Do Horses Prefer Female Riders to Male?

“He’s a woman’s horse.” “Women are more sensitive riders – they’re much better at handling horses.” How often have you heard  this? I think the Victorian era might be the period when this notion became established. Writers like Trollope believed that “rarely [do men] have such hands as a woman has on a horse’s mouth.” …

The Pre-Evolution Of My Little Pony

The Huffington Post have a  great slideshow showing the evolution of MLP from the babyish but still equine Cotton Candies of the early 1980s to the bizarre-o “Equestria Girl” of 2013, a new model that’s an even stranger mutant than the hideous “Struts, fashion-forward ponies” that were unveiled and then disappeared a few years ago. …

Whole Heap of Little Horse Links

The US Equestrian Federation has finally – yes, FINALLY – banned the chains, weighted shoes, pads, collars and rollers used to produce the monstruous “big lick gait. Good news for the beleagered Tennessee Walking Horse. (The Horse) This week was, mercifully, a week in which images of Shetland ponies wearing woolly jumpers flooded the internet. …

If Wishes Were Horses: March of the Pink Hooves

Pink pink pink at Olympia in 2006, although I was too mesmerised to get any good shots of the showjumping. The NYT piece by Peggy Orenstein that I mentioned in the chapter is here, and you can see photos of the horrible, “sexy” Struts pony toys on Princess Sparkle Pony’s blog. Thank you to Dominique …

Empowerification Through Princess Pony Primping!

Pony Royale, a new girls line starring beautiful princess ponies, steps onto the red carpet of the toy world – the fashion doll aisle – bringing a fresh new approach to princess play in the fashion doll category. Pony Royale combines girls favorite play patterns – hair play, fashion play and nurturing play – to …

Rounding up the Bronies

I’ve kept a weather eye on the “Brony” phenomenon (male geeks who love My Little Pony cartoons) and even done a post about it, although I’m not as excited as the rest of the media who keep bronies constantly in the news and all over the blogosphere. These stories piqued my interest though, so here’s …

Children’s Party Chic for the Over-Achieving Pony Mother

Blimey. Have a look at the attention to detail and sheer effort that went into creating this “shabby chic vintage pony party“. I remember Horse and Pony magazine’s tips for a pony party that included oat-based treats and carrot sticks. I bet my mum’s glad I didn’t see anything like this when I was eight.

Bros and (My Little) Ponies and Satanism

The “brony” phenomenon continues apace. Here’s a high school graduation speech inspired by the My Little Pony movies. Meanwhile, local TV in the US debates the moral content of the pink ponies: I freely admit to knowing nothing about gaming, but even I’ve picked up the fact that a marquee-name game called Skyrim has just …