#herd behaviour

What makes this genuinely concerning is how openly they show contempt for people who like a fictional figure. If someone cannot respect another person over something this harmless, it shows a mindset capable of far worse once the subject becomes real. That is why their behavior is not just annoying, it is dangerous. A group that attacks fans for harmless preferences is a group that normalizes aggression as entertainment. They praise each other for cruelty, they throw heavy accusations around with no sense of responsibility and they enjoy the feeling of control that comes from shaming someone publicly. This is not passion but a distorted performance that has nothing to do with a healthy community. It is a toxic pattern where emotional instability and childish thinking create real harm for fans who simply want peace, and pointing out this behavior is necessary because ignoring it only allows that hostility to spread and push more people away from a space that should have been welcoming.

And no, we are not attacking you, we are not bullying you, we do not even need to do anything. All we have to do is let you speak and you reveal your own behaviour.

Let these screenshots be the proof.

So two of the dominant mares have lost their positions in their respective herds of late, and both for very similar reasons.

Both of them are mothers who had their foals on the farm, both have kept their offspring at heel and both have had trauma associated with their offspring.

Now the mother/daughter couple are two of the acolytes of Epona. Now though her daughter was around 7 or 8 years old, mum was still letting her udder feed. Mum had weened her daughter off once before, but severe stress brought the behaviour on again. We just let it happen as it seemed to serve as a means of coping with stress (of which, a fair bit had been happening at the time). Mum was content, daughter was content, we weren't going to interfere because of rule 1 (never get between an active parent and their offspring).

Of late however, the two of them have stopped with udder feeding and they're interacting with others in different sub-herds. However, while Mum had been feeding her youngest she was high up in the herd's pecking order, holding a spot at maybe third or forth position (depends on how you count the rogue element in the herd, the pony mare I have come to call Rambo). But now that she isn't nursing her youngest, she (and her daughter, but you get the feeling that alot of her bravado may have come from "stop it or my mum will beat you up") has gone down a lot in rank and isn't fighting quite as much with the others, choosing instead to opt out of fighting rather than hold her ground.

The second mare in our case study is the mother of our current patient, who is recovering from colic surgery.

Now the patient was a bit of a surprise foal. Mum was skin and bones when she was rescued from the abattoir yard and for most of the winter she was rugged and watched over by a third party who wasn't paying a lot of attention to the horses in their care. So it was a surprise to find out that mum was pregnant with the little troublemaker to be. Later on down the line, mother and son were sold off together, but were rather forcefully separated and this wasn't good for them. They were returned to the care of the farm and since that day, mother and son had been inseparable; if you saw one without the other, something was wrong.

So several years later, he's recovered from an infected pedal bone, she's recovered from an torn ligament and cutting part of her eyelid open (and I learnt that sewing buttons can be used as flesh washers) and they're still hanging out together in a very small herd with his adoptive aunt (whose backstory involves losing her foal at the abattoir). The three of them pretty much go everywhere together. Mum and Aunt basically fight over who is in charge, with the poor boy caught in the middle.

Then comes the severe impaction colic. We have to take him to a hospital a couple of hours away for major surgery and our first concern is, of course, Mum. However, during the 5 days he was away, she wasn't overly stressed. (Aunt seemed to take it worse and was the happiest to see him upon his return.) Mum has lost her desire to be top mare, even letting the two newcomers to their small herd push her around. Aunt is now firmly in charge. He is currently on a restricted diet in a stall that she and the others have access to for visits, but during an incident when he got out, it was him who kicked everyone but mum off so they could graze on the round together.

She does seem happy to see her son, but doesn't seem as protective as she once did.

I know mares get protective of their young and we have a few other mother/child pairings in the mega-herd, but none are this driven to be at the top.

It’s raining icepicks on your steel shore

Grunge is NOT dead is back next week – new venue but same grungey music, old and new. Three bands for you to check out: C.lou.d Dogs, Herd Behaviour and Radio Seattle. We gave a debut to this rather fine little song at Ultramega back in July and it might just get an outing next week too, if you ask nicely enough. [facebook url="https://www.facebook.com/shanky.mcbuzcock/videos/1449486601784682/"…

Lost On Radio began as a Podcast back in 2011.  Our aim was to showcase incredible new artists that were being overlooked by radio, or pushed to the late night fringes. During it’s existence the Lost On Radio Podcast attracted listeners from over 80 different countries. It was also broadcast on 7 radio stations in five different…

Hello readers, this will be my first post here on designed economics, with this blog I hope to share ideas that I’ve come across in economics, as well as discussing current affairs. That’s enough for introductions, below is my explanation of a rather interesting economic phenomenon: the bubble.

According to the Mayan calender it’s the end of the world in a few months time. How exciting. It’s not everyday that get you to witness such an occasion. If someone in the know was to say “Adam, you can live till your 80, have kids, a nice life etc or you can die when you are 30, but you get to witness the apocalypse” I’d definitely choose the latter. Well it’s a once in a lifetime experience isn’t it.

Have you ever come across anyone that only eats beige food? I’ve known a couple of people. I’m not judging them on their personality or owt. They are both nice people. But I was thinking about something yesterday. I was watching ‘The Green Mile’ which is a film about death row, and it made me think about what I’d have as my last meal. For me it’s a toss up between prawn sandwiches, a nice salad and chips or a mezze with olives and nice cold meats etc. But what would I have if I only ate beige food? Some bread? Some nuts? Waffles?

What I’m trying to articulate is that I’m trying to work out if we should live our lives to our fullest and try to participate in and enjoy and share new, exciting things or do we just bumble along and never come across any extremes of emotion or experience?

Do we live in the moment and relax? Or do we try to realise our ambitions and become stressed when they don’t come into fruition. Is ignorance bliss? Is it best to follow and not question?

Is it best to be safe in numbers? And is being unique dangerous?

Look at the way prey animals group together to try and keep safe from predators.

They move together as one.

It’s the same if you’re to relate it to groups of humans.

If you were to have an idea that differed from the rest of the flock, and you decided to voice it, the rest of the flock wouldn’t be able to help but be aware of your opinion. You’d divide the flock and suddenly you would be seen from all around. You’d stand out like a sore thumb. You’d suddenly be in potential danger.