i cannot believe what i've just seen! what the...?

[charleysummer]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNHPqutWDZc&feature=related

what...the...?

 

[Cedars]

Oh bloody hell. 4th post of the day!

 

[BobbyMondeo]

What?!? ....no words

 

[Brandy]

Missed this the first three times.

I have no words......

 

[Sparkles]

Thought this was banned years ago?

 

[guido16]

What is it?
I cant access youtube.

 

[Sparkles]

Someone re-doing the old diving horse thing, where they're run up the chute and then dive into the pool below.

Did a film on it years back....at a loss for the name...

 

[Anuka]

Oh dear

 

[Llewellyn]

NB the food at the end does not make it better!!! perhaps nose clips and armbands. This is beyond reason surely.

 

[minmax]

Well, that poor horse has oviously been trained to do that and get feed when it comes out, I can't imagine its doing it for fun! It is a horse diving into a large pool, then swims out and walks down a gang plank to a bucket of feed.

 

[landyandy]

OMG

 

[narkymare]

jesus im sick of these horrid posts today - what eh hell is wrong with people - i really do hate this bloody world - that horse is the spitting image of mine - no words to describe how i feel

 

[baileymoo]

Oh gosh, this is just like of that film, what the hell was it called? I remember the girl went blind, this is going to annoy me now.

 

[Sparkles]

Wild hearts can't be broken?

 

[wilsha]

poor horse! that should be illegal! the only reason it does it cos it ant get back the way it came up i feel so sorry for it

 

[cm2581]

I'm not saying I agree with this but I've watched it several times and bizarrely the horse doesn't seem distressed at all and almost appears to be enjoying it! How odd!!!! Must be a hell of a tasty feed in that bucket!!

 

[LadyRascasse]

I'm not saying I agree with this but I've watched it several times and bizarrely the horse doesn't seem distressed at all and almost appears to be enjoying it! How odd!!!! Must be a hell of a tasty feed in that bucket!!

totally agree with all that horse not distressed in anyway and not injured, not that i agree with it or would ever do it.

 

[Bowen4Horses]

am not saying i think this is right.... but the horse doesn't seem phased at all. there is another clip in NL at the moment (diving horse thread) where the horse is actually tipped off.

but this horse seems to actually jump. must be yummy treat awaiting them!

 

[Kallibear]

I agree with the others - pony doesn't seem to mind at all.

We 'force' plenty horses to do plenty of things they don't want to do initially - walk through 'scary puddles' , ignore huge lorries, work in an outline, hack out on their own. They probably don't enjoy it much, and they won't choose to do it if left to their own devices, but it doesn't frighten or hurt them and they feel the reward at the end is worth it, so they do it.

I have two horses who wouldn't mind doing that at all, if trained up. Both like water and a dip in the pool (as long as it wasn't cold) would be well worth a big bucket of feed at the end. The other hates water and would HATE it.

 

[charleysummer]

may i just raise the point that this pony had to be 'trained' to jump off a ramp, against all instincts and splash its non-streamlined, non-diving shaped body into the pool. how do you suppose they got it off the ramp the first time? and whilst it was being trained and desensitized to the 'diving' ?

 

[Kallibear]

How did I train my 'I'm-terrifed-of-big-scary-lorries-and-certainly-not-designed-by-nature-to-make-friends-with-them' pony to accept them? I didn't just take him for a walk down the M6.

Yes, there are plenty of cruel ways to force a horse to jump, but there are equally ways of persuading the horse to jump in water. Not that they'd have started with such a high drop but I genuinely think one of my horses would have volentarily slide off that ramp into the pool with bribary.

 

[ucmeicu]

I put this link on the other post i started about diving horses.. this poor donkey seems unhappy doing it, poor thing, in the dark with floodlights into a small pool. How anyone can call this good fun to watch must want their heads tested. I wondered aswell how they got these poor animals to do it, I doubt highly it was by choice. I doubt you could bribe your horse to do this!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEfw76raGak

 

[Cinnamontoast]

The length of the drop worries me-XC doesn't go that crazy and yes, horse have to be desensitised to scary stuff, but that is OTT and unnecessary.

 

[somethingorother]

Maybe they raised the ramp a little bit each time?

I think it's dangerous and stupid, and he is licking and chewing before he jumps, so maybe he is nervous. But they didn't necessarily have to beat him off it the first few times, maybe they did it the way common sense would dictate and gradually increased the height.

 

[Alimac19]

I don't particularly agree with this but I must admit he looks pretty happy about it!! Of course following on from other threads I could make some sarky comment about american circus tricks and standing on barrells - but I won't!!! ;-) (sorry couldn't resist)

 

[ucmeicu]

That donkey is pawing the ramp and looking round looks far from happy to me.

 

[mulledwhine]

GRRRRRRRRRRRR, and poor old things.... that is all I have to say

 

[somethingorother]

I have to add, that donkey looks look massively unhappy. And i wonder how long they last until they break their legs/necks?

 

[Kallibear]

How anyone can call this good fun to watch must want their heads tested. I wondered aswell how they got these poor animals to do it, I doubt highly it was by choice. I doubt you could bribe your horse to do this!

I agree that looks like an unhappy donkey who really doesn't want to do it. I know plenty of horses who would think it horrific. They're set up was much less 'inviting' that the OP's video too.

BUT the pony in the first video doesn't seem bothered. Not something I would ever want to train my horse to do (it is unnessesary and pointless and I don't think it's 'fun' to watch' ) but that doesn't mean they used cruelty to train the pony, or even that the pony is unhappy.

 

[charleysummer]

Hacking past scary cars and going through puddles etc is desensitising the horse, yes, but here think about horse the horse goes into the water- they are not designed for it! horses are designed to WALK through puddles and past traffic, horses can WALK, they can't DIVE.

Compare it to an animal designed to dive, and consider how badly shaped and physically made horses are to be doing this...