Gypsiy Weddings

Lollii said:
Nope - I thought it was exciting and I would love to have a go but ... on a soft surface as they do in America - It looks like a fab sport!
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JHoward correct me if I am wrong but the trotting I have seen is done on hard tracks. They might have a thin layer of sand on the top but it would be the same pretty much as running them on tarmac. The trotting which is done in France is also on hard tracks - same as Australia. I haven't seen horses trotting or pacing on what I would call a Martin Collins surface or similar. I do know that when they were trying to increase it's popularity in the UK they did and still do some at the A/W tracks.
 
ex racer rider said:
Paris1 I have read it actually, by mikey walsh? As I say there is differentiation in every class, race or culture. How about reading the girl in the painted caravan by eva petulengro (think I have spelled it right) for the flipside.
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I've just read that -very good read.

The program made me cringe a bit, especialy the illegality, disregard for other road users, and I personaly wouldnt want to hammer my horse on a tarmac surface.

But there is just as much criminality in other walks of life, goodness you only have to watch these cop programmes like police, camera action - be it chavs on housing estates or business men and MP's on the fiddle. To show travellers not breaking the law when the program was about travellers and the law would be a bit dull.

What I can say is travellers certainly know a good horse when they see one, there wer some cracking looking specimens.
 
Ancient Hacker said:
Cambrica, that's so sad to read.... as a teenager I used to get shipped over to my cousins in Leighton Buzzard for the holidays. OK I admit this was a loooong time ago, but it was a lovely town, friendly people, great hacking, and for a girl from Africa the solitary winter walks were a particular joy! There were plenty of well cared for horses and ponies in fields all around, and I don't think I ever heard of a crime in the area. I'd thought of going back for a visit, though my cousins have all emigrated years ago.... but maybe not! Sad, sad, sad.....
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Yes it is very sad, especially being born and brought up here. Don't get me wrong Leighton is a wonderful market town and yes we still have great riding and many well cared for horses. There are some older traveller sites that have intergrated well into our community, no problem there.
However we now have so many illegal sites whose residents have no intention of ever abiding by the law. I don't think there's one farmer, small holding or landowner that has not been affected, one in particular seriously hospitalised.
I admit to knowing nothing of trotting horses or pacers and the way these animals are trained but I wouldn't consider seeing one of these horses regularly being whipped hard a horse that is loved and well looked after. The local vets would certainly agree with the abuse and cruelty of dogs and horses. One of the men even pushed his girlfriend/partner out of a fast moving car in the village of Tottenhoe killing her! Then the whole human slave trade rocked the entire community perhaps silencing those do-gooders.
The fact these programs are even made shows how ridiculous our media/tv have become.
 
We used to have 'proper' romany travellers near us at work. They would turn up with caravans and horse drawn caravans, stay a few weeks then move on leaving the place SPOTLESS.
3 miles up the road there would be a mass of travellers similar to last night and they would back their vans up to each other and off load tv's etc from one to another - true meaning of 'from the back of a lorry'. Police would turn up and stand there talking to them then sod off. If they can't get onto common ground they cut the height barriers to get into the car parks then take the cut metal to the scrap yards and get money for it :eek:.

Yes the programme is contraversial (sp?) but would you watch if it was 60 mins of a nice romany traveller plodding round the country lanes in his horse drawn caravan ?
 
cambrica said:
Yes it is very sad, especially being born and brought up here. Don't get me wrong Leighton is a wonderful market town and yes we still have great riding and many well cared for horses. There are some older traveller sites that have intergrated well into our community, no problem there.
However we now have so many illegal sites whose residents have no intention of ever abiding by the law. I don't think there's one farmer, small holding or landowner that has not been affected, one in particular seriously hospitalised.
I admit to knowing nothing of trotting horses or pacers and the way these animals are trained but I wouldn't consider seeing one of these horses regularly being whipped hard a horse that is loved and well looked after. The local vets would certainly agree with the abuse and cruelty of dogs and horses. One of the men even pushed his girlfriend/partner out of a fast moving car in the village of Tottenhoe killing her! Then the whole human slave trade rocked the entire community perhaps silencing those do-gooders.
The fact these programs are even made shows how ridiculous our media/tv have become.
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Remember when the Leighton bypass was being built ? Every Sunday morning they'd be out with the trotters racing and also at the moment there's a court case going on with all the gypsies that had all those guys 'held prisoner', some for many years, This make national news / headlines.
 
