In every sport except one, in order to be phenomenal you must practice non-stop and dedicate every hour of your day to challenging yourself in the sport; every sport except for horseback riding. Many people say that money can’t buy you happiness, but in this sport, all riders believe it to be true. Money can buy your way into fame and top ribbons in competitions.
In jumpers, in order to be a good rider that is not as wealthy as your competition, it still requires the same amount of dedication that other sports do; but, if you are rich and can afford to buy $500,000 horses then no matter what type of rider you are you can race your way around the course, be the most ratchet rider in existence, and win every class.
In hunters, the people with the most money always win, even though everyone argues it to be unfair, it has been this way for a century or two. Everything about the owners riding can be inferior to someone with less money than them, but because their horse is nicer, and therefore more careful with it’s legs, it will be able to clear anything you set them up to. Especially in hunters, how you place depends entirely on the fanciness of your horse; including the way it moves, carries itself, jumps, and its flexibility. Hunters is a sport for those of the upper class and all you see at shows in that aspect are people flaunting their money everywhere and paying any price for their daughters to place well.
This aspect of horseback riding frustrates many people in the sport, but yet those who truly love to ride continue to compete no matter the outcome.
My school has a equestrian program, which I wanted to take advantage of. One year ago, I tried it out for a season. Since my roommate at the time was a rider, I was very excited to learn this sport.
It started out well – I was loving my horse and the sport, but then things started changing. Espada, the horse I was riding, started acting wild, and because I was a beginner, I couldn’t stop his behavior. Espada would kick other horses while I was on him and would try to scare me by jumping suddenly. On the last day of the season, Espada jumped with his back feet and started running. I pulled on him and was able to stop him, and luckily I didn’t fall. But that sudden act brought me to tears. After that, I couldn’t even look at the barn, because I would feel too scared.
Photo Credit: Evelyn Brokering
I wanted to fight my fear, and I wanted to love horses like my roommate did, so this year I tried equestrian again. The first day I was too scared to walk toward the horse alone. Taking small steps each day, I pushed myself to do something I was afraid of. Day by day, I noticed I was becoming more comfortable around horses.
Now it’s been two months since I started riding again, and I no longer have any fear– I am able to walk and canter by myself. It’s the best feeling: to conquer a fear instead of letting the fear conquer you.
What a life pets have. Especially the pet who lives on campus: Jack the cat.
Jack is loved by students, gets full attention and is very spoiled. He gets food and treats from the teacher, Ms. M., everyday. Ms. M. even bought him food and water bowls, as well as a cushion for him to sleep on. These days, it has become a daily routine for Jack to come to her to get treats. He spends most of the day on her desk sleeping.
When we are in class, he meows outside the classrooms to let people know he wants to come inside. We always open the door for him, even if we are taking a test. He walks in and wanders around, and eventually rolls on his back allowing the students to pet him on the stomach. Everyone adores him and we all say “hi” when we see him, even though he ignores us. I want to be him in my next life.
Over the course of 200,000 years, Homo Sapiens have managed to disintegrate every other Sapien including Neanderthals who lived on the Earth 20 million years, but does anyone weep for the Neanderthal?
New technologies and discoveries have been opened to humanity, allowing mass agriculture to large machines that run off of electricity. We harvest electricity from intricate devices that we’ve developed to harness the world and even the sun. This is all considered human progress, but where could the next frontier be?
Last year a new technology has allowed us to push forward humanity further than ever before, to the extent of even seeming science fiction.
Crispr, simply explained, is a DNA archive saved in each cell that is more easily programmable due to its powerful protein Cas-9 which edits DNA. Before the discovery of Crispr, genetic engineering required years to perform and very deep pockets. Now it’s 99% cheaper and only takes a few weeks in an ordinary lab.
Soon new generations of Crispr will be innovated and gene modifying will become even cheaper allowing people in ordinary labs to genetically enhance anything. So sooner or later it will have an effect on everyone. For instance genetically modified food already exists but now it’ll be far easier to create new strains of crops larger and more resistant to drought. Starvation will become less of a problem even in developing countries whom get their hands on these new strains of wheat or rice.
