In preliminary celebration of New Mexico’s 100th anniversary of joining the union, we attended Centennial Summerfest in downtown Albuquerque yesterday. We had a good time looking at art and becoming reacquainted with new to us restaurants along Central Avenue. Not that horses downtown are anything out of the ordinary around here but highlight of the outing was getting up close and personal with the police department’s mounted unit. These horses are huge Percherons. I’ve always been afraid of horses (don’t tell anybody I said that or I’ll deny it) but I figured these were safe. The APD couldn’t use horses with an inclination to bite or kick, too much liability. I thought it was cool that the horses had their own police badges. My favorite was Romeo. He thought my purse was tasty, maybe it was the color (red) that he liked.
Anyway, if you have time to read, below are posts published this week on this site over the past 7+ years with still more on the archives page. Hope your weekend was fruitful and fun.
June 8, through June 14, 2005
Smoking & Drinking: cherished industry traditions
The Clothing Broker
Vintage German Patterns
Misc Pattern Tip: trim darts
June 8, through June 14, 2006
The influence of authority
Style Bites
Constructing Sparkle
Management Software pt.2
20 Questions
Fit model’s blog
Sell through guarantees?
Bluff pockets
June 8, through June 14, 2007
How to engage buyers at trade shows
Who do you hang with?
What will become of us? pt.2
Who do you hang with? pt.2
Who do you hang with? pt.3
June 8, through June 14, 2008
Intentional Technical Debt
Japanese dress forms
To pin or not to pin
I.D. and O.D.
Vanity sizing: generational edition
June 8, through June 14, 2009
How to check for nap & one-ways
What to do if a competitor in Asia orders your product
What to do if a competitor orders your product
June 8, through June 14, 2010
Everyone’s nightmare: the investment employee
What’s been up with me for the past 8 months
The difference between a wannabe and a newbie
Keeping stuff can be riskier than getting rid of it
June 8, through June 14, 2011
Beginner’s guide to sewing with industrial machines pt.2
Fit model measurements
Poppy Gall: a designer’s blog
Beginner’s guide to sewing with industrial machines pt.3
Pop Quiz: Fitting the common women’s t-shirt
We used to take my little terrier walking in an area where there were occasionally horses being exercised. The first few times she encountered them she went nuts. One time she was even off-leash and dashed in and barked furiously right at them. I was really impressed that the horses didn’t kick her away and dash off. I probably would have, if I were a horse.
Then one day she switched strategies. She ignored them. When a horse approached on the path she would look studiously off in another direction. “Horse? What horse? I don’t see a horse.” We we very impressed with this creative approach and she earned much praise.
One of the really cool things about being an adult human is that we can choose to make decisions about how to respond to scary things and situations. (Two-year-olds are commonly terrified of dogs, and when that happens one usually has to wait until they are three to teach them how not to be. A terrified two-year-old has no interest in not becoming terrified of dogs, they just want the terrifying dog to GO AWAY, so there’s not much to work with there. Three-year-olds are motivated to learn how to be like the big kids who are cool with dogs.)
Often we don’t take advantage of this ability nearly as much as we could. (I pretty much never do, and one of the reasons I hang out on this blog is to present myself with models of people who take great advantage of it.) It’s interesting to me when I see non-human animals apparently using this kind of meta-cognition.
Curious how needs change. I was reading a selection of short stories from the 1890s and one centered around a police horse’s misbehavior. Those police horses were all ex-cavalry, trained to bite and kick and be aggressive against the criminal on foot, and the police prized that quality (although the hapless protagonist of the story begged to differ). Nowadays the mounted police seem to be peace officers mounted on peaceful beasts.
Just last weekend I saw a demo of my state’s mounted police at the state farm show. I think you’re right that the horses aren’t trained to bite or kick. Instead, the various methods of crowd control that were demonstrated all centered on various formations of the horses. Some were rows of four horses. Others were rows of two. One was a long row advancing on the crowd. Another was a V. Each formation accomplished something different, e.g., splitting the crowd in two, moving the crowd away from something, etc. It was fascinating!