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Glossary entry

English term or phrase:

pouring (Australia)

English answer:

pawing (the ground): homophonic spelling mistake

Added to glossary by Gabrielle Leyden
Mar 21, 2012 10:00
12 yrs ago
English term

pouring

English Other Livestock / Animal Husbandry Australian term
Things not to do if you want to avoid quarter cracks and remain on good terms with your farrier: "leave a horse POURING in the cross-ties bay"

Does the guy mean "with blood gushing out of a wound" or does pouring mean something else "down under". In the latter case, I need a British or American equivalent.

TIA!

Gabrielle
Responses
4 +3 pawing (the ground): spelling mistake

Discussion

Charles Davis Mar 21, 2012:
@Gabrielle Of course! It hadn't occurred to me that Americans pronounce "pouring" properly :) But in British English it sounds exactly like "pawing", and I'm pretty sure Australians say it the same way. It would be nice to get an opinion from an Australian.
Gabrielle Leyden (asker) Mar 21, 2012:
pouring Charles, the "pouring the ground" examples you found are quite convincing. "Pouring" and "pawing" are not homophones for me, so the connection was not obvious. "Pouring with sweat" makes absolutely no sense in this context (I'm a biologist by training, have had horses for 30 years, and have been translating in the field of farriery for about 10 years, so I do understand the topic). The article's not very literary, but otherwise the spelling is ok. I'll just wait for someone in Australia to confirm the only thing that makes sense. (And pawing, with or without shoes, is not good for the hooves and limbs.)
Charles Davis Mar 21, 2012:
Here's another: "Just because a horse is pouring at the ground doesn't always mean they are bored or annoyed for being tied up,,check for heat in the legs."
http://www.horseproblems.com.au/Archives/g.htm
Charles Davis Mar 21, 2012:
@Gabrielle Another possibility, which would not involve a spelling mistake, is that it could mean "pouring with sweat". But I think "pawing the ground" is much more likely in this context because it's concerned with the horse's feet. Pawing is one of the prime causes of quarter cracks:

"Now big cracks, you have toe cracks and quarter cracks. They can be caused by pawing, improper hoof balance, too much flare or a rock."
http://blog.farrierfletcher.com/2011/07/04/hoof-cracks.aspx

I can't rule out some other special Aussie meaning, and maybe somebody will come up with one, but I haven't found one.

As I said in my answer, I don't think Aussies are particularly bad at spelling, but many English speakers have trouble spelling homophones. I've given some Aussie examples in my answer.
Catharine Cellier-Smart Mar 21, 2012:
we'll wait and see what some of our Aussie colleagues think, although it's starting to be pretty late in the day for them.
Gabrielle Leyden (asker) Mar 21, 2012:
capitals I used upper case letters to focus absent-minded readers. Pawing is a possibility. Would an Aussie write "pouring" for "pawing"? But might "pouring" or "poring" be some sort of slang term in Australia for some other behaviour? That is my question!
Catharine Cellier-Smart Mar 21, 2012:
Pawing the ground? What's the English like in the rest of your document? Could you this be a mistake for "Pawing"? (see for example http://en.allexperts.com/q/Horses-Behavior-Issues-3329/Pouri...
P.S. Are capital letters yours, or in the original document?

Responses

+3
13 mins
Selected

pawing (the ground): spelling mistake

I see Catherine has suggested this just as I was about to post. Everything points to this. Farriers are people who attend to horse's feet. A quarter crack is a crack in the hoof. "Cross tie" means securing the horse for attention. If it paws the ground (ie. runs its hoofs along the ground, probably because it is agitated and distressed at being cross-tied), it may well damage its hoof, especially since it is presumably unshod at the time.

Plenty of people have problems spelling the homophones "Pour" "paw" and "pore", and not particularly in Australia. Here are seven examples from Australia of "pouring the ground", all of which should read "pawing the ground":

https://www.google.es/search?num=100&hl=es&lr=&cr=countryAU&...

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 57 mins (2012-03-21 10:57:55 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

I should be more careful when commenting on other peoples' mistakes: I meant to write "Farriers are people who attend to horses' feet". "Runs its hoofs along the ground" is not wrong, but the plural of hoof is more commonly "hooves".
Note from asker:
Thanks, Charles. I'll try to remember absent/present "r"s the next time I'm stumped!
Peer comment(s):
agree Martin Riordan : A fine example of the Internet "legitimising" mistakes.
11 mins
Yes indeed. But it's also useful for finding which mistakes people tend to make. Thanks, Martin!
agree B D Finch
38 mins
Thanks, Barbara (if I may).
agree Ty Kendall : POUR / PAW / PORE / POOR ....in this case, it should definitely be "paw". (I live on a farm) - Sheep do it when they're about to give birth and horses do it for any number of reasons - in this case: frustration.
1 hr
Thanks for the first-hand confirmation, Ty!
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "It's all in the pronunciation! Thanks!"
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