Horse Sense
Cidu Bill on Dec 7th 2009
SK: Isn’t that how spurs work? If horses didn’t “mind” them, there’d be no involuntary reflex to go faster. Its not like they want to be prodded by them, anymore then they want to run into a fence. And the horse farms in my area just use bordered fences, no barbed wire. This question is wrong every which way as all the assumptions behind it are incorrect.
Filed in Bill Bickel, Frazz, Jef Mallet, comic strips, comics, horses, humor | 13 responses so far
Snardo Dec 7th 2009 at 09:37 am 1
My impression has always been that barbed wire fencing was used more for “dumb” animals like catttle rather than horses, which, to some extent, can be trained.
To the comment from SK, I imagine you mean board fences rather than bordered fenced, but in any case, it’s likely that there’s some electric fencing associate with the board fencing in order to help give the horses the idea that they really don’t want to be any where near the fence to begin with.
Molly Dec 7th 2009 at 09:45 am 2
SK - that’s probably why he got in trouble for asking it.
furrykef Dec 7th 2009 at 10:08 am 3
Well, horses don’t mind them to the extent that they rebel against whoever is riding them…
Judge Mental Dec 7th 2009 at 10:36 am 4
I thought the notion of “horses don’t mind spurs” being flawed was Caulfield’s whole point. (Well that, and a desire to be a thorn in Mrs. Olsen’s side).
David Dec 7th 2009 at 11:16 am 5
I’m with Snardo, the horses I’ve been around (not a lot, true) are contained with electric fence, which is effective in a smaller area, like a horse corral. The barbed wire I’ve climbed through has been in fences that run for many, many miles, intended as area denial for anything larger than a rabbit. Not an appropriate scale for electric wire.
meerkat Dec 7th 2009 at 12:04 pm 6
I think the context is that people say horses don’t mind spurs in order to support the idea that there is no cruelty involved in using spurs.
chemgal Dec 7th 2009 at 05:56 pm 7
Oddly, the teacher’s earrings look a little like spurs. I just thought this was Caulfield being his usual smart-alec self, plus a pun in the last panel.
Mark in Boston Dec 7th 2009 at 10:13 pm 8
Horses do mind spurs, and barbed-wire fences don’t keep them in. Barbed wire does damage horses, and nobody with any sense uses it for them.
Rainey Dec 8th 2009 at 12:35 am 9
Mark in Boston: It’s not brains that people who use barbed wire for this are missing. It’s a heart.
Matthew Dec 8th 2009 at 10:44 am 10
Horse farms use simple wooden fencing, not barbed wire.
bAT L. Dec 10th 2009 at 03:38 am 11
I believe meerkat nailed this one. I always asked when I was little about spurs and if it hurt the horses. All of the grownups I asked said something along the lines of the horses’ hides being too thick to feel anything. Of course, this would mean spurs would be useless, so it must have been just to qualm my concerns.
Araxie Dec 10th 2009 at 02:35 pm 12
Not unlike oh-so-many people’s claims that lesser animals don’t feel pain. And they survive dangerous circumstances how? Those fish aren’t thrashing around with their eyes bugged out for nuttin’.
David A. Rooney Dec 10th 2009 at 06:13 pm 13
Judge Mental nailed it for this comic. And I’m quite sure that Caufield’s question had nothing to do with the subject matter in class - which makes Chemgal right as well.