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

[tenshunts.livejournal.com]

Hey thanks for this -- always great to read new information about a niche in Merlin. The horses are taken for granted when we watch but certainly in the jousting they were trained to do some amazing things.

Also I noticed the stirrup and of course it's a brand -- I never thought of that.

I like that you point out the continuity moments with Merlin's horse lol but if you look again at the scene with the stirrup brand you see the horse that Merlin is grooming suddenly faces the other way in the close-up? hehe.

[blameitonmerlin.livejournal.com]

I always notice the horses in film and television so it was fun to do the little asides with the pictures. They do indeed have a very high level of training; a horse does not naturally tolerate things like cameras, jousting sticks and other film-related items like microphones so I have to give the horse their due when I can.

As for continuity, I don't normally nitpick like that but the screencaps were so close together that I couldn't help it. I think it might have to do with the fact that one scene was filmed in France and the other Wales, so I can't be too hard on them. Thanks for your comment!