Entire new menus will be created over the next few decades including new tastes and healthy food just as delicious as ice cream. Mutating animals through selective breeding has been ongoing for thousands of years, far before agriculture. Attempting to change their DNA has been attempted for the last fifty years but now it’s cheaper and easier to do.
This genetic door that has been opened will help the fight against diseases or defects as we develop genes in mosquitoes to deny and attack malaria or create white blood cells that are more efficient in killing cancer cells. Yet with all the shining promise, there’s a much more controversial side to this, such as genetically modifying humans.
Many believe that Darwinism has died and Idiocracy will rule the earth, however this isn’t as true as perceived. Already we have selective breeding of sorts where doctors may scan pregnant women and show that their children has down syndrome or other youth disorders. Many women decide to terminate the pregnancy. Research in Britain has shown a 30% dip in down syndrome cases. This is slowly eradicating the gene to extinction.
This genetic engineering may allow parents options to choose how their children look and how intelligent they are. Letting human course run its natural path will no longer will occur as modified humans are born and inevitably pass on their genes in the population. Then there is cloning, where in sixty years it may be possible to have an army of genetically modified super soldiers. This not only hits the heart and minds of science fiction lovers, but now is truly a controversy that humanity will be debating for the rest of its existence.
Blurred lines on what is morally right and wrong haunt the idea of genetic engineering, especially in the polarized U.S. However, no matter what laws are set, humans will start adopting body modifications with or without governmental permission. Allowing a disconnect between the government and genetic research can be hazardous for everyone. So keeping a keen eye on this research may be the only road to take.
This door which humanities shoved their foot into no longer can shut. Just as inventing nuclear weapons, you can’t simply delete it. People may think “okay, let’s ban human genetic modification and cloning- it’s too dangerous.”
That’s easy to believe, but look at in another perspective. Why would you impede human progress? Let’s say with mass production in one hundred years you’ll be able to buy super sight for an easy sale of 100 dollars(no inflation). There are now no diseases and the average human life expectancies triples; people may now even look younger as scientists fight against the side effects of aging. The average human has an IQ of 135 due to wide-spread designer babies and personal preference mutation.
With genetic engineering, mankind pushes the boundaries of nature. Humans may truly create species and bring back dead ones such as the wooly mammoth. Life is truly limitless in the hands of scientists for the very first time. Humanity does gods work for him, so what’s to say we’re not gods ourselves?
Everyday, humans will have mods to themselves, anything they want or can imagine. While some will always resist this practically necessary change, slowly and over generations everyone in future existence will be changed. So, an interesting question to ask oneself is in five hundred years, will anyone weep for the ‘traditional’ Homo Sapien?
Sure it brings the obvious, like flowers and butterflies; and then there’s the cliché that “romance is in the air.” But on closer inspection, spring is more than what meets the eye.
Springtime means new flowers, but more than the flowers themselves are the leaves finally bursting through the soil after a long winter hiding from the soil. Spring is the flower buds slowly opening in the heat of the sun, and closing again in the cool evening air.
Photo Credit: cdn2.uk.mentalfloss.com
More than the buzzing bees are the baby ladybugs taking their first steps across the ground, and the butterflies finally breaking free from their cocoons. It is the baby birds hatching from their shells, tottering around their nest and flying for the first time.
Spring is more than what immediately catches the eye. Spring is more than just the flowers, it is the flower buds, the newborn creatures, and the earth itself.
People have been telling me that the lines in the sky left behind airplanes, called contrails, are actually chemicals being sprayed by the government. Those people are stupid (with the exception of my lovely editor). The government wants us to think that they are spraying chemicals through contrails, which they have now named chemtrails. The truth is a lot scarier than that. Planes do not fly because of physics or other sciences; Think about it: A metal tube can’t possible be held up by two metal pieces that are not even half the mass of the tube itself. The only reason why they can fly is because planes are powered by Pegasus’ ashes.
The ashes of the Pegasus are magical, giving anything the power to fly. The trails left behind are not chemicals, but the ashes of a Pegasus. Most people don’t know this, but up until the late 1890s, Pegasus freely soared through the skies until two brothers learned that their ashes were magical. Because killing a Pegasus was frowned upon, they pretended it was science that made their plane fly. As time went on, more and more planes were made and by the end of World War I, Pegasus no longer roamed the skies.
