Obviously you are not a golfer

[blamethewizard]

 

Horses of Merlin Picspam!!!
and some horse-related geekiness from me

Some beautiful jousting greys. The horse on the lower right is an Andalusian type, while the dapple grey to its left appears to be a draft cross of some kind. 

This is "Arthur" jousting (hooray for stunt doubles!). I don't think this is Torrento, either, but with action shots it is hard to tell.






Two pics of this horse because I love it's stirrup-shaped brand.





Horses at night preparing to do battle with the dragon. They don't seem too concerned.





On the way to...somewhere, Morgana & retinue are accosted by bandits. The attack begins in the second frame, as you can see the horses begin to "startle". They appear to be spooking but they're actually responding to their rider's cues! As you can see from the two lead horses their postures have changed and ears have shifted back, usually meaning they're paying close attention to their rider.

 

I love Morgause's horse, a beautiful probably-Andalusian grey. Someone told me that Arthur's horse in this scene is, in fact, Torrento, so there you go. Someone needs to fix his mane, though...it's on the "wrong" side (a horse's mane should fall to the right), although maybe that's just an American thing? Maybe someone can fill me in.

 

Unicorns are horsey creatures so I'm including it. I love the horse who plays one here. Unicorns are often played by Andalusians  (as I think is the case on Merlin) as they have the required "majestic" look. I have to say, I stared at that first shot for a long time, because as a former owner of a grey horse I have to admire just how white the horse is. That's no easy feat!





On the left, Merlin prepares to ride out to the Isle of the Blessed on his trusty bay. On the right, we're on the same quest with a different horse. Hmm, maybe he stopped to change horses? :P






Morgana rides out to meet Alvarr, with Merlin following. I think it's interesting how Morgana and Arthur both (I think) ride with two hands (English style) on the reins, while Merlin uses one (Western style). I wonder if it is because Merlin is from the "country"? Don't know.





I love Merlin's horse in the left frame..it's hard to see but he (she?) has a very nice profile. Merlin's horse seems to change quite a bit! In the second shot he is leading a cob-like dark bay. It seems they try to make sure Arthur is always on his bay (it's not always the same horse, but they all look very similar) while Merlin's changes, possibly to infer that he rides whatever horse is available?




And that's all I've got. I hope you enjoyed the horsey-picspam and tolerated my horse geekiness. Thanks!

Screencaps by Emma-Jane, found here

 

Comments

[blameitonmerlin.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :)

[blameitonmerlin.livejournal.com]

Thanks..whether or not it was intentional by the show, it did seem to make sense that Merlin, as a servant, wouldn't have a horse of his own. Who knows...there were a lot more horses in general in S2, more than likely due to a bigger budget for each episode. If they got another increase for S3 maybe we'll see Merlin get a particular horse.

Thanks for your comment!

[blameitonmerlin.livejournal.com]

That interview was very funny. Bad horse jokes are easy to make; Bradley and Colin were really only scratching the tip of the iceberg there. My favorite terrible joke is to say "Hay is for horses!" every time someone says "Hey" to get your attention.

Thanks!

[blameitonmerlin.livejournal.com]

Thanks..I'm glad you liked it. You don't have to know much about horses to appreciate how pretty they are :)

[blameitonmerlin.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'll do that:)

[pendragonss.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the interview with Torrento!

In the legend, Arthur's horses are named Hengroen and Llamrei and Hengroen is a dark brown color whereas Llamrei is white. I was thinking since Torrento is a dark colored horse that they purposefully made him Bradley's/Arthur's horse as a nod to the legends. If so, they may also introduce a white horse later to be Llamrei.

[brightedelweiss.livejournal.com]

This is great. I don't know much about horses but it seems that you know a good bit about what sort of horses they are and what the certain styles for riding are!

[blameitonmerlin.livejournal.com]

I spent many years in the horse world (and am determined to get back someday), so I can't help but notice the horses! I'm glad you enjoyed it :)

[blameitonmerlin.livejournal.com]

Oh, I didn't know that about the legends! Something to look for in coming seasons, for sure. Thanks for the info :)

[scribblemoose]

I've been hoping the horses would get some attention, and this is great! I work sometimes with horses for historical re-enactment and I'm sure I notice the same long-suffering look on some of the actor!horses on Merlin. ;) But they're so beautiful. And it's good to see some of the cast getting a few more riding skills so they can do more of the riding themselves - pretty boys/girls and pretty horses, pefect. :)

[a8c-sock.livejournal.com]

I did indeed. You're welcome. I like tidbits like that too.

It sounds it. How dp you 'train' a mane (oo that rhymed).

It amused me just another sign of lack of continuity. It's a weird one. At forst I thought they had stuck a stirrup onto the horse.

Rambling is good :-)

[captainlon.livejournal.com]

Woooh I love this! The horses in Merlin are sooo beautiful! Morgana's white horse is the meaning of beauty!
I love these animals!!!

[agenttrojie.livejournal.com]

HORSES. *grabby hands*

On the subject of manes, I was under the impression that like a human's parting, they'll naturally fall where they like - I've seen horses where the mane was wilful and stubborn and had bits falling on both sides.

Augh, the last horse I rode was a dapple-grey, and gorgeous, and badly-behaved (training had been neglected for several years). BUT OH HE WAS SO PRETTY.

One of these days I really have to get round to finishing my morphological study that proves unicorns are goats, not horses. But until that day I too can appreciate just how damn gorgeous the horses they always pick to play unicorns are (and wonder how on earth they stick the horns on ...)

Thank you for the picspam of pretty things!

[blameitonmerlin.livejournal.com]

They are v. pretty, and the more riding skills the actors get the more we will get to see them riding (instead of their stunt doubles)! I agree it is a perfect combination.

