I love equine pokémon a Normal Amount

Hiii! I'm Rosalind (she/they), a trainer and pokemon riding instructor from Unova! I used to have one of these Rotomblr blogs when i was like 13, deleted it, and decided that I might as well come back considering the state of the world and internet.

I love watching all sorts of pokemon sporting events especially those that involve riding pokemon, and am pretty partial to racing events! I do actually compete on occasion in some western rapidash riding events (smaller local amateur stuff) and used to do some ponyta racing stuff when I was younger, but I'm mostly a pleasure rider/ride for my job. I am completely normal about rapidash and can be trusted to infodump about them. Come closer.

I'm very proud of my two rapidash. Vulcan is an Unovan quarter horse, and Cookie is an Unovan paint horse. Mac, my herdier, is is a mix between a couple different breeds and I love him very much, I am just a horsegirl at heart and will never stop being one </3

//OOC Below The Cut

the old legend is that there was this big meteor that crashed nearby and contained a terrifying monster that would attack and eat people. eventually they built the wall around the town to keep the monster out, and a bunch of rules and traditions started with the idea of protecting people from being taken and eaten by the monster, like not being allowed to go out at night. its not technically against the law to go out at night anymore, and most people here claim not to believe the old legends, but also we're not going to go outside at night unless we really have to just incase. you never know.

im pretty sure only galar has a set gym order but thats more cause of their weird way of doing gyms and everything.

while most are not native to unova, plenty of equine pokemon and pokemon that serve similar roles are all over the place here, mostly due to zebstrika just not having a good temperment for things like riding or being used as a work horse, so there are plenty of mudsdale here!! i haven't worked with them much, there's not really any at the stable i work with (most of the horsemon at my stable are for riding, rather than work or driving, so they're pretty much all rapidash) but i have gotten the chance to interact with a few. generally they're gentle giants if trained well, but they can be stubborn, and with them being even bigger than rapidash with all that heavy mud on their hooves, they can definitely be dangerous if you freak them out or get on their bad side. i've also seen a couple mudsdale owned by trainers travelling to unova for battling competitions, but not really interacted with them, and I'd imagine a pokemon trained primarily for battling has a completely different temperment than one trained for work.

i got vulcan as a rapidash as a gift from my parents when i graduated highschool. id already been working with and riding members of the line since i was a kid and even raced ponyta, but i hadn't actually owned (as in registered under my trainer id) any of the rapidash i was riding until that point. i can't remember all the details of his purchase rn, id have to dig for stuff and ask my mom but i do know he was around 7ish years old and was already trained for the most part.

generally rapidash and ponyta's flames aren't actually that hot unless they're being used for self defense. if you have a close bond, they trust you, and they aren't particularly spooked in that moment, their flames don't burn. its more a comfortable warmth, like being under a big blanket. it can get a little uncomfortable after a while and can actually cause some heat damage over time if you aren't careful and ride for too long, but a calm, well trained rapidash or ponyta that trusts you won't light you ablaze. usually.

this does not mean they never do actually burn riders. this can actually be quite common if one isn't trained properly, uses a move while being ridden, or gets spooked. most riding gear is at least fire resistant, or even fireproof if possible. its also all pretty much natural fibers if it's not fire proof so that it doesnt melt onto your skin if it catches fire.