carefreegirl said:
Remember when the Leighton bypass was being built ? Every Sunday morning they'd be out with the trotters racing and also at the moment there's a court case going on with all the gypsies that had all those guys 'held prisoner', some for many years, This make national news / headlines.
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Tell me about it!!! I don't know how local you are but the trotting races still go on. My O/H's brother was literally run off the bypass last summer when horses and entourage came at him.
Like I said in previous post slave trade lot had a brand new ferrari. Believe me I know many of them from my childrens school and as someone who is not normally intimidated, these people really do scare the hell out of me, so aggressive and the women are worse than the men.:eek:
 
MagicMelon said:
But it wasn't a valid point since this 'sport' can cause exactly the same thing (ie. laminitis)! We're not argueing about proper trotter racing, I cant imagine you race your horses down roads (at least I hope not!). What they're doing it illegal, extremely dangerous to other road users and the horses. The horses were followed far too closely by stupid beeping cars with a beer can thrown at one at one point - safe? I dont think so.
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of course we did and raced as shown on the program, sorry i forgot to add, i was actully working for a gypsy family. that bred and raced as seen.
the beer can was an accident how good was the horse though, hardley missed a beat!

Aces_High said:
JHoward correct me if I am wrong but the trotting I have seen is done on hard tracks. They might have a thin layer of sand on the top but it would be the same pretty much as running them on tarmac. The trotting which is done in France is also on hard tracks - same as Australia. I haven't seen horses trotting or pacing on what I would call a Martin Collins surface or similar. I do know that when they were trying to increase it's popularity in the UK they did and still do some at the A/W tracks.
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the one we have is fairly compact but not soild, our guys were doing several miles on a treadmill (that was angled so always on an incline) and would drive most evenings, at a jog, and sometimes go off and do some hill work etc
plus i lunged/rode.

ours also had different shoes on to that played a part in action etc, i can give you a link to you tube with pleanty of vids of training/tread mill/jogging if you want.
 
Again, I wasn't really on about the racing on the road in respect of whether it was bad for the horses or not - I personally wouldn't do it but then I don't hunt and I wouldn't do NH racing either. The point was the general attitude and total disregard for the law. Also, shortly after I posted this thread they showed the travellers in Leeds when they camped up on a playing field I think it was. Now, if this was last year which I am led to believe it was then I know where that was - or at least the sites they were moved about on and they had a massive camp on a playing field thus preventing anyone else using it. They were there illegally for abotu 2 weeks I would say "I'd drive past on the way to work every day) and, when they left it was a total ***** tip!

Why should other people have to pcik up their mess? Why are they allowed to get away with this behaviour time and time again? It is no wonder they have such prejudice against them in my opinion. They curse others on the programme for having a bad attitude to them - essentially admit to thieving (as the lad did last night) but it is everyone else's fault seemingly and they are the victims. I don't buy it!
 
clevelandbay said:
On last week's show, there was a wedding party (consisting of the night before (pineapple/palm tree) and actual wedding day). Anyone who watched that - what's a rough guess of how much money was spent on dresses? £50k?? more?? I think this every time I watch it.
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Here's a dress made by the same lady
The Dressmaker winds me up TBH - she'll happily stick designer names on the dresses, and cover it in diamonds. There are more to 'morals' than not giving it up!


Anyway back to the racing - in the close up shot of the horses legs when the beer can was thrown - did anyone else think it looked like it had blood coming from the side of it's knee?
 
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