The world was ashamed of what they had done, so they covered it up, pretending like a Pegasus was nothing more than a myth. But just because they didn’t roam the skies didn’t mean they went extinct. In fact, millions of Pegasus are being held and bred in captivity. The US has the biggest supply of Pegasus in the world, and they alone kill over 1,000,000 of them a year. They keep it such a hidden secret by pitching other conspiracies to the public, like area 51 is an alien experimentation facility. Which sounds pretty convincing to most, but I know the truth. Area 51 is where all of the Pegasus are bred and slaughtered, but it is not where they are burned. Burning the Pegasus causes tons of pollution, so to get the precious ashes, the caucuses are shipped to China where there are hardly any environmental regulations. People need to wake up and realize what is going on around us. The government is exploiting a creature for what they is believe is the greater good. It should not be tolerated. #FreeThePegasus2K16
Every Halloween there seems to be a myriad of Wednesday Addams, Wes Anderson characters and cats. This year, why not try something different
Instead of being Wednesday Addams try Lydia Deetz from Beetlejuice.
Her costume is fairly easy.You just need a black dress (you can even find this at a thrift store), a floppy black hat and black shoes.Add some dark makeup and you’re done!
credit to myspace.com
Rather than being a Wes Anderson character like Suzy and Sam from Moonrise Kingdom, try being a camper from Wet Hot American Summer.These costumes are fun and easy.All you need are 80’s teenager basics, and these are easily found at American Apparel.This is a great group costume too.
Credit to the New York Times
Then comes the infamous cat, the costume teenage girls tend to gravitate to every year.Lets try to leave the cat in the past and go with some cute woodland creatures. Foxes and deer are oh so cute and make awesome costumes.You can wear a cute and comfy dress and put on some makeup and you’re ready!
Some people believe that horseback riding is easy, that all you do is sit on the horse and it works for you.
Let me tell you from experience that horseback riding is not an easy thing to do.
Now, before I continue on why horseback riding is so difficult – let me explain my interest.
As a junior, I decided to try something different.
So I enrolled in my schools equestrian program; specifically the Western riding program.
Being that there was just one other male in equestrian before I joined – many students thought that it was a more feminine sport.
Now, let me prove that thought wrong.
First of all, riding is based on the idea that a rider, who weighs no more than 300 pounds, is trusting his 1000 plus pounds of pure mass to carry him.
Granted, most riders do trust their horses – accidents happen and riders fall. It’s basically guaranteed in horseback riding.
Photo Credit: “www.dauphinhorsemanship.com”
It also requires skill and patience. According to The Top Tens, horseback riding is definitely one of the hardest sports.
Like most sports, horseback riding can’t just be learned form a video or from books. Where horseback riding differs from other sports is that the rider needs to feel and understand every movement the horse makes underneath him.
If you’re riding Western like I am then the rider has to control his horse with the shift of body weight, leg positioning, and precise touches to the reigns. One wrong move and you can end up on the ground.
Photo Credit: “static1.squarespace.com”
There are so many details to horseback riding, not including all the other styles, that I just can’t get into it in this blog.
Point being, don’t judge a sport by what is looks like, find out for yourself and you might just enjoy it.
A recent mystery has materialized in Portland, Oregon – pink chickens have been spotted wandering around the city.
Photo Credit: media.katu.com
Many Portlanders have stopped to take pictures with the birds, or at least paused to puzzle the abnormal sights, but until recently, nothing was done to understand these freaks of nature.
To get to the bottom of this, Multnomah County Animal Services sought out the owner, Bruce Whitman. He described the colored chickens to be a prank – he dyed them with food coloring, beet juice and Kool-Aid in hopes of making lucky onlookers smile.
Whitman put the birds out Thursday morning and picked them up that same evening. They gained publicity from their perch in a tree on the waterfront, and in no time caught the eye of countless people.
Although Whitman pulled this prank to catch the eye of the public, he did not expect the chickens to get nearly as much attention as they did.
While only a one time event, Whitman was happy with his success in making people smile, and was glad that pink chickens could cause this unanimous reaction.
Photo Credit to nasa.gov
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