Visionaire, your detail and photos are fantastic. Thank you for this information.

Thanks Visionaire for addressing two of my biggest riding pet peeves - jumping without a whip and riding unnecessarily without spurs. You can tell Visionaire and I have shared one particular coach in our training history because we were NEVER allowed to jump without a whip, and that has stuck with me to this day. There are only a few one in a million reasons not to carry a whip every time you jump, and I carry it on a horse who has stopped just once in 6 years.

As for spurs, can you imagine what they feel like to a horse to get inadvertently spurred in the side? Until the rider has a strong enough lower leg to ONLY spur the horse when needed and of the right amount, spurs should be avoided at all costs. The "I close my leg and you go forward" communication is the most important one in riding and we shouldn't need metal spikes to get the message across.

Anyone have a suggestion as to what to do if your boots don't have a spur rest? I recently "graduated" to the point where I can and should (and NEED to) use spurs, but to my dismay my boots don't have a spur rest! I have been sure to tighten the straps very well so the spurs aren't slipping, but is there anything else I can do? Or is a spur rest less important than I assume?

bit of britain jockey whips are awesome. just long enough and have that awesome flexibleness!!
I just recently(couple months ago?) graduated to spurs...I feel so special with my spurs on hahaha

And Amanda- i have a pair of blunderstone boots and they dont have spur rests either....i just make sure they're tight enough (as you said you do) otherwise i don't think it really matters as long as thier not slipping around

Thanks, guys! Fortunately the spurs I bought do, indeed, have a rubber covering. I'll just keep making sure the straps are tight. I bought the nylon straps for now, so they are "infinitely adjustable" and I can get them very tight.

(yet another reason eventers are the bomb... advice freely given via the intarwebz!)

good post

He said if trade statistics were adjusted to reflect the actual value contributed to a product by different countries, the size of the US trade deficit with China would be cut in half.

Sheng Guangzu, head of China's General Administration of Customs, told Xinhua in an interview in April that much of China's trade surplus was "transferred" from foreign-funded enterprises operating in China.

In the first 11 months this year, exports of foreign-funded enterprises totaled $779.14 billion, accounting for 54.7 percent of China's total exports, according to China's customs authorities.

The data also showed that, during the same period, foreign-funded firms generated $112.51 billion of trade surplus, accounting for 66 percent of China's total surplus.

"Many foreign enterprises come to China to take the advantage of the low labor cost here. They reap most of the profits while China only gets paid for the processing, however,mercurial vapor, the traditional trade statistics means all the value of the products are credited to China," said Sheng.

BEIJING - Measuring global trade in line with the principle of "the country of origin" fails to reflect the complexities of global commerce where the design, manufacturing and assembly of products involves several countries, experts said.

"It is not always true that goods exported by a country are wholly made by that country," said Tu Xinquan, associate director of China National Institute of WTO at the University of International Business and Economics.

"Therefore, the trade surplus between two countries can not be simply interpreted as one benefiting more than the other from the trade," Tu said.

Using the iPhone as a case, a research paper released by the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI) earlier this month showed that conventional trade statistics greatly inflated bilateral trade deficits between a country used as export-platform by multinational firms and its destination countries.

The paper said trade statistics in both China and the US consider the iPhone a Chinese export to the US,cheap polo ralph lauren, even though it is entirely designed and owned by a US company, and is largely of parts produced in other countries.

The entire $179 estimated wholesale cost of each iPhone is credited to China, while the country is only responsible for the last step of making the iPhones -- assembling, the value of which accounted for just 3.6 percent, or $6.5 of the total cost, according to the paper.

The researchers estimated China's total iPhone exports in 2009 at $2.02 billion. After deducting $212.5 million in Chinese imports for parts produced by US firms, China held a trade surplus of $1.9 billion with the US because of iPhone exports.

However, if China was credited with only its portion of the value of an iPhone, the iPhone export would result in a US trade surplus of $48.1 million with China, according to the researchers.

The case of the iPhone was an excellent example of China's trade relations with other countries, said Zhao Jinping, a researcher with the Development Research Center of the State Council.

"In fact,nike football cleats, 'Made in China' is not only a process where China adds value, but also a value-adding process for other countries," said Zhao.

"The concept of country of origin for manufactured goods has gradually become obsolete," said Pascal Lamy, director-general of the WTO,nike soccer cleats, in a speech to the French Senate in October.

"What we call 'made in China' is indeed assembled in China, but what makes up the commercial value of the product comes from the numerous countries," said Lamy.

"For instance, every time an iPod is imported to the US,polo ralph lauren, the totality of its declared customs value ($150) is ascribed as if it were an import from China," said Lamy,polo ralph lauren shirts, adding that "In fact,soccer cleats, according to American researchers, less than 10 of the $150 actually come from China and all the rest is just reexportation."

Related readings:
 China's trade surplus exaggerated, European trade expert says
 China Economy by Numbers - Nov
 'Made in China' - but for how long?
 Top 10 economic numbers

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