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Ah! horses

Hi Doc! Love reading your blog, I found you first through the Lucifer story (reminded me of a friend of mine actually) and then again through your mermaid post and have been hanging around ever since. I looked thru your archive but didn't find this question so hopefully it hasn't been asked before: what is it about horse anatomy that makes their legs so (seemingly) fragile? You'd think being as big as they are, they'd be more all-around solid. Thanks for reading, have a good one!

The horse, Equus caballus, is one of my favorite arguments against Intelligent Design. I’ve spoken before about why I no longer see them, but even as a student I would wonder why and how this species existed when there were apparently so many things that could go wrong with its own anatomy, especially next to something tough like a trusty cow.

I don’t know how it’s possible to believe in a benevolent, loving, wise creator when creatures like the horse come to exist.

So I’m going to use your question as an excuse to write a post that had been on my mind for a while:

Things That Are Wrong With Horses

The basic structure of a horse has a few significant design flaws.

Cannot vomit. This means that anything which would make another species sick enough to vomit results in a horse getting s distended stomach and colic, where the stomach can rupture and the horse can die. Also means symptoms of illness are hidden longer

The large bowel (hind gut) of the horse is fricking huge, but can actually displace itself and bend around the wrong way, resulting in obstruction, colic and death without surgical intervention. This can commonly happen after exertion (splenic contraction) and giving birth. Colic due to nephrosplenic entrapment is particularly common after the horse has an adrenaline release, which causes the spleen to temporarily contract, and this seems like a poor design to risk death every time you spook or go for a fast run, especially in a species known for spooking and running fast.

Giving birth is a fast and explosive affair in the horse. The whole pushing business should be over and  done with in about 20 minutes, however this assumes that everything is lined up just right for a normal delivery. Foals are all long legs and necks, which are easy to get tangled or bent around the wrong way. A mare is strong enough to push her foal’s feet through her uterine wall, which is death all round.

Speaking of strength, sometimes horses will kick each other when they have attitude, and they can do so with enough strength to rupture each other’s spleens.

When galloping most horses, best studied in thoroughbreds because they are made to gallop on a regular basis, horses routinely bash their diaphragm with such force against their liver that their liver bruises.

Galloping also often makes their lungs bleed. That’s why racehorses have their head held up after a race, so you don’t see any blood come out their nose and disqualify them. Even horses that you don’t see bleed have evidence of pulmonary bleeding after a gallop if you scope them.

Their leg bones are actually pretty damn tough, but the ends are spindly little things compared to the mass of musculature up top. Their legs are subjected to huge biomechanical forces when a horse runs which can often subject them to ligament damage and lameness. A fractured leg bone can heal like any other, but if a horse can’t bear weight evenly on all four legs for an extended period of time (eg after a fracture) then they are at risk of laminitis.

Laminitis can cause the hoof to slough off. (Aaargh!) They can also get laminitis from eating a bit too well.

Speaking of eating, they can also get colic (and risk death) from eating not enough fiber or the wrong sort of plants or from eating too much dirt.

Oh, and just to mess with you, horses have a space in their head called a guttural pouch which seems to exist for no other reason as far as I can tell (okay, maybe it’s about heat regulation) other than to get fungal infections that eat through the exposed artery and cause the horse to die from blood loss through it’s nose.

And Bonus: Exquisite sensitivity to tetanus and vulnerability to Hendravirus

This list is by no means complete. I haven’t even touched on their anesthetics or drug reactions, but it’s a simple start.

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drawing Luna and Dusky for a change

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i like this show a lot

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what a terrible fucking app

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In your Jewel redesign, you said that Wasp probably wouldn’t let her get away with full drag, but that does make me curious. What would a dragon in drag would look like?

you will not BELIEVE how much I've thought about this, both during and after designing her. I can answer your question and beyond!!

The (Drag) Queens of Pantala

In order to properly explore Pantalan drag, I first looked to the (cultural) definition of drag itself, as well as learning some brief history. With the first known preformance occurring in 1867 (Although not truly popularized until the 19th century,) Human Rights Campaign and other LGBTQ+ organizations describe drag as a preformance art form that uses costumes, makeup and other tools to illustrate exaggerated expressions of gender identity, intended to critique gender inequality or other social justice issues. Drag has traditionally been preformed/pioneered by members of the LGBTQ+ community, predominantly gay men and/or people of color.

