Warren, this is a giant version of la poste Hongroise performed by Maude Gruss. I am assuming Gaona had 8, maybe 12 horses. As a horse passes under the riders(technically would they be riders?) legs they they take the line attached to it's sursingle running to the bit and pass it to their outside hand. Mary Ann, this is kinda what the Cassellys do with the horses and elephants on a smaller version.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
For Warren--"la poste Hongroise"--Hungarian Post
Posted by
Wade G. Burck
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9 comments:
Maude works La Poste a Dix-Sept, meaning that she has 17 (dix-sept) horses under her control, including the pair on which she is standing.
The bad news is that she's not doing this act in the 2008-09 show!
John,
That's interesting. Do they always preface it with the number of horses? I didn't know that. For years I have had people tell me numbers don't matter, in reference to other animal acts.
Wade
They don't actually announce the number of horses, but circus buffs such as me tend to count the number used.
I recall the other year I saw Joseph Bouglione open the show at Cirque d'Hiver with La Poste a Huit (that's 8) and the crowd went mad! Granted it was good, especially when you realise that Joseph wasn't really a horseman at that time. But earlier that same day I'd seen Maude work the 17! I shuddred to think what the reaction to that would have been.
John,
Brilliant knowledgeable statement, John. I assume it will be as insightful to others.
Dick, Chris, others. The reaction/brilliance to Joseph? Nothing else to compare to? Limited experience of the viewers? Is an act today more brilliant/less brilliant compared to 10 acts or compared to 50 acts? Is the brilliance/greatness because it is, or because it is all that is available.
If Maude dropped half the lines, tangled up 17 horses, would it be better then Joseph with 8 and a flawless performance?
If Joseph dropped half the lines, tangled up 8 horses would it be better then Maude and a flawless performance because he was inexperience and you had never seen Maude?
Wade
Thanks Wade, you saved me some time tracking down what this presentation is. It appears to be quite impressive and an accomplishment. Now, another dumb question from me. How does this differ from what I know as the "Courrier of St. Petersburg" such as I saw performed by Katajia Schumann? Does it have anything to do with the final positioning of the horses or is there something different in the harness or reins? Or are they the same thing with namind differences due to language differences?
Warren,
I am not positive, so I hope we will be corrected if I am not. I believe "Courrier of St. Petersburg" involves hurdles and such and figure eights similar to the Flying Frenchman. The uniqueness of this is the taking of the lines and building to a large number of horses. I am sure the two could be incorporated. Riding acts, barback acts, acts such as this were never my "cup of tea." There is not much "training" involved and the athletic ability of the rider is the feature. I am into training animals, no offense to great jugglers, airialists, acrobats, clowns etc. etc.
Wade thanks again but can you clarify what you mean by passing the reins to the outside hand? It appears in the photos that the outside hand of the "rider" (I consider someone mounted on a horse a rider - ie bareback rider or bronc rider in rodeo, rosinback rider, dressage rider, etc) is controlling the pair of horses upon which he or she is standing and the inside hand managing that mass of reins from the other horses. Being right handed, my instinct would be to try tp pick up the reins with my right hand, trusting the pair I'm standing on to stay on track long enough to let me transfer to the left hand but something tells me that all those horses on the inside might easily pull me off. If my memory, such as it is, serves me correctly, I remember the "Courrier" work resulted in reins from each horse in both hands such as roman riding and the horses being kept in a much closer grouping than in the photos. Perhaps this is also a difference? I never saw a courrier with more than 10 horses total (two porters and eight on rein) so seeing this done with such a large group is way beyond my understanding.
Your experiences with equine training go far far beyond mine and I do admit that bareback or rosinback training for circus is basically about getting walk, trot, and canter on cue and not shying away from every distraction around the ring,but there a degree of training involved - perhaps not as intricate as other forms of equine presentations - but essential and there are some horses that just never get it. Also, some horses don't accept the pressure placed on the kidney area (see Lorenzo and where he rides) or videos of the Florian Richter troupe (brilliant banquine on horses thrown from mid back) but have no problem with a rider over the hips (see Richter with multiple horse to horse to horse). Some horses hump the rider off if they get too far back on the hips setting up the horse to horse. Perhaps this is a matter of selection of stock rather than training? I don't claim to know the answer.
Col. Herriott, amy comments, please?
Warren
As far as I'm aware, La Poste and Courier are different names for the same thing, although there is supposed be a story behind The Courier of St Petersburg which restricts the number of horses involved.
John,
"The Courier of St Petersburg which restricts the number of horses involved", sounds like a cheap producers patch for a weak show. There is a similar deal here in the Colonies with felines, called the Courier of Ft. Lauderdale, where Beatty used a smaller act. Ringling does one called Courier of Thailand, where they use 11 elephants instead of 22
Wade
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