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 ...
Beyond excellent photo seems to validate my choice to believe that the white horse is a horse....THANKS.
Our deer was trying to bite my dog as he was running away as fast as he could, like in the first picture.
OMG!
You’re *me*!....LOL!
I’ve got four Ibizans and 1 Portuguese Pidengo Medio.
Four others have passed on.
I too, grew up on a horse’s back.
Small world...:)
Agree with your post 100%.
Horse.
LOL. I knew somebody would say it. :D
Never seen a dog with a neck that long.
It’s still an interesting tail. ;’)
I just wanna know who the prehistoric guy was who trained that dog to *stay*. Been there waiting for the release for a couple thousand years. ;’)
Yeah, I’d actually go with something wolfy (or maybe foxish), based on:
a) an assumption that the shape has changed over the centuries, becoming more stylised, so it’s no longer exactly as its creators envisaged and
b) a half-baked personal theory that the word Uffington actually derives from O.E. words ‘Uff’/’Wulf’, i.e. wolfy connection. Etymological dictionaries are fun :)
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