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Thoughts from Places: On a Horse

2010-11-23 · Hank · watch on YouTube · Science & nature · explainer learning

Riding a tame horse named Jewel near Asheville, Hank explains that horse domestication probably happened once, through horses' social hierarchy, and was a leap on the order of the industrial revolution; he argues horses have changed humans as much as we changed them.

What is said

00:00:00 — Greeting; waking at 10 a.m. Eastern; Thoughts from Places mornings; going for 'the original ride'; piggyback question

  • ★★ Hank says he woke at a leisurely 10 a.m. Eastern (8 a.m. Montana time) and went horseback riding, 'the original ride'. — 00:00:00 · Montana
  • ★ Hank asks why it is called piggyback riding, says everyone knows the answer, and asks viewers to tell him. (playful) — 00:00:00
  • ★ The description says the video was filmed in Fairview, North Carolina, outside Asheville. — 00:00:00

00:00:29 — On Jewel, a small tame horse, who gets spooked and runs into another horse

  • ★★ Riding Jewel, a small, very tame horse, Hank says something spooked her and she ran straight into another horse, which scared him; it is about his third time riding. — 00:00:29

00:00:58 — Saddle soreness; how horse domestication probably happened once, for food, through horses' social hierarchy; beasts of burden as a leap like the industrial revolution

  • ★ Hank says despite the saddle his legs, knees, hips, butt and back hurt: 'give or take 90%' of his things. (playful) — 00:00:58
  • ★★★ Hank says horse domestication probably happened only once, in one place, and within a thousand years had spread everywhere it could. (hedged) — 00:00:58
  • ★★ Hank says horses, like almost all domesticated animals except dogs and cats, were originally domesticated for food. — 00:01:27
  • ★★★ Hank says horses' complex social structure leads foals raised by people (after their parents were killed for food) to put humans at the top of their hierarchy, which is probably how domestication happened. (hedged) — 00:01:56
  • ★★★ Hank says before 4000 BC all work for humans was done by humans; using beasts of burden was a leap on the order of the industrial revolution or the internet. — 00:02:21
  • ★★ Hank says horses changed how people worked, travelled and fought wars: a rider could kind of be a ten-foot-tall, four-footed being that runs fifty miles per hour and carries thousands of pounds. (playful) (hedged) — 00:02:50

00:03:20 — The horse-human relationship: we changed horses and they changed us; 'I'm not a horse'; sign-off

  • ★★ Hank says the bond between horse lovers and horses is unlike any relationship he has had, and is bred into the genes of both horses and horse lovers. (hedged) — 00:03:20
  • ★★★ Hank argues it is ridiculous to think we changed horses so much without realising that they have changed us a lot too. (hedged) — 00:03:20

Humor (significant)

  • Listing kinds of rides, Hank asks why it is called piggyback riding. — 00:00:00 > «I'm not a piggy.»
  • Hank's saddle is designed to make your butt feel good, yet his legs, knees, hips, butt and back all hurt. — 00:00:58 > «Let's just go ahead and say that give or take 90% of my things were hurting.»
  • Hank says the first rider probably wasn't some dude with a death wish hopped up on wild mushrooms chasing a horse. — 00:01:27 > «jumping on it and being like, I'm a horse rider!»
  • Hank suggests the first person to bond with a horse might have been a young woman. — 00:01:56 > «because everyone knows that young boys don't get obsessed with ponies. Ever. No.»

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