With this in mind, Pantalan drag was most likely created and developed by Silkwings (especially in jewel hive) as a form of protest art. I imagine the movement was later popularized by hivewing audiences, becoming more palatable to the wider public after being endorsed by a privileged group as art movements often are. While there are a myriad of social justice issues Pantalan drag could have originally meant to critique, the loss of Silkwing rights and deforestation of Pantala were probably the two main driving topics.

Their Artistic Process

As for the actual production of drag costumes or makeup, Silkwings would have had to work with what was available to them - fruits, vegetables, basic dyes/craft materials and their own silk. They would construct their own jewelry using beads instead of gold, weave their garments, and grind mica with pigments and oil to make eyeshadow.

Leaves, roots and trees would be frequent design elements of early drag: with the eye-catching glamour of a dragon working to simultaneously distract detractors and seek out supporters. Heavy accessorizing and imagery of wealth would also be important to presenting Silkwings as equal to Hivewings, through metaphorical sense. The processes of creating Pantalan drag is what leads me to believe it would prosper best in jewel hive: outside of their relaxed rules and support of Silk/Hive equality, they would also have easiest access to craft materials, dyes and a lively art scene.. endorsed by Lady Jewel herself.

Just a few thoughts on drag. Thanks for asking this question! I was looking for a chance to spill and you gave it to me ( ´ ▽ ` ).｡ｏ♡

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This joke has been going around in my head for a year.

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which wof character should I draw rn

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hidden in the tags i know but YOU GET IT!!!!!! YOU UNDERSTAND ME 🙏🙏🙏

da darkstalky?

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To give some insight on my design choices,

Darkstalker is a mama's boy. She was green-tinted, so he's green-tinted with a little blue from his dad. A lot of people like to make him purple, but I don't see a reason for him to be purple honestly.

His wings are in the normal location & shape, but thousands of years cramped underground has dispositioned them a little farther back than what's comfortable. They reach forward much like talons to grasp at prey.

His pose is more akin to stalking than other dragons I draw for reference. He's a little bit stuck that way. He can sit up normally (ish), but 2000 years stuck in the same crouched sleeping position will do that to your muscles I fear.

He's much skinnier than healthy NightWings and IceWings. It doesn't show very well because he's a reptile, but if you really pay attention, you can see his ribs. He's missing most of his flight muscle in his chest.

He has humanlike teeth due to years of grinding them anxiously in his sleep and clenching his jaw. He doesn't like it, he thinks they make him less intimidating and less predatory. Other dragons would disagree.

He still has his teardrop scale, but I opted against displaying the silver icewing scales under his wing. They still exist, but it would throw off the composition of the image to force them. He also tries very hard to hide them.

He is roughly three times the size of a jumbo commercial airliner, and crawling out of Agate Mountain opened a crack nearly a mile wide.

da darkstalky?

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da darkstalky?

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found this god tier video i made when i was 15, vividly remember that it blew out my vocal cords

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one of my Turkish snails amongst the shamrock & ivy

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I think you mean to say DRAGON.... ahem /lh

Dragon isn't really written in canon to be the size of a tiger or anything, it only says she's too big for Undauntable to look normal carrying lmaoo

Either way it would be like. Impossible for a person to have a house cat much bigger than that, cats are absolute menaces even at regular size. I think she'd be eating people if she were too much bigger.

Anyway maybe she's just a small breed of dragon-sized cat and dragons love having miniatures

Edit: Came back to this later and realized this might've come off as rude. It wasn't my intention! I appreciate all the comments I get <3

Tui Sutherland hire me to make the Dragonslayer graphic novel and my life is yours /j

(may change Ivy I don't like her clothes all that much)

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Tui Sutherland hire me to make the Dragonslayer graphic novel and my life is yours /j

(may change Ivy I don't like her clothes all that much)

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oh sweetest of wonders

Edit: Guys before anyone goes nuts SHE HAS A MASSIVE system of PVC tubes that go under the sand and through the whole tank, she's just very comfortable and likes to hang out where she can see me and other stuff! :) Lots of places to hide, I'm not forcing her to be out in the open <3

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YES OF COURSE I WOULD LIKE WHAT I FIND!!!!

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wings of fire skywing has such wide eyes. here is my rendition of what i imagine they look like