We are having some groundwork done and today the digger pulled up a slab of concrete to big to handle so one of the labourers was asked to give it a w hack with a sledge hammer to break it up more. As a result of the hammering chips were hitting the conservatory window. So straight out of the "Treat em mean, keep em keen" approach to training the most junior apprentice was stood in front of the window as a human shield.
Richard
Ah, but was he made to undress to his boxer shorts before been made to stand there?
Today's apprentice impressed me. 16 years old and still breast IMHO.
But today there were horses. Now I don't like horses (unless they are on the menu) and horses are the only animal I am scared of and they don't like me.
These are race horses - and race horses really are the devil of all horses when it come to behaviour.
Now the big bastard came running up to me (no doubt in an attempt to either kick me, bite me or knock me over). The apprentice called it and went over to him for a stroke and it behaved all nice.
Horses are pretty stupid animals but race horses take the biscuit they are mad as hatters (it's all that inbreeding. EVERY race horse today is descended from four Arabian stallions. And there hasn't been enough time for small changes in their DNA caused by radiation to breed out the stupidity)
Owain
I'd have thought the best plan would be to find an old bit of plywood and rear it up against the window.
Brian
'Luckily' they are very susceptible to 'leaking' underground leccy cables.
They should get some ponies from mongolia or Easter Island to improve the genetics. That would really make them fly.
Put a splodge of birdshit on the chip. When the lady cleans the glass you can be consoling that she has scratched the glass by rubbing to harshly.
They aren't studies have shown they are inteligent, one study where they us edsymbols of a horse with a blanket on it and symbols of a horse without a blanket in it. Then they put blankets on those horses and showed them that sign and they d id the same for no blanket on a hoser the horses worked out that if they wa nted the blanket taken off because they were hot to hit the no blanket sign and visa versa. So thought the summer winter the horse were telliong the s taff whether or not they wanted a blanket over them by hitting on the appro priate panel.
I wish our managment staff understood such things .
?but race horses take the biscuit they
I have no doubt horses can be trained to do many things but they do appear very stupid. I believe this comes from them being prey animals in that they react THEN think of what they should do. They also seem to have no conception of what size they are or where any part of them is hence forever leaning against people and standing on their feet etc.
But did they actually distinguish the shapes or just learn to press the left sign for blanket and the right sign for no blanket?
Owain
I think the people at the Norwegian Veterinary Institute who carried out the study may forgive that insult on the basis that you assumed it was done by some plonker on reporting on YouTube. In their work the horses were invited to choose between various combinations of two boards shown to them at simultaneously in random orders and random places. "Combinations" because there were in fact 3 boards for "put it on", "take it off" and "no change". And they weren't pictures but a vertical bar, a horizontal bar and a blank.
Of course it is only one study and I don't know if later ones have replicated or not their results. But it was a "proper" paper published in a peer-reviewed journal.
y usedsymbols of a horse with a blanket on it and symbols of a horse withou t a blanket in it.
ey did the same for no blanket on a hoser the horses worked out that if the y wanted the blanket taken off because they were hot to hit the no blanket sign and visa versa. So thought the summer winter the horse were telliong t he staff whether or not they wanted a blanket over them by hitting on the a ppropriate panel.
Appearing to be stupid doesn't mean much. I bet man appears pretty stupid t o horse that have known whether they are hot or cold all along and man has been adding or removing things irrespective of what the horses have wanted.
What do you mean by prey animals what animals hunt horses ?
They seem to be able to jump pretty high and perhaps leaning aganst someone or standing on there feet is a sign of domination. Horses can communicate danger amd other things to each other just by moving their ears humans can't.
They recognised the picture of the horse with or without the blanket according to the person that ran the experiment, who was interviewd on This Week in Science.
Any idea when that was? The only thing I can find on
"Horses could indicate whether they wanted a blanket put on or removed by using symbols provided to them by their trainers. It would appear the mammalian brain was set up pretty well before we came along!"
with a link to
It wasn't Norwegian it was UK and last year sometime.
which is pretty fortunate for us, given we're one of the later mammals to evolve.
If our starting point had been a goldfish it would have taken us a lot longer to get to where we are now.
Owain
That's unfair (to goldfish)
Andy
They still only have a memory span of 3 months, no legs, and no opposable thumbs.
Owain
if we'd started with wodney we'd be a lot worse of than starting with fish.
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