Pony birthday!

[altivo]

All equines share the same birthday, January 1. Well, yes, their registration papers do show the actual date of foaling, but they are considered to be a yearling when their first new year (by the calendar) arrives. Breeders try to make sure that their foals are born early in the year for this reason.

So... Happy birthday to all my horse, pony, donkey, and zebra pals. I guess that includes the unicorns too unless you identify yourselves with goats instead of equines.

Since my RL birthday is in December, it's a good thing our schools and human institutions don't apply the same rule. I'd have been a year old just a couple weeks after I was born. ;p

Holidays finally starting to slow down. Took Gary's mom home this afternoon, now we are left to make our own schedule until Tuesday when I have to go back to work. May do something tomorrow, or may just laze around home. Only animal care chores are mandatory, everything else is optional.

Weather is non-committal. We've had rain, sleet, snow, and a little ice in the last 24 hours, while temperatures hovered just above or below freezing. Wind has been on the rise for the whole time though, and is around gale force now. We've had noisier windstorms though, with hours of 55 mph wind that really roars through the trees, so this seems relatively mild. Gary worries about losing power, but we're used to that as well and can manage as long as the outage doesn't exceed a day or so. (Longer than that, too, but it stops being "fun" after 24 hours.)

Comments

[avon_deer]

Why is that?

[altivo]

See frith's answer below. ;D

[schnee]

I'm just curious, is there any reason for this? It sounds like there's disadvantages to it, but no corresponding advantages to make up for them.

[frith]

It sounds like a convention designed to solve arguments as to how old a horse is when entering it in a derby. Other wise you could enter a horse as a two year old in one race and the next day, surprise!, enter it as a three year old in the next race. No one knows what day the horse was born besides the owner, so while you may be able to guess the age of the horse within a year by looking at its teeth, the actual foaling date can be used as a means to enter horses in races where age is an advantage. So, all horses born on January 1st means that no horse changes from x year old to y year old in any given year.

Do I pass?

[schnee]

*s* Yes. Thanks for the explanation!

[altivo]

I think this is at the heart of it. Not only racing, but buying and selling horses, breeding, and training all rely on conventions that require agreement about the age of the animal in question. Since the horse himself can't tell you, and you have only the owner's word, this convention grew up.

Looking at the teeth gives a fairly accurate estimate of age for the first ten years or so, but assigning an arbitrary date of January 1 allows everyone to agree on the age of a given individual.

And for about 350 days of each year, 'Tivo is considered to be a year older than he actually is. ;p

[avon_deer]

Thanks. I was curious myself.

[hrrunka]

When it comes to schooling in the UK there's a line drawn at the beginning of September, so kids with August birthdays can be at a severe disadvantage when compared with kids born in September (extrapolate as appropriate). However, there's just a bit of flexibility, and particularly disadvantaged kids may be "held back a year"...

[altivo]

US schools have similar issues. When I started school in the early 1950s, we had a six month division of the year. Consequently I began school not in September but in February.

This makes sense for all sorts of reasons, but has been eliminated in most if not all public schools here because "it's too confusing" or "it costs too much." I doubt it cost that much, but I guess Americans really have dumbed down to the point where they need total simplicity and absolute black and white rules.

The half-year system went away for me during the summer between the first half and second half of 3rd grade. The schools would have automatically made me repeat all of 3rd grade, but my mother made such a fuss that they put me forward into 4th grade instead. While that worked academically, since I was already a year or more ahead of my peers in most areas, it was a social disaster. Always a target for bullies, but beginning that year and right up into high school, I was the youngest by far and usually the smallest in my class. You can imagine the result, probably.