Greater than Ben Hur ...

So tonight's movie that the old person borrowed is Ben Hur. It's up to the horse racing scene. Ben Hur's boss said they were the finest horses from Arabia. Alas, not so. Apparently they were actually Lippizzaners - the horses that the use at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna. The Americans rescued the herd at the end of World War II, and kept some to take breed back in the USA. Anyhow, Lippizzaners are always white horses, so they had to use boot polish to make the chestnuts, bays and blacks in the movie. Also, the four abreast chariots were not used. Only two horses, and later only one horse.



There were a few Hippodromes scattered through the Roman Empire, but horse racing wasn't all that popular. The horses, far from being the 15 and 16 hand Thoroughbreds we see today, were more like ponies up to 14 hands. Even the Arabians back then were not as tall as you see today - the original imports in the 19th Century were only ever as tall as 14.5 hands. So speed factors only improved when the Arabians were crossed with more modern Trotters.



I could easily sit here all night talking about the history of modern horses, but I would probably bore you to tears.



My interesting news is that I have joined Second Life. I have an avatar called Anika Bondar. Anika is the feminie of Anikin, who of course was the Jedi warrior before he became Darth Vader. The daughter thought this was apt. Of course, for the true trivia buff, Anika is also the human name of Seven of Nine in Star Trek: Voyager.



I have joined Second Life to participate in some of the education programmes offered there, but also to see if I can't set up some sort of business. Experiment on line to see the reaction for the real world, so to speak. But it is taking a bit of a while to get used to controlling the avatar and someone actually called me a Dag. Moi? I guess a cybergoth fatty would only be described as a dag if I am really honest. I tried to capture a picture of her, but alas it didn't work. Once I get the hang of things, I will upload a picture and you can decide if I am a dag or not.

bye ...