. This little old lady is the friendliest yet saddest person society has ever met. She probably has a dead husband or two, and they both lay in their grave thinking of the amount of cats that run around their still breathing wife. The old lady has knick knacks of cats that fill up the counter and shelf space in her apartment. She makes weekly trips to the shelter to pick up another cat that she has to have because she is so lonely. When the little old lady finally passes away, the small amount of money she has will be left to her cats. All her cat figurines will be buried with her per instructions in her will. The whole town not only pity the lady, but they worry that she has too many cats. Do not fear, the little old lady will and also has provided an efficient home for all of her beloved cats till the day she dies. The next kind of crazy cat lady is the rich lady with an unhealthy obsession. This is the type of lady who not only buys her cats their own beds and designer collars, but this is the lady who paid an ungodly amount for the cat in the first place. This crazy cat lady found a breeder and dished out thousands of dollars for a bengal cat or a russian blue. The third type of crazy cat lady is the married cat lady. This is the cat lady who has a normal life, until people meet her. She has a wedding ring on her finger and has a normal house with a normal car with normal clothing. When women enter her house they notice the cat staring at them from the couch and then it dawns on them she is one of those. Gripped by fear, they start to back away and turn to fearfully run but she shows up behind them, forces them to sit on the couch and locks the door. The boxes start coming out, and all of a sudden the woman has a cat sweater on, along with cat mittens. They end up having a kitten, fluffy and majestic, meowing on their shoulder. They want to cry, but then they give the impression that it isn't so bad. They stay for dinner and end up coming over every day and discussing cat politics. By the end of the year the women have excitedly moved in down the street. They don't even realize it, but now they have become the stereotype, and they like it. The last and most important stereotype is the cat lady in training. When we imagine a cat lady in training it's a teenage girl who is laying on her parents couch, watching netflix and petting her cats. Since she still lives at home, she isn't a full fledged cat lady yet, but that doesn't stop her from trying. This girl has stuffed cats, real cats, cat hats and a whole room full of cat stuff. Her friends often joke around how she is is a crazy cat lady, but deep down they know what they're saying is true. These four stereotypes are the most common but there are more. Many of us need to sit down and reflect on our lives because if any of this applies to us, then we need to fear what we have become. In conclusion the most important thing we can learn is never make fun of the crazy cat lady in our neighborhood, because one day we will become them. Week #10 Blog #3
Week #10 Blog #2Years ago retirement was a joy to look forward to and many were better off retired. In the present and future this is not the case. The economy is not able to support people who are retiring let alone the fact people don't have the money when they are working to save for retirement. College debt is a big contributor to this. The political debate has never left anyone knowing what side the government will choose but the kids that face going into college hope they choose the right way. In this day and age we scare our kids that if they don't go into college they wont get a good job but if they do go to college they might be even worse off. People not knowing or not being able to save for retirement not only is making them more dependent on the government is also makes them feel a need to work longer which leads to less new jobs opening up. When people can not get a good job right away they are not able to save earlier which leads them to have to work longer and the cycle repeats itself.
Week #10 Blog #1In western culture we have a view that the eastern cultures and specifically the middle east are the terrorists. This is the pot calling the kettle black because the west is as much of a terrorist as any other country. The United States has had claims of helping the Islamic terrorist groups like ISIS and the Taliban rise to power and frankly there right. I do not mean we funded or provided weapons to these organizations I simply mean we provided the ample environment for them to rise to power. Western countries have killed just as many civilians in our bombings then any Islamic terrorist has done on American soil. This does not justify 9/11 or any other attack it just simply means the western countries are no better then the east and we need to start fighting our battles a different way. Howard Zinn once said " How can you have a war on terrorism when war itself is terrorism?" I think many Americans will never understand this and not understanding is part of the problem.
Week #9 Blog #3One of the biggest findings in this book is the discovery of the Horcruxes. A Horcruxes is an object where you have hid part of your soul inside. The splitting of your soul can only be done when you commit a horrible act of murder. If this was possible in real life I would be curious to how many would commit these acts to gain almost eternal life. In the Harry Potter book the most powerful dark wizard of all time wanted to split his soul seven times. The first piece of his soul was put into a diary of his from when he was a teenager. His second piece of his soul was put into the heir of slytherins ring. The third piece of soul was hidden in the hufflpuff
Week #9 Blog #2Catcalling, rape jokes, blaming the victim and songs that joke or promote rape are what makes up the majority of rape culture. This needs to stop. Now. Anytime a rape joke is told it doesn't just harm rape survivors it gives rapists the sense that society accepts them and what they have done is OK. Not one person would ever make a joke about someone dying of cancer or getting killed serving for their country but it is completely fine to make a rape joke and not one person will say anything to stop it. Things like this is what defines rape culture. Telling women how to not get raped instead of teaching how to not rape is rape culture. We promote that idea that rape is going to happen and the people who have done it should not be held responsible because you didn't defend yourself correctly or you didn't wear the right clothing. This isn't stopping the problem. Doing this is saying it is OK to rape because if the person getting raped didn't defend themselves then its their fault and you where in the clear. If we don't stop this from continuing it will blow out of control. The next time you hear a rape joke instead of laughing at it ask the person who said it what is wrong with them and tell them its wrong.
Week #9 Blog #1On social media we often join it so that we can feel a sense of belonging yet in this day and age we often get bullied and are pushed off social media for a reason of we may not be good enough. Social media has went from a place that was like scrap booking to a place that was globalized and made into a company. The company feed off people wanting to fit society new trend and their want to fit in. They fill the social networking with diet pills and weight loss tips thus feeding the stigma of what society defines as beauty. Sometimes this works and sells the product and other times it drives people off social media. Then people who fit society's definition of beauty get on their and brag about how great they are and how to be like them and they endorse products because they have so many followers. The things these people don't know are how much damage they when they conform to society. The one thing social media wont do is stop this because it all comes down to money. The more products they sell the more they can get for ad spaces and the more money their company makes more money. Its amazing how we value money of human lives.
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January 2016
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