Thank you Matt for this spectacular oddity from Adam Curtis at the BBC. In 1982, Libya held an international showjumping contest that featured top British riders and a thousand-strong Bedouin “fantasia”. Head-tossing barb horses in embroidered bridles, a dictator at the height of his powers and one very dour Yorkshireman, who really does not want …
Continue reading “Colonel Gaddafi, a Very Young Michael Whitaker and Fantasia in Libya”
In Benedikt Erlingsson’s Of Horses and Men, the inhabitants of a remote Icelandic valley have emotions as tightly knitted as their jumpers – except when it comes to their swift-trotting, thick-maned horses. In the opening scene we see the coat on a grey mare’s chest, caught in whorls and feathered by drizzle as her owner’s …
Thank you to artist Christa Joo Hyun D’Angelo for drawing my attention to this work by Brazilian artist Jonathas de Andrade. Andrade organised a race through the centre of the Brazilian city of Recife for the carters who – despite being officially outlawed by city officials who see them as an afront to their notion …
Wonderful news for overworked writers who don’t have time to maintain their blogs: British Pathé have uploaded their stock of vintage film clips to YouTube. As the old slogan of the British tabloid the News of the World used to claim, “all human life is there”, and quite a bit of horsey life too. So …
Thank you to Anne Billson for this. It’s Ray Harryhausen’s “eohippus” or dawn horse in the weird Valley of the Gwangi.
Iceland’s entry for this year’s best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars has a very horsey flavour. Its trailer is also, like all the best foreign films, NSFW. Thank you to Tanya for alerting me!
Pony life is not all about sugar and being petted by little girls. There’s a sinister side to equus ponius’ sunshine lifestyle, and Jay Speiden seeks to uncover it with the help of Kickstarter. As in Pony Kick starter.
Well, do you?
I’m always collecting material on white horses for a book that may never happen, so here’s another. A trailer for Snow White and the Huntsman, a forthcoming all-glossy, all-action fairy tale starring Kristen Stewart and Charlize Theron. I don’t know about you, but I’m always delighted when I find a spare horse lying around on …
I’ve kept a weather eye on the “Brony” phenomenon (male geeks who love My Little Pony cartoons) and even done a post about it, although I’m not as excited as the rest of the media who keep bronies constantly in the news and all over the blogosphere. These stories piqued my interest though, so here’s …
