A common public fret is that social media is destroying the fabric of society. You’ve undoubtedly seen an image of two people – usually teens – seated together but each intent on a mobile device. The implication is that these hand-held hypnotizers are preventing the two individuals from engaging each other in enriching bonding activities.
Bullshit.
There’s a good chance that they are texting friends, maybe making plans for a party later on, maybe sharing minutiae of the day. Why shouldn’t they? Why not interact with people who are important to you than with whatever random hunk of protoplasm fate has seen fit to plunk down beside you?
For example, I spent several days last week watching on online friend* ride in the UPHA Chapter 5 Horse Show in Kansas City, MO, over 700 miles from my house. Ahead of time, she let us know the livestream website and her classes. I was able to wish her good luck before her ride. I watched her ride in realtime, including checking out the strength of the competition. Afterwards, I was able to congratulate or commiserate as appropriate. She was kind enough to post a brief recap of the class from her point of view. Was the experience any less real for not sharing the same cubic space?
We don’t live in caves any more. We don’t rely on our neighbors to scare off the tigers and hunt the mammoths. Why not seek out kindred souls at a distance? Why not chose friends by inclination rather than by geography?
(*Per my standard operating procedure [At Least I Got A Blog Post Out Of It:Names], I have defaulted to anonymity. The individual in question may fess up in the comments if so desired.)
The first five people to comment on this post will receive a gift from me sometime this calender year! … The catch is you must make the same offer on your own page …. Offer applies worldwide – I will post anywhere! … To keep it simple, I’ll Pay it Forward for the first five comments on this blog – not on my Facebook page, Twitter account or on Haynet.
Rodney’s Saga Rewards might consist of
* A nice print if I struck it lucky with a photo this year.
* A bibelot at the intersection of LEGO and horses (I just finished four days of BrickFair).
* Ditto books and horses.
* A Spotted of your own, particularly if you live somewhere exotic relative to me (Eastern US) and are likely to retaliate with a Spotted At … photo.
Has there been a better age for armchair travel? Today, a look at how the Spanish Riding School is keeping their white horses in kibble. Ellen Broadhurst, author of The Chronicles of the $700 Pony [Half Halt 2006] & The Further Adventures of the $700 Pony [Half Halt 2008], is living the ex-pat life and touring the world with her family. Welcome Ellen:
Lipizzaner Als Trauzeugen!
Translation: “Lipizzaner as Groomsman!” For your wedding. Listen, these horses are expensive to maintain, so consider it a donation to a worthy cause should you decide to go this route.
Now you can tie the knot in the Spanish Riding School! Celebrate your wedding in the sumptuous lounge bar or in the impressive baroque Winter Riding School Renaissance courtyard. When organizing your dream wedding, we are very glad to help you!
I suspect it might be cheaper to purchase one of the Not Ready for Prime Time horses than it would be to use the facility for your wedding. I was trolling the Piber website (Piber being the Lipizzaner Stud) vaguely wondering if it was worth taking a day to go see the babies before we leave Austria, and decided to check out the”for sale” page for, you know, research.
There are no geldings, and only two stallions available for sale at the moment, but a host of mares (link to sale pages). One of the stallions is a “price available on request” dude, so no idea if that’s because he’s so awesome, or if he’s cart horse material, but the other fellow, one who is noted as being currently in training at the Spanish Riding School, is only €12,000 (about $16,600 US). Not including shipping, of course. That’s out of my price range, but it seems like a bargain if you are shopping for that sort of thing.
Fête Impériale
As with having the Lipizzaners join your wedding party, the ultimate goal is to support the riding school financially:
The net proceeds from the Fête Impériale will not only help to protect Europe’s oldest cultural horse breed but to preserve the quality of the Spanish Riding School. Enjoy a glittering evening under the stars to ensure that the Lipizzan Stallions continue to dance.”
The Ball Season in Vienna is January to March, so there aren’t a ton of summer balls. One imagines they do this one in the summer because at this point they will have sent the stallions off to their summer holiday in Heldenberg. The stallions are gone during July and August, although the Riding School does a program they call “Piber Meets Vienna.” Piber is of course the stud where the babies are born.
The ball this year is on Friday, June 27; tickets are not surprisingly a bit pricey, but if you are going to go to any ball, why not support the horses? For €180 (per person, to be clear), you get entry to the ball, but no table, plus an invite to a cocktail reception and access to all of the cash bar/buffet action. If you skip the cocktail party, you can get a ticket for as little as €120. Tables run more (a lot more), but if you are really interested, you can check out ticket options here: Fête Impérial Tickets.
Or, buy one of the mares. She’s way cheaper than a table.
This is where they live during the performance year. Are you wondering about the tables? It’s because the upcoming Fête Impériale. Photo by Ellen BroadhurstI love how Balls are advertised all over Vienna: on billboards. Photo by Ellen Broadhurst
At the last show, my waistband was held together with pins and I had to button my vest after I got on. My show clothes had shrunk over the winter. They seemed to have stretched back out. [Georgia] [Motivation]
I brought a stylus to the show specifically so that I could tweet with gloves on between classes. While I had plenty of time (note the time stamps), I also had to hold my valiant steed.
No trouble driving past the NASCAR track despite being race weekend. We assumed the helicopters we saw meant that the race was still on. The race fan in my family tells me that the race was well over by then. The helicopters were drivers leaving the track. Either way, we slipped right past. The real horror show is Sunday night when the track empties after the last race.
Virtual Brush Box 