I bet it wasn't 'The Electric Horseman'!...................
Posted on 04/22/2024 5:32:46 AM PDT by Red Badger
This sounds like an equine version of dock dogs.
https://dockdogs.com/
Hahahaha...of course! I like the way you put that “have a vote”...:)
Granted, I got thrown from a horse as a kid, and it was probably because the horse just did not like me. I was cantering in a ring, and the horse just stopped dead.
Stopped!
I was over its head and on the ground before I could even react, and boy, was I ever mad!
Who knows...I was only 12 at the time, probably the first or second time I ever rode a horse, and might have been pulling back on the reins really hard while compelling it to go forward at the same time and the horse just decided I had no idea what I was doing!
Oh yes. From what I have seen, horses can be quite obstinate. Mules are obviously related to horses, and in Ulysses S. Grant’s memoir, he talks about how much he hated having to deal with stubborn mules! I think horses have that too, especially if they think they are the boss and not you!
I find horses fascinating. Always have...
WRONG.
The wooden things are to ensure the Horse didn’t get entangled or wind up too close to the platform should they fall...
Here is an actual video of it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mX7JIjEBM0U
And another video..
The platform did not FALL and drop them, they lept.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY8G9vV67Ww
All kinds of “death defying” diving was big during that time. Honestly I think stunt motorcycles did more to end it than anything else. Of course even that is going away.
No, that board is fixed in that position. It enables the horse to make a solid push outward with its hooves that it could not get from leaping off just the horizontal.
There is no hinge or trap door.
Saw a team of diving mules in Missouri in the late 70s or early 80s. There was no surprise drop, no one had to drive them up the ramp or give them a tug or shove.
They were the calmest animals, both before and after the dives. Their coats were beautiful, and they didn’t shy away from people at all, as they would if they had been mishandled.
If they didn’t want to go up there, there was no way to force an animal that big to go up that ramp by itself if it had a bad prior experience with it yesterday or in the past.
I trail ride. My horse has vastly better hearing and sense of smell than I do. Once in a while, he’ll stop in his tracks and refuse to go forward. He isn’t always right, but he’s been right about “predator ahead” enough times that I don’t try arguing.
Not that it would do much good. He plans to live forever and has no intention of being attacked by javelina or anything else. If terrain permits, I can tell him we’ll take a detour and still go where I want to end up and he has no problem with that.
There was a movie about this not so long ago
I bet it wasn't 'The Electric Horseman'!...................
No, the horses went up the ramp voluntarily and jumped on their own.
My family went to Atlantic City in the mid-1950s and we went to the horse diving performance on the Steel Pier.
My Dad took a color slide of the dive and I still have it.
Nope...wild hearts can’t be broken.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.