I agree the horses have to put up with a lot, but good thing for us horses are very trainable beings but at the same time aren't afraid to give you their opinion. I'm pretty sure all those horses like their jobs...you won't get very far working with a horse that isn't liking what's going on, as you may know :)

[blameitonmerlin.livejournal.com]

They are beautiful and I love them too, I had to give them some attention. Thanks for your comment!

[blameitonmerlin.livejournal.com]

They do often naturally fall to both sides, but I was always taught that for neatness' and appearance's sake it was best to train them to one side. It does look better, and for some competitions we had to braid their manes always on the right side. So it is just general convention, I suppose.

As far as unicorn horns go, I always assumed they just used superlight materials plus some kind of strong glue (soluble, hopefully). It would have to be something they get used to as most horses would probably try to shake it off the first few times. (I'm also interested in your morphological study, btw, let me know how that goes).

My grey was usually well-behaved, but he was seldom 100% grey either, unless he had just been bathed. He knew how to get dirty, that horse.

OK rambling again...THANK YOU FOR MUTUAL HORSE-SQUEE!!

[blameitonmerlin.livejournal.com]

There are a couple of ways to train a mane. We always start by just combing over all the mane to the right side. Then, you can braid it to make it stay over to get it started going in the direction you want. At some point you have to pull the mane anyway (a.k.a. trimming when a horse's mane gets too long/thick) which is basically just wrapping small sections of mane around a comb and pulling it out. It sounds painful but is absolutely not. So that helps to "train" the mane to the side you pull from. Also, some show horses have their mane's braided very tightly on the right side, and after that happens once or twice the mane usually stays put. When I say tight braids I mean tight braids.

Of course, it is traditional for some breeds to have very long manes (Andalusians included) but they can get very tangled at that length!

I thought they may have colored in the stirrup shape to cover up a breed-brand, but I can't think of any particular breed that would have a shape like that so...I don't know. Cute horse though. I think they might have chosen him/her because it is big enough to only just see Colin's head over the top, making for an interesting shot. This would make the horse pretty tall as these things go..about 17hh maybe, if I were to ballpark it.

There I go again!!

[agenttrojie.livejournal.com]

ALWAYS HAPPY TO SQUEE OVER HORSIES.

I wish I, y'know, actually knew properly how to ride or had the opportunity to have a horse. I just take any ride that comes my way, which averages about one a year.

Unicorn theory basically goes - classical unicorn is: cloven-hooved, has a horn, has a beard. Cloven-hooved alone tells us it CANNOT be a horse, or a perissodactyl of any kind, so it has to be an artiodactyl, specifically something of the cow, sheep/goat or deer kindred. Blah blah no equine has horns, also. (There's better morphological justification-talk but I haven't, uh, drawn the diagrams yet)

Basically I am a science nerd who likes to smoosh fantasy and science together. Hence the geological map of Narnia I also have in the works.

[scribblemoose]

Oh, yes, I learned that when I was a kid and used to ride a horse that didn't like jumping white fences. I cleared them just fine. It was just that he didn't come with me ;)

Horses can be total drama queens, too. They're not above a bit of a sigh and a pout if it gets them some attention, are they? *g*

[blameitonmerlin.livejournal.com]

I love the morphological analysis of the unicorn. Oh and this:

Hence the geological map of Narnia I also have in the works.
*nerdgasm*!

Plus, I totally did this with a few geology friends during field camp. We were bored and had a copy of LOTR so we did what any self-respecting geology nerds would do after being in the field for 10 hours and up a mountainside with no contact w/the outside world: we made a geologic map of Middle Earth. Good times!

[agenttrojie.livejournal.com]

*high-fives* What happened to me was ineptshieldmaid egged me on. And then I tried to look for a base map and realised that all the available maps of Narnia are kind of shite and either make no sense according to the books, make no sense according to LOGIC (Walden Media's map, unless I am very much mistaken, is going to need the Great River to flow uphill at one point) or have no scale and no landmarks on them.

... so I sort of speedread all the books and made my own ... and the geological map is the next in the series.

I want to see your geological map of Middle Earth! Please tell me you have a copy?

[blameitonmerlin.livejournal.com]

Sadly, this was back in '04 during my undergrad field camp course so everything was done by hand. There was a girl with us who was a really good artist and she drew a lot of it so we let her take it home (and, TBH, by the end of that field camp the only thing on my mind was that fact that I was so done with field camp). She said she would scan it & send it out but, alas, she never did.

Ok so I confess to not knowing much about the Narnia world, but a quick Google Search provided me with this map. I hope that waterfall isn't flowing in the direction it seems to on that map...that would seem to be a little problematic.

[agenttrojie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's Walden's map. It looks okay til you get into the details and then it's ... problematic ... as you say!

My maps are here, there's a mainland Narnia one and an East of Narnia one that covers all the islands from Voyage of the Dawn Treader ...

[blameitonmerlin.livejournal.com]

Those are great! Plus, the fact that you included "Not for Navigational Purposes"? Bonus!

[agenttrojie.livejournal.com]

(Well I wouldn't want someone accidentally running around on a reef Lewis never mentioned :P)

They were a lot of fun to make, although Lewis's inconsistent maths caused me a lot of headaches at the time!

(The geological map of mainland Narnia is proving ... fun. Ettinsmoor is definitely a granite batholith, and I"m pretty certain that the mountains to the west are going to be sedimentary strike-ridges, but the mountains in Archenland are annoying me. I think I'm going to have to put a plate boundary south of Calormen and posit that the Archen mountains are back-arc volcanism ...)