Now *THIS* is Riding

First and foremost – bullfighting sucks. I don’t condone it. I can understand why people might be interested in it, but you could manage the same thrills, excitement and competition without harpooning the bull and slitting throats and whatnot. Why not use the velcro system? Why not make it all about touching the bull, kind of like an Indian counting coup?

So, yeah. Bullfighting sucks. This video shows some of it, so if it bothers you, you might not want to watch it.

That said – holy crap. WOW. I didn’t even know horses could move like this.

I don’t know who the trainer is from 5 -19 seconds, but WOW. I’d like to be able to sit/train/ride a horse like that. And…just…. wow.

The horse’s name is Merlin, and he’s 7/8 Lusitano, 1/8 Quarter Horse… and he can canter (gallop?) at a sidepass. I didn’t even know horses could do that. This is like watching some strange, hybrid version of cutting/dressage on steroids.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go hit play again.

7 thoughts on “Now *THIS* is Riding

  1. This is one of my all time favorite videos that I can watch over and over again. I have rode a horse in a side ways gallop but it was not on purpose. Still was a thrill.

  2. AND he can do a full 360 turn at high speed. Certainly some impressive riding and training. Somewhere there is video of training Merlin with sort of a wheelbarrow with horns on it.

    I think that they probably do all of that abusive stuff to the bull to keep them engaged, pissed off and in the game. In real life bulls probably aren’t as interesting and animated at the appropriate times and for appropriate durations by entertainment standards.

  3. Whywudya – I watched a documentary on it one time – you’re right about them amping up the bull to keep them angry longer, but they alsobreed it into them. All potential breeding stock is tested in an arena. If they don’t show enough aggression, or if they they show too much intelligence and start going after the man vs. the cape, etc, then they are culled. I think that’s why I get so angry with bullfighting – we breed them to do a certain task, and then their reward for doing the task we’ve trained/bred them for is certain death. If they weren’t killed after the match, or if there was some way for them to “win”, I wouldn’t hate it quite as much. I wouldn’t condone it, but it wouldn’t piss me off quite as bad. :/ I still think you could piss off the

    That said… Yeah. That horse. YEAH. Why can’t we get that level of training over here in the states? I’ve never seen anything like it. Cutting comes close, but it’s not quite the same.

  4. That is truly incredible! I don’t like the whole slaughter of the bull thing with bull fighting, but I’ve never seen a horse move like that before! It truly was a sight to behold, thanks for posting!!

  5. I HAVE MISSED YOUR POSTS!!! 🙂 that being said I spent a lovely half hour catching up on them all while the baby slept. The deed is done and I’ll try to spend the next month catching up on my blogging. Looking forward to reading again!

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