Utterly amazing. Work safe, child friendly:

http://beboframe.com/FlashFrame.jsp?...xId=3309347442

Kathleen wrote in news:zg3Wh.11$jj6.4
@newsfe03.lga:

Utterly amazing. Work safe, child friendly:

http://beboframe.com/FlashFrame.jsp?...xId=3309347442



Two things are now official

1) Annie actually IS a teeny Dressage Horse

and

2) I have now seen everything

Tara

Tara wrote in
4.196:

http://beboframe.com/FlashFrame.jsp?...xId=3309347442

Y'know, dogs' tails go roundy-round when they're happy. Horses' tails go
roundy-round when they're UNhappy. BH Matine is a brilliant mare and a
super dressage horse, but that video hurts my eyes.

Mary Healey wrote in
.4:

kathleen, not Tara wrote:
http://beboframe.com/FlashFrame.jsp?...xId=3309347442

Y'know, dogs' tails go roundy-round when they're happy. Horses' tails
go roundy-round when they're UNhappy. BH Matine is a brilliant mare
and a super dressage horse, but that video hurts my eyes.

Sorry, wrong attribute.

Mary Healey wrote in
.4:

Y'know, dogs' tails go roundy-round when they're happy. Horses'
tails go roundy-round when they're UNhappy. BH Matine is a
brilliant mare and a super dressage horse, but that video hurts
my eyes.

The roundy-round tail was a big freakin' clue that Buck was about
to chomp you. And chances were, you deserved it. He could be a
pain in the arse--literally--but he *did* have an effective way of
handling stress. I really do miss him sometimes.

--
Shelly
http://www.cat-sidh.net (the Mother Ship)
http://esther.cat-sidh.net (Letters to Esther)

Colour is my day-long obsession, joy and torment.
-- Claude Monet

Mary Healey wrote in
.4:

Tara wrote in
4.196:

http://beboframe.com/FlashFrame.jsp?...xId=3309347442

Y'know, dogs' tails go roundy-round when they're happy. Horses' tails
go roundy-round when they're UNhappy. BH Matine is a brilliant mare
and a super dressage horse, but that video hurts my eyes.

Ok, so I went back and looked at it again with what you guys are saying in
mind. I can see *some* rough flicking during particularly challenging
moves, but a lot of the flicking is exactly in time with the music. I found
myself wondering if this wasn't due, in part, to either a trained response
or to a natural offshoot of concentrating on the steps.

I have a client that has done extensive dressage in the past, but she's far
too busy for me to bug her with this question right now (and BOY do I want
to bug her with it!), so I'm going to have to wait a maddeningly long time
for her input.

So, instead I went A-Googling for "dressage tail flick". The first
discussion that I found was exactly about this sort of thing (whoda thunk),
and if it don't beat all, they ended up discussing this very horse, with a
link to an altogether different performance. I'd be interested to see what
some of you think about their discussion.

http://www.chronicleforums.com/Forum....php?p=1909146

Tara

"Mary Healey" wrote in message
.4...
Tara wrote in
4.196:

http://beboframe.com/FlashFrame.jsp?...xId=3309347442

Y'know, dogs' tails go roundy-round when they're happy. Horses' tails go
roundy-round when they're UNhappy. BH Matine is a brilliant mare and a
super dressage horse, but that video hurts my eyes.

I wonder if the horse was unhappy not about what it was doing per se (the
various movements), but about the location, with the audience and PA system.

Seems like it would be hard to train a horse to find that type of thing
"normal" to the point where they would be blase. I guess if you competed
nearly every week, eventually they would get to that point. It'd take a lot
of time though.

flick 100785

"flick" wrote in
:

"Mary Healey" wrote :
kathleen wrote :

http://beboframe.com/FlashFrame.jsp?...xId=3309347442

Y'know, dogs' tails go roundy-round when they're happy. Horses'
tails go roundy-round when they're UNhappy. BH Matine is a brilliant
mare and a super dressage horse, but that video hurts my eyes.

I wonder if the horse was unhappy not about what it was doing per se
(the various movements), but about the location, with the audience and
PA system.

She's a relatively young horse (9 or so), so it certainly might be that
she's tenser than normal because of the unfamiliar environment. OTOH,
she could also be showing tension because she's a young horse being
asked to do very, very difficult and demanding work.

The link from COTH shows the same horse, different ride. It's outdoors,
and the crowd is in stands much farther from the ring. Matine is more
relaxed (and I liked this video much better, despite a few "oops"
moments), but she's still showing lots of tail movement in the passage,
piaffe, canter half-pass, and flying changes -- the "upper level"
movements. Many horses get, umm, "overly expressive" with their tails
in those movements, but just because it's common doesn't mean it's
acceptable.

I'm really looking forward to seeing this mare compete in another four
or five years, assuming she can stay sane and sound. She was withdrawn
from the World Cup in Las Vegas last week.

Seems like it would be hard to train a horse to find that type of
thing "normal" to the point where they would be blase.

Not really. Racehorses do it all the time.