Month: September 2020

Okay, can we take a mid-week pause to talk about something that’s been driving me absolutely batty lately?

Yup, I want to rant. Specifically about when people deliberately tilt advertising photos to make a horse look more uphill (or it some cases, to just make it look balanced and level in general because it’s actually downhill or croup high).

To be fair, this particular thing has always driven me crazy, but I dunno if people have been doing it more and more often, or if I’m just noticing it more. Or maybe I’m just looking at more horse ads this year because what else does one do in 2020 with this extra time online? I’ve been seeing it EVERYWHERE. Sale ads on facebook, auction listings for foals, stallion ads, you name it. This isn’t a new phenomenon by any means, I used to make a game out of going through the COTH stallion editions (back when those were a thing that was really coveted every year) and tilting the magazine to level some of the stallions, but my god. It’s everywhere.

I didn’t want to throw any rando internet people under the bus so I tilted some of my own photos as examples of what I mean.

Gah. WHY. WHY DO PEOPLE DO THIS?

Sometimes it’s purely accidental, and I get that. Unless you’re using a tripod or are very careful/deliberate, humans tend to not take perfectly level photos. And some riding spaces are not perfectly level. But those instances tend to just be slightly unlevel, not massively so, and also… it’s just not that hard to level them. Especially when there’s a clear guide in the background like an arena fence, or if the horse is standing on a flat surface like a road. For the love of all that is holy, level the feet.

I spend a lot of time leveling Foal Friday photos, and my own photos, probably because I’m hyper-sensitive to this. When I actually sat here and thought about it, I came up with two reasons why:

1. It seems disingenuous. A little bit of wonkiness here and there in the photos… ok sure. I can write that off as accidental. But if I’m seeing photo after photo at all kinds of crazy angles where the only thing they have in common is making the horse look uphill, it makes me wonder what else that seller/owner isn’t being 100% honest about.
2. It makes me think that they think I’m stupid. Like… I have eyeballs. I can clearly see that the photo isn’t level. I guess they’re hoping that I’m just gonna look at the horse’s topline and not notice that the front and back feet aren’t anywhere near the same plane? It’s brazen and obvious, assuming or hoping that the person looking at the photo won’t notice.

At least that’s why I’m so deliberate with those Foal Friday photos. No those aren’t ads by any means, and yes all of this years foals are already spoken for anyway, but I’m aware that the farm is still a business and I don’t ever want anyone thinking that the mares or foals are being misrepresented online in any way, even in a very casual setting.

I think what really set me off lately was a couple of online foal auctions where almost every single photo had been tilted to varying degrees. I get it, foals can be butt-high a lot, but a) still not a good excuse to try to cover it up b) when your arena surface or background fence is tilted at damn near 40 degrees, it just looks insane. I’m not even exaggerating, there was one online sporthorse foal auction in Europe in particular where only 3 out of 24 photos had not been tilted at least 20 degrees. It was enough to give you vertigo. And then hot on the heels of that I saw several successive posts on a stallion group with a major tilt to them too. It’s become a second hobby of mine to screenshot the photo and level it to see what it is they’re trying to hide (just like when I see conformation photos of stallions where there’s always grass covering his feet – makes me go hmmm…).

I especially don’t understand it when we live in the age of online videos. Like why the heck did you bother tilting all your photos when I can go play a video that shows the real story? GAH. My favorite is when I see a screenshot that has been majorly tilted, and then see the exact spot on the video where the screenshot came from and it’s perfectly level. Makes me chuckle. Just level your damn advertising photos people! Or at least don’t deliberately tilt them at crazy angles. That’s all I ask.

Does anyone else notice this stuff? Does it drive you nuts too, or is it just me?

Remember how I’ve had a relatively shit last couple weeks, between the anniversary of my mom’s passing, and her birthday, and my grandma dying of covid on my mom’s birthday, etc etc? Yeah while, Friday it got just a wee bit worse. The cherry on top of my shit sundae, if you will.

I was on my way to the barn, on the highway, when the person in front of me slammed on their brakes (they didn’t know where they were going, apparently). I almost managed to stop in time, but not quite. I barely tapped them, not enough to set off the airbags or even jostle me more than a bump would, but their tailgate was down on their tiny little truck. So wham, that thing just stabbed right through my bumper. I pulled over onto the first cross street and saw fluid absolutely pouring from the bottom of my truck. Super. Awesome. Naturally, their tailgate had the world’s tiniest dent in it.

I will say though, my insurance company and technology made everything super easy. It’s been like 10-11 years since I had a vehicle issue that required insurance involvement/a tow (that time I ran over something that fell off a construction truck), and boy have things changed. Everything is on the app, and trackable, and happens much more quickly. I called and made the claim, I had a tow truck in about 20 minutes, they took me/my truck to a shop near my house while I ordered a rental on the insurance app, and the Hertz guy came and picked me up from the body shop within 15 minutes. Modern times. They are amazing.

Something related to the AC was destroyed, and possibly the radiator is cracked. They said 1.5-2 weeks to get it all fixed up. In the meantime I have a little Nissan Altima rental, which is fun in some ways (I forget how much manhandling my truck requires until I drive something that’s very light and responsive) but when all you’ve driven for 5 years is a truck or an SUV, it’s quite alarming to have your ass like 2 feet off the ground. Especially in Texas, where everyone drives a truck or SUV. I definitely miss my truck already. I was thinking of taking Presto on another adventure to Pine Hill this weekend but clearly that’s not happening now. Hopefully it gets fixed up quickly and well, and hopefully that was the 3rd shitty thing of “bad things happening in threes” because I am about at max freakin capacity.

In better news, the pressure washer came, and I got to play with it over the weekend. Gotta say, if you’re having a shit couple weeks, I highly recommend finding some things to pressure wash. It’s cathartic as hell.

I started with a couple saddle pads and a girth, then moved on to the deck, then the deck chairs, then the side of the house, then a planter and a pot… it was getting out of control. No one really told me how freaking fun and rewarding it is to literally watch the dirt just peel away from everything you point it at. It’s like a drug. Gimme more of that sweet sweet pressure wash.

Nothing is going to be safe around me ever again now that I know about this. My saddle pads look awesome, it got out some of that deep, set-in dirt that’s been stuck in there for a while. And my girth, omg. Just washing it, it still never quite comes out looking totally clean, and there’s always lots of hair stuck all in it. It blasted almost all of it right out, it looks practically brand new now. I think the horse’s boots will be my next victim. After that, maybe the trailer. The possibilities are endless…