Johnny, is this called a Cobra. It is how they show/display prize(meaning with particulars) Andalusian breeding mares in Spain. Some "Cobras" will number up to 25 horses at the bigger government breeding stables. They are secured with lines by the halter as you see, and do a series of wheels, figure 8's, serpentines, etc. around the big riding arena. Quite impressive, and a traditional piece of business a lot like some of the pomp and circumstance at the Spanish Riding School. In the case of leading the horses, of course the rider is on the left. This is what the Cassellys were "artistically" recreating with a rider on the horse. In the case of a liberty act, obviously the rider on the outside, as they are not actually leading them, just riding with them.
Monday, July 28, 2008
For John Herriott
Johnny, is this called a Cobra. It is how they show/display prize(meaning with particulars) Andalusian breeding mares in Spain. Some "Cobras" will number up to 25 horses at the bigger government breeding stables. They are secured with lines by the halter as you see, and do a series of wheels, figure 8's, serpentines, etc. around the big riding arena. Quite impressive, and a traditional piece of business a lot like some of the pomp and circumstance at the Spanish Riding School. In the case of leading the horses, of course the rider is on the left. This is what the Cassellys were "artistically" recreating with a rider on the horse. In the case of a liberty act, obviously the rider on the outside, as they are not actually leading them, just riding with them.
Dorita Konyot told me that when her father on Ringling trained an eight horse liberty act of grey percherons that she, in training rode the lead horse, not unusual, and that on the road she rode the lead horse for awhile, as well, unusual, but it kept them from running a race in the wheels. That is what I believe that rider on the lead horse is doing.
ReplyDeleteJohnny,
ReplyDeleteYou still insist it is a liberty act. 4 of the horses work with 4 elephants, which I wouldn't consider a liberty act, and one horse is a school horse. The artistic rendition of a Cobra is an attempt at doing something different.
Wade
I have no idea what in any horse circles I have been around or read about what the hell a cobra is. The only cobra I ever heard about was a nasty snake. Leading them around tied together could be trained in one night on the RBBB animal walk. What bis the big deal?
ReplyDeleteJohnny,
ReplyDeleteI think you hit it on the head, when you said circles, as in 40 ft round circles, of which there are other equine pursuits out of that, as unreal as that may seem. You are looking at a small "cobra", for demonstration purposes, like an elephant foot care seminar instead of an act, and not the normal 20 to 25 from the government studs. Going out to a large open pasture collecting up a large number of mares, and driving them to the arena on your stallion, for inspection, isn't the same thing as a one night training session on an animal walk. I've been on some of them animal walks also, you know. And in 1992 my camels and horses stampeded over the Venice draw bridge, up the trunk over the roof, and down the hood of four cars waiting for the light to change. Sending the ringmaster to the hospital with dislocated shoulder, and 9 of Venice's finest in hot pursuit. Boss and I caught 3 of the camels at the other end of town in the Court House fish pond eating lilly pads, because they didn't tie them together like he and I had instructed. No way could we have driven them in lines with stallions, even after we caught them.
Wade