Hippology, the non sequitur study of the preposterous pony-or something of the sort. Hippology. It sounds like it deals with hippos, perhaps the study of hippos. Maybe an odd offshoot of Anthropology, selling hipster attire to the overly indulgent hippo. But alas, it is not!
So what is this “hippology” business? Beyond this blog the word hippology means “the study of the horse.” This makes sense when the word is broken down into its Greek roots. “Hippo” translates to “horse” and “ology” means “the study of.” Hippology: the study of the horse. That brings us back to hippos. Shouldn’t horses be called hippos and hippos be called something, anything else?
Hippopotamus can also be broken down into directly translated greek roots. As mentioned before “hippo” is horse-already hippos seem to be horse related. “Potamus” in Greek means river. Hippopotamus: river horse. It’s easy to see why they would garter such a name and why ancient Greeks thought they must be related in some way. The reality is far different. Hippos are more closely related to whales than horses! Horses are related more closely to Rhinos than hippos. Yet, even still, I refer to my horses as hippos and not just due to some of their weight. It makes for fun teasing at meal time to call them “hungry, hungry hippos.” Albeit I’m not inaccurate when calling them hippos, at least according to the ancient Greeks.
That very word explanation brings us to the point of this blog. To the non sequitur study of the preposterous pony. I was raised by a horse loving, neigh, horse obsessed mother and I followed right along in her footsteps. Along the adventure that has been horsemanship the two of us have learned many things; made mistakes; made the best decisions. We have shared adventures with our horses, some funny others difficult. There have been tricks we’ve picked up along the way, tidbits of advice we wish someone had shared with us, and other little useful musings. All things we are happy to share, to pass long, in a sometimes non sequitur manner centered around those horses, those preposterous ponies, my mom and I love so much.
-R