Do scientific discoveries about animals lead to less experimentation, or more?

Lately there have been a lot of "findings" demonstrating how animals really do have emotions and problem-solving skills and all these other things we (read: idiot scientists) never thought they did.  Of course, animal lovers always knew there was much more going on in their brains than science would acknowledge, even if we risked being accused of anthropomorphizing if we said so.

And now, there are articles out all the time, highlighting studies that show animals displaying jealousy, grief, empathy, memory, and all kinds of other things.

But this article points out that, rather than making us experiment on animals less (since it's obviously cruel if they are capable of all this), it's actually having rather the opposite effect.

The Role Of Science In A Push For Animal Liberation
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Sick days and more rain

I got sick on Friday and had to cancel a bunch of plans, including a lesson and plans to take V. to the barn to ride over the weekend.  I spent nearly the entire weekend in bed instead.

I was hoping the weekend in bed would have nipped it in the bud, but no such luck -- I'm still sick, perhaps having backslid once I had to start getting up early again.

We're also getting more rain here in Denver, so I've canceled my plans to ride with friends this evening -- with me not being fully well yet, I don't think it's a good idea for me to be out there in the cold and damp when I'm also exhausted and sick.
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Spring storms and blanketing

We've had a lot of rain all week, and tonight it turned to snow.  We're supposed to get five to nine inches overnight.  The horses are of course nearly down to their summer coats now, so they're all tucked into their blankets.  (I had my boys in rain sheets all week too, so that they wouldn't be wet and cold, especially when it came time to blanket for the snow.)

I know lots of people have different opinions about blanketing, but it irritates me when people don't realize that the horses don't have the same ability to stay warm during these spring storms as they do during, say, January, when they have full winter coats.
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Another non-horsey neighborhood resists horses

Shocker, right?

This article is a few weeks old at this point, but I've been meaning to post it since I saw the headline:

Some Colorado Springs residents aim to stop Broadmoor's stable project

Anyone from the area knows that the Broadmoor is a Colorado landmark, a gorgeous hotel in Colorado Springs that's been there for over a hundred years now.  They have golf courses, restaurants, and basically all the luxuries of a top notch resort.  They'd like to add horseback rides to that list of luxuries, especially located where they are, but of course everyone in the neighborhood is complaining.
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My first riding lesson in a while

Panama and I had a riding lesson on Friday with a new instructor -- someone who has taught at the barn for some years, but whom I haven't used before.  I thought I'd try a few lessons with her though to see what I think.

Of course, Panama and I haven't had lessons in a year, and we're out of shape to boot.  So going into the lesson, I wasn't sure what we were going to want to work on, but I knew I wanted to get us into shape.  I figured goals would materialize as we went, as I was right.
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