Wednesday, April 10
Apr. 11th, 2024 12:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gottawonderToday I am grateful for:
Beautiful weather.
A brief phone conversation with Mom. She sounded cheerful. If I call at just the right time, about half an hour before they serve supper, she's usually alert and in a good mood.
I put away a few things that were piled up here and there, and vacuumed up some of the grey hair mass from around spots in the bedroom that I can't sweep, like under the dresser and the night stand and in tight corners. Always lots of grey hair mass.
I went to see River. We had a lesson today. His eye looks good, just a bit of a scab left, healing nicely.
R and I talked about how to approach some of the issues we had last week with him "zoning out" and not listening to the neck rope, his difficulty with holding a good shape that would allow him to do controlled small circles, and such.
I also mentioned the interaction that I had with the other young rider, the one who was having a giant melt down and being really awful to her horse. R said that this young girl has a lot of issues with frustration and not going through the proper processes for getting the horse to do things (like do a nice circle) and goes straight to hauling on her face and kicking etc. I told her that I gently intervened and talked the girl through her tantrum, and R said it was probably good that I did something, as that girl knows better but reverts straight back to tantrums as soon as she's not in a lesson.
She also warned me though, that the girl's Mom can be a "difficult person".
R must have so much fun with that pair.
I don't plan on making a habit of intervening, but this other time I pretty much felt like it was verging on abuse of her horse, and the mother was doing nothing to prevent that abuse.
What's nice, is that R wasn't angry at me for intervening (though I realize I have to be very careful in these situations to not overstep bounds; I have to remember that I am not an expert), where at the other barn the barn owner was livid with me for intervening with a young rider who was riding VERY badly and endangering herself and her horse.
We went through some of the groundwork for creating good carriage in a small circle on the ground, and then rode and translated that to a riding exercise.
I came home and let the goats/ponies out into their larger pasture for awhile, and spent some time with Wonder. I basically would like to just start taking her for walks with me around the pasture, as a way to keep her feeling like she's getting some company and interaction.
Wonder is a horse that I've had a long time now, but I think her ability to regulate her emotions got destroyed when she was kept in complete isolation for over a year by the guy I bought her from. I mean TOTAL isolation. No cows, no other horses, no other animals period, in a tiny pen. This was in a farm yard where no one even lived anymore, so it wasn't like there were even people coming and going or working with her. The guy who owned her only had her a short while, but he was very old and had no business buying her. He put her in that pen and left her to rot, with just a neighbor who stuck his head in once a week or so to make sure she was still alive.
She was a wreck when I bought her, afraid of everything, and though I have tried to work with her, her reactions to everything was always pretty dramatic, so I've allowed her to be a pet. She is actually a lot better than she used to be, but every now and then she still loses her mind over relatively small things.
Then we came in and watched an episode of "Boardwalk Empire" together.
Qatar is not a micro nation, but still pretty darn tiny. It is a small peninsula in the Persian Gulf, with a border touching Saudi Arabia.
"Qatar has been ruled as a hereditary monarchy by the House of Thani since Mohammed bin Thani signed "an agreement, not a formal treaty"[18] with Britain in 1868 that recognised its separate status. Following Ottoman rule, Qatar became a British protectorate in 1916 and gained independence in 1971. The current emir is Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, who holds nearly all executive, legislative, and judicial authority in autocratic manner under the Constitution of Qatar.[19] He appoints the prime minister and cabinet. The partially-elected Consultative Assembly can block legislation and has a limited ability to dismiss ministers."
It relies heavily on oil and gas for it's economy, and is very wealthy with a not perfect (Sharia law) human rights situation, and a good standard of living. If you look up the city of Doha, it is very modern with enormous skyscrapers. It looks VERY wealthy.
The peninsula has been inhabited since the stone age, and was one of the first places to use shellfish to make purple dye for clothing (the famous Tyrian or Imperial purple used in the clothing of nobility).
It was part of the Second Persian Empire for a long time, and was influenced by Mohammed to become mainly Islamic in 628. When Islam conquered Persia, it then controlled this region. Then there was Portuguese rule, then Bahrain, Saudi and so on.
This goes on for some time, eventually with it being part of the Ottoman Empire right up to it's fall during WWI. After WWI, it was a British Protectorate until 1871.
Qatar would have still been a British Protectorate during WWII. I'm not finding much on it's role, but I guess it would have supported the Allies, and likely been used as an important naval base.
After WWII, Britain began decolonization, and about the same time Qatar found oil, so it was in a good position to be independent.
Today it does still have Sharia law (Islam), so it's pretty tough on dress codes (tourists have to be very aware of modesty codes), somewhat tough on alcohol (but it seems like it's okay if you're wealthy enough and don't flaunt it), women are not equals, and men can have plural wives.
The laws about stoning and flogging homosexuals are still on the books, but it hasn't been used recently as far as we know, but being homosexual is still illegal.
It is straight up a desert, and fresh water is a huge issue here, though with some cool fungi and lots of lizards, and there are still oryx there.
It used to have a pearl industry like nearby Bahrain, but that seemed kinda pointless once they found the oil reserves. There is a lot of tourism now.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qatar
https://youtu.be/oqfW7xn215o?si=RMCSoCFFuxFqx1HW
Beautiful weather.
