Posted on 10/15/2010 8:56:35 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Challenging the traditional description of the Oxfordshire landmark, retired vet Olaf Swarbrick asks whether the "beautiful, stylised" figure might instead be a dog such as a greyhound or wolfhound. In a letter to the Veterinary Record, his profession's journal, the former cattle and poultry specialist suggests a canine origin for the 110-metre by 38.5-metre animal, which was carefully dug into the downland. He invites alternative theories, too.... "Looking at it again, it seems that it is not a horse at all: the tail and head are wrong for a horse and more suggestive of a dog. It appears more like a large hound at full stretch. I thought it may be a greyhound, but an anthropologist suggests it is a wolfhound, which (assuming it is not a horse) makes more sense."
...Doubts over its equine origin have been aired before but written records suggest the hill on whose slopes it gallops has been named after the white horse since at least the 11th century... [Swarbrick] added that other horse hill figures in Britain were "quite clearly horses", even if more recent than the Uffington one. And the Long Man of Wilmington in Sussex and Cerne Abbas giant in Dorset were clearly human. Keith Blaxhall, the National Trust warden for the area, was not convinced. "I think we all think it is a horse," he said, adding that coins from roughly the same period show a similar stylised horse and chariot. "Horses were enormously important. It signified power. You were mobile." ...There had been claims it might be St George's white charger, he said, but the figure long predated his era. The dog suggestion was new to him. "I have really only heard the theory it is feline because of its sinuous design."
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
Actually, there was a theory that it was really a dragon.
[named “Puff”, if I recall rightly]
;)
The beautiful bow of the neck says “horse” to me. You don’t see a neck like that on a dog.
I had a deer chase my dog the other day. It looked just like that except it was a female deer instead of a horse..
I was thinking the same thing. The neck is right for a horse and wrong for a dog. Horses have that crest in the middle of their necks and dogs will have an arching poll (neck near the skull). Also that knee bend is horse construction. In a dog that joint is much much lower. I’d say this vet flunked animal anatomy.
Looks like a cloud......
If you can find gold in Fort. Knox, where can you find Silver? :0)
P
Judging from the leg/torso ratio, I’d say dachshund more than greyhound.
I own a sighthound. I agree, their spines just don’t go like this. They also stretch out more when they’re running than any horse achieves. I’m a lifelong horsewoman and hound fancier; I love watching hounds whether they’re coursing or hunting. Their necks are angled differently than horses’. Their hocks are set much lower and their femurs are far longer. This just isn’t a hound; it is a horse cantering on the left lead.
OTOH, few would believe it’s a Jacksonville Jaguar. ;’)
Ferret, weasel, etc, before dog, I wholeheartedly agree. I still think it probably started as some erosional features, which may or may not have been seen as or altered into some animal or anthropoid shape, maybe more than once. :’)
Rainy Day Women — that does fit, considering the climate.
LOL!
At a different angle, the Uffington thing looks like that cartoon profile of Alfred Hitchcock.
I hoove to bow to your experience. ;’)
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