Horse Mask
An unfamiliar voice hailed me from the corner table at the restaurant. He was Stephan Nicholas and introduced him that he was a British nationality.
Over the time our conversation touched on various topics. He had separated from his wife and was going through mental turmoil and showed deep emotion when he spoke.
I told him of my conversation with the Scottish lady in my CARE days, how she felt the Scottish people had been treated shabbily by the English rulers in their Scottish land. The Scottish people were very much frustrated by the practice of primae noctus where the newly wed Scottish brides had to spend the first night with the English nobles and high-ranking officials during thirteenth century Scotland.
He said the Scots are descendants of the Celts and related the Celts were a barbarous lot and how from time to time invaded the English lands and abducted the English women and forcibly married them. He went on to say the primae noctus might have been a revenge on the Scottish people by the English nobles. Under the law known as the primae noctus, the medieval noblemen had the right to spend the first night with newly wedded brides in their fiefdoms.
The first recorded instance of the “first night” custom appears in the Epic of Gilgamesh, a historical king of Uruk in Babylonia around 2700 B.C. Gilgamesh, as the king, claims the right to spend the first night with every new bride in Uruk on the day of her wedding; Enkidu, the subhuman brute, enters the city, protests this “abuse,” and blocks the door of a marital chamber until Gilgamesh bests him in a fight. Enkidu’s challenge might be taken as an indication that the custom was already an unpopular one by the time the Epic of Gilgamesh was set down in writing.
First night customs survived in parts of Europe into the middle Ages. Medieval and early-modern travel accounts from India and South America offer reports of prenuptial deflorations of girls by chiefs or priests. These customs go back to the early medieval period and have its roots in the legal condition of unfree people and Germanic marriage customs.
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Uv protective horse mask?
My horse has uveitis in one eye, she had to have that eye removed. She has to wear fly mask with strong uv protection, to protect her one good eye from the uv rays so that she doesn’t get it in that eye. Does anyone know of any good mask with great uv protection?
Oh, and I have used the guardian mask but the bottom of the circle part rubbed her skin off, but it was strong enough so it was perfect besides it rubs her so I don’t want to use it, because I don’t want to hurt her. I have also tried the simple fly mask that you can just get at the local tack or ag store but those are so weak and let too much sun through.
Thank you!
I use both SuperMasks and Caschel Masks. The fleece and double velcro on the SuperMasks do not rub like the guardian and stay on tight. The Cashel’s I use for Horses that have noses that sunburn. They provide very good protection from rays. They do not wear hair either. But their single velcro does not hold on the mask anywhere near as well as SuperMask. Every day I have 2 horses that shed them when they roll. I only have had one SuperMask come off of a horse all summer. We have 7 horses in SuperMasks.
Cashel says their mask blocks 70% of uv and SuperMask by Farnam says 73%.
By the way, my first horse had an eye infection that caused him to go blind in one eye and he still did everything with me including trail riding, 4-H events with my daughter, swimming, etc. Riding him in a straight line took some practice because he drifted to the seeing eye side. In the pasture, he was the watchdog and lead horse. So enjoy your horse even with his disability.
Tom Green in Horse Mask!