--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Alex Stanley" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "authfriend" <jstein@> wrote: > > > > The WEG2006 Freestyle Dressage Final Performance of Andreas Helgstrand > > on Blue Horse Matine > > > > YouTube video: > > > > http://tinyurl.com/2a4apl > > > > One of the most amazing things I've ever seen in my life, probably in > > the top three. When it was over, I realized tears were running down my > > cheeks. > > > > Be sure to watch it with the sound on. > > > > DO NOT MISS THIS. > > I don't get it. Why was that so amazing? > > What amazes me is the startling contrast of your experience of > that video compared to mine. All I saw was a horse prancing > around ridiculously to a medley of schlocky muzakified pop tunes, > and it was all I could do to keep watching it to the end. I > totally don't grok why that was amazing or remarkable.
Basically, the horse is doing things with its legs-- its gait--that it shouldn't be able to do, and it's very clearly having the time of its life showing off. The *training* required to get a horse to do that is just extraordinary; and the horse has to also be extraordinary to be willing and able to execute that training. The communication between horse and rider has to be extraordinary as well, because the rider is guiding the horse at every step. Imagine you have four legs, and you use them instinctively; you're not even aware of how they work together. To do what this horse is doing, you have to block out that instinctive coordination and consciously control each of your four legs individually. And you're a *horse*. I dunno, maybe you have to be visually familiar with a horse's normal gait to realize how spectacular this performance is. This is the Fred Astaire of horses. Plus which, the damn horse is doing it *to the music*, schlocky though it may be. I don't know how much of that is a matter of the rider signaling the beat to the horse, as opposed to the horse hearing the beat itself--probably more the former than the latter--but it's just wonderful to watch, not least because the horse is so obviously enjoying it. It ain't just me. If you listen to the two announcers, who know their dressage, they start off appropriately appreciative but cool and collected, then toward the end they become absolutely gobsmacked. The audience is blown away as well. I know very little about dressage myself; it's just a matter of having a sense of how a horse's legs normally work and being able to see the contrast. If anybody here is more familiar with dressage, maybe they could give a better explanation. Incidentally, I should credit Bill Leed; I went to the Rense.com site to read the article he mentioned on the pyramid doors, and saw the a link to this video as well.