A brief phone conversation with Mom. She sounded cheerful. If I call at just the right time, about half an hour before they serve supper, she's usually alert and in a good mood.
I put away a few things that were piled up here and there, and vacuumed up some of the grey hair mass from around spots in the bedroom that I can't sweep, like under the dresser and the night stand and in tight corners. Always lots of grey hair mass.
I went to see River. We had a lesson today. His eye looks good, just a bit of a scab left, healing nicely.
R and I talked about how to approach some of the issues we had last week with him "zoning out" and not listening to the neck rope, his difficulty with holding a good shape that would allow him to do controlled small circles, and such.
I also mentioned the interaction that I had with the other young rider, the one who was having a giant melt down and being really awful to her horse. R said that this young girl has a lot of issues with frustration and not going through the proper processes for getting the horse to do things (like do a nice circle) and goes straight to hauling on her face and kicking etc. I told her that I gently intervened and talked the girl through her tantrum, and R said it was probably good that I did something, as that girl knows better but reverts straight back to tantrums as soon as she's not in a lesson.
She also warned me though, that the girl's Mom can be a "difficult person".
R must have so much fun with that pair.
I don't plan on making a habit of intervening, but this other time I pretty much felt like it was verging on abuse of her horse, and the mother was doing nothing to prevent that abuse.
What's nice, is that R wasn't angry at me for intervening (though I realize I have to be very careful in these situations to not overstep bounds; I have to remember that I am not an expert), where at the other barn the barn owner was livid with me for intervening with a young rider who was riding VERY badly and endangering herself and her horse.
We went through some of the groundwork for creating good carriage in a small circle on the ground, and then rode and translated that to a riding exercise.
I came home and let the goats/ponies out into their larger pasture for awhile, and spent some time with Wonder. I basically would like to just start taking her for walks with me around the pasture, as a way to keep her feeling like she's getting some company and interaction.
Wonder is a horse that I've had a long time now, but I think her ability to regulate her emotions got destroyed when she was kept in complete isolation for over a year by the guy I bought her from. I mean TOTAL isolation. No cows, no other horses, no other animals period, in a tiny pen. This was in a farm yard where no one even lived anymore, so it wasn't like there were even people coming and going or working with her. The guy who owned her only had her a short while, but he was very old and had no business buying her. He put her in that pen and left her to rot, with just a neighbor who stuck his head in once a week or so to make sure she was still alive.
She was a wreck when I bought her, afraid of everything, and though I have tried to work with her, her reactions to everything was always pretty dramatic, so I've allowed her to be a pet. She is actually a lot better than she used to be, but every now and then she still loses her mind over relatively small things.
Then we came in and watched an episode of "Boardwalk Empire" together.
Qatar is not a micro nation, but still pretty darn tiny. It is a small peninsula in the Persian Gulf, with a border touching Saudi Arabia.
"Qatar has been ruled as a hereditary monarchy by the House of Thani since Mohammed bin Thani signed "an agreement, not a formal treaty"[18] with Britain in 1868 that recognised its separate status. Following Ottoman rule, Qatar became a British protectorate in 1916 and gained independence in 1971. The current emir is Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, who holds nearly all executive, legislative, and judicial authority in autocratic manner under the Constitution of Qatar.[19] He appoints the prime minister and cabinet. The partially-elected Consultative Assembly can block legislation and has a limited ability to dismiss ministers."
It relies heavily on oil and gas for it's economy, and is very wealthy with a not perfect (Sharia law) human rights situation, and a good standard of living. If you look up the city of Doha, it is very modern with enormous skyscrapers. It looks VERY wealthy.
The peninsula has been inhabited since the stone age, and was one of the first places to use shellfish to make purple dye for clothing (the famous Tyrian or Imperial purple used in the clothing of nobility).
It was part of the Second Persian Empire for a long time, and was influenced by Mohammed to become mainly Islamic in 628. When Islam conquered Persia, it then controlled this region. Then there was Portuguese rule, then Bahrain, Saudi and so on.
This goes on for some time, eventually with it being part of the Ottoman Empire right up to it's fall during WWI. After WWI, it was a British Protectorate until 1871.
Qatar would have still been a British Protectorate during WWII. I'm not finding much on it's role, but I guess it would have supported the Allies, and likely been used as an important naval base.
After WWII, Britain began decolonization, and about the same time Qatar found oil, so it was in a good position to be independent.
Today it does still have Sharia law (Islam), so it's pretty tough on dress codes (tourists have to be very aware of modesty codes), somewhat tough on alcohol (but it seems like it's okay if you're wealthy enough and don't flaunt it), women are not equals, and men can have plural wives.
The laws about stoning and flogging homosexuals are still on the books, but it hasn't been used recently as far as we know, but being homosexual is still illegal.
It is straight up a desert, and fresh water is a huge issue here, though with some cool fungi and lots of lizards, and there are still oryx there.
It used to have a pearl industry like nearby Bahrain, but that seemed kinda pointless once they found the oil reserves. There is a lot of tourism now.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qatar
https://youtu.be/oqfW7xn215o?si=RMCSoCFFuxFqx1HW
