trail tails & horsemanship

Happy trails, tails, and upright rails. A blog dedicated to horses, horse training, and the discussion of horses. Discussion is valuable.

[neechees]

Spirit: Stallion of The Cimarron & the Indian Boarding Schools/Residential Schools allegory

[iamafanofcartoons]

Holy shit!

Was this intentional?

[neechees]

Considering the rest of the film’s heavy anti-colonization messaging, the main antagonist being heavily modeled on & inspired by General Custer, the other main (human) protagonist being a Native man (& the fort is where Spirit meets Little Creek), yes, most likely

[the-commonplace-book]

YES. It was 100% intentional. I highly recommend reading up on the making of this film. There was an incredible amount of care that went into the development.

They had Lakota consultants for the project, especially regarding the use of the Lakota language in the film (which is used sparsely, but when used is accurate).

It’s par for the course now to consult people belonging to a culture for projects representing it these days (i.e. Moana, Frozen 2, etc.) but it certainly wasn’t when Spirit came out in 2002.

This film is allegorical to its core.

[the-nuup]

while horses are beautiful and glorious creatures they can also look like this

[valtsv]

im reading about cowboy phrases and sayings and like 95% of them are just solid life advice

[valtsv]

like idk how accurate these are but somehow they manage to be both peak shitposting humor and genuinely helpful suggestions

[valtsv]

fuck self-help books and therapy, all i need to make it in life is my trusty Cowboy Tips™

[trail-tails]

I've been out and away from this blog for a while. What is some content you'd like to see?

[horsesarecreatures]

Latigo Dun It - Quarter Horse stallion

Photo by Bonnie Cazier.

[shellshellhead]

[ruffianzenyatta16]

My favorite picture of Secretariat

[trail-tails]

Today I snuck up on a herd of horses and scared them all despite huffing and puffing my way through the snow and yelling, "Guys, guys please. PLEASE. Please come heeerrreee."

[equikage]

“To bring a horse of a thousand pounds to a dead stop from almost full speed, turn round and charge to the rear as easily as one can a small cat of a mustang or Arab, is sheer nonsense to assert; and it is in such performances that the English or American horse of the cavalry standard is helpless compared with the small, native horse who has degenerated to four or five hundred pounds weight from its ancestor, the famous Andalusian breed, imported by Cortes and occasionally abandoned in the desert, where his descendents now roam in wild bands and supply the ranchero with fresh stock. No large horse could be reined up suddenly without damage to himself or something else in some shape, and it is against cavalry composed of such horses that cavalry is so effective, and can be so annoying by dashing to and from them as the gad-fly does to the horse himself. Even in single combat the small, light horse has the advantage in being able to attack, rushing up, delivering a blow and then retreating at full speed, and when his pursuer is drawn out at full speed also, he turns short round and lets the large horse, that can’t stop suddenly, gallop on to his rear. And where is the small horse by the time his pursuer is turned round? At his heels.”

— James C. Battersby, The Bridle Bits: A Treatise on Practical Horsemanship (1886)

[sovietnam]

[equikage]

literally me and my horse

[justjanerm]

The little girl is thriving, and, for anyone who may dare question her cuteness: it is absolute. 

[mylittlehony]

You can see the eponychium on the underside of the foal’s hooves here, still very soft. Just three hours later, they were already hardening.

[trail-tails]

There's a new posse in town

[ponyblues]

I’ll side with the outsiders Those long-shot last-round fighters Anyone who ain’t afraid to stray off course

[transperceneige]

This is the same horse… 5* showjumper Bonzai H, shown by the swedish rider Helena Persson.

[app-uh-latch-un]

next time someone makes a remark about my horse being slightly cow hocked ill just show them this badass

[barefoothooves]

Polydactyl foal that had the extra foot removed. The coolest thing to me about polydactyl horses is that the extra foot comes from one of the splint bones. In ancestors of the modern horse like the Hyracotherium, Mesohippus/Miohippus, and Merychippus, the splint bones were like secondary cannon bones with their own distal phalanxes and hooves. So in a way it’s kinda like a little evolutionary throwback 😉

(Fun side note, the Hyracotherium had 4 toes in the front and 3 in the back, while the others had 3 all around)

Photo source: Performance Equine Associates