On Sat, Jan 13, 2007 at 08:55:18PM -0800, Judy Ryder wrote: > And it has another effect: > > How do you think he looks to American horsemen when he says "it's not a > pony, it's a horse", and he tries to back up that statement with incorrect > information?
like a non-native speaker, honestly. his accent's not perfect either. > We have some of owners responding to "Cute pony!" that they hear on the > trail, with "It's not a pony, it's a horse!", and the poor people who were > trying to be kind, rolling their eyes and keeping their distance from > Icelandic owners. contradicting compliments is generally considered rude. if i say to someone about their adorable infant, "cute little girl!" and they snap "it's a boy, not a girl!", i kind of roll my eyes and keep my distance too. & i'm quite sure they're right and i was wrong; it's just the manners of the thing. > This all, in turn, reflects on the breed. > > There are about 3,000 Icelandics in the US. They came to the US around the > same time as Pasos and Fjords. Their numbers have jumped! Ours haven't. > > I guess that would be OK; I have no vested interest in whether they are > popular or not, and some people do NOT want them to be popular because then > they would no longer have a "specialty" item; but I bet those who are > breeding bunches of babies care! (BTW, there have been LOTS of herd > dispersals due to over-breeding Icelandics and not having a market to sell > them.) i don't think that icelanders' terms for them are the problem behind this, although i can see icelanders' preference for "horse" from a marketing perspective (see previous message) given that icelandics are not considered generally suitable for kids. --vicka
