Martin Clunes: Heavy Horse Power

Well said Vidock!
I especially agree with your last point having had the 'honour' of meeting with MC and the production team in France.

Pity that after all the chaos and interruption that MC etc caused in France that they didn't feature more of the Route Du Poison than just the boat pull. Or is that because the rest of the British Team wouldn't be pressured into playing along with the producer?
Having had a stand up row with the producer and been put under unfair pressure by MC to do something that I wasn't keen on, me thinks so. :p
 
Personally I think for a basic general public horse programme it was ok - bit of variety, not too many inane questions asked etc. However I agree with Vidock - they tend to romanticise things for TV and make out that using horses in certain areas is unusual (maybe to us it is but not abroad) - people out there do so much more with their working horses (not just heavies either!)
I understand they had to show the Budweiser Clydes and Route du Poisson but I also feel every time carriage driving is mentioned the Amish have to be featured and I'm sure most people have heard of them - maybe they coud have included less traditional uses of the heavy horse such as in driving trials etc? However I appreciate its got to appeal to a broad audience and time is a factor.
With regards to training I think Martin should have sent them to someone like Barry Hook - from his videos on Youtube he takes a lot of time preparing the horses for things and doesn't hang on their mouths (he drives in rubber bits). I also feel it would have been a nice ending to have seen Martin working his horses around his own farm rather than just driving them round a field seeing as that was what he wanted to do with them in the first place. However for a short one-off programme you can't show everything and I think we should be grateful driving horses were featured on a channel other than Horse and Country! Hopefully it will continue and we will have more on similar topics in the future.
 
Pale Rider said:
It was for the general public to view, not us freaky horse folk, so MC is essential.

I get the impression people wanted more from this 50mins than they actually got.
Click to expand...

TBH if i had any criticism of the show, it would be that i would have preferred it to have been longer, and done on maybe three or four half hour slots over three or four weeks!
And yes also had some Shires, they didnt even show the ringwood brewery show shires and they are only a few miles from MC!
 
Last edited:
SHCC said:
Well said Vidock!
I especially agree with your last point having had the 'honour' of meeting with MC and the production team in France.

Pity that after all the chaos and interruption that MC etc caused in France that they didn't feature more of the Route Du Poison than just the boat pull. Or is that because the rest of the British Team wouldn't be pressured into playing along with the producer?
Having had a stand up row with the producer and been put under unfair pressure by MC to do something that I wasn't keen on, me thinks so. :p
Click to expand...

I did wonder why they didnt show more of the Route Du poison!
 
I agree, it would have been far better to have had 3 or 4 episodes. Ive had many non-horsey folk saying "Did you watch MC and the heavy horses, wasn't it brilliant". For the older generation it really stirred up nostalgic memories of their fathers / grandfathers having working horses.
Considering that the Suffolk Punch is on the 'critical' list, the Clydesdale on the 'vulnerable' list and the Shire on the 'at risk' list it would have been a positive for the breed societies if the general public were made more aware of this.
 
I think he should have taken a year over it, used Parelli and natural horsemanship, stopped and instead of just calmly and firmly pushing him on, he should have gone back to the beginning every time the horse was unsure.

When the dog came, instead of just getting on with it and jeeping the horse working through distractions, he should have stopped, screamed 'OH MY GOSH, a DOG!! A DOG IS COMING!! WOAH, steadyyyy, WOAH! A DOG!! Oh GOD it's still HERE! Steady boy, IT'S OK!! It's OK!! WOAH!!'

:rolleyes:
 
Patterdale said:
I think he should have taken a year over it, used Parelli and natural horsemanship, stopped and instead of just calmly and firmly pushing him on, he should have gone back to the beginning every time the horse was unsure.

When the dog came, instead of just getting on with it and jeeping the horse working through distractions, he should have stopped, screamed 'OH MY GOSH, a DOG!! A DOG IS COMING!! WOAH, steadyyyy, WOAH! A DOG!! Oh GOD it's still HERE! Steady boy, IT'S OK!! It's OK!! WOAH!!'

:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Naughty :D:D:D
 
Patterdale said:
I think he should have taken a year over it, used Parelli and natural horsemanship, stopped and instead of just calmly and firmly pushing him on, he should have gone back to the beginning every time the horse was unsure.

When the dog came, instead of just getting on with it and jeeping the horse working through distractions, he should have stopped, screamed 'OH MY GOSH, a DOG!! A DOG IS COMING!! WOAH, steadyyyy, WOAH! A DOG!! Oh GOD it's still HERE! Steady boy, IT'S OK!! It's OK!! WOAH!!'

:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

amymay said:
Naughty :D:D:D
Click to expand...

but damned funny:D:D:D:D:D
 
Sorry Fii.
All my fault, I dared to say no to carrying extra unnecessary weight on a difficult night stage.
Sorry guys x :D:D
 
ribbons said:
Just finished watching this fantastic programme and thought let's have a look at the experts criticising the methods on HHO.
Sure enough here they all are.
That man is a genius, he has forgotten more about horses than most here will ever know.
The stallion episode happened because Martin had the reins, the stallion recognised his inexperience and took advantage, Robert immediately took control and the stallion returned to obedience.
The dog running around you are all condemning, when that horse is working properly with heavy dangerous machinery harnessed to it, and some idiots dog gets loose and bounds over yapping that horse will not bat an eyelid.
What an absolute pleasure to watch a real horseman at work. Total respect for his horses, complete understanding of controlling them.
What a load of rubbish spouted by people who haven't got the faintest idea what they are talking about.
A little more learning real horsemanship from people like Robert would lead to a lot less posts here about, "help, my horse is rude, bargy, pushy strong etc etc etc.
That man will never ruin or spoil a young horse. Which is more than can be said for a great number of people who post here.
Click to expand...


** this. What a load of nonsense gets written on this page, all the critics should perhaps watch the programme again with the above in mind.
 
Don't forget plastic bags Pale Rider! Its a shame there aren't more trainers/actual horsemen (not showmen - big difference :D ) who teach horses to cope with those things on your list. It annoys me that people think you should keep everything calm and quiet when training horses - when things go wrong chances are its not going to be a "calm, quiet" situation so hey how about teaching it to handle that type of thing as well?! May not be to everyone's taste but surely its better for the horse in the long run? As I said before, there are people like Barry Hook who do this type of thing, but they seem to be the exception rather than the general rule. Does anyone know if they will be doing a "catch-up" show in the future, like a year-on thing? I'm sure (despite all the critique about it) there are more people who WANT to see another show than those that don't, if only to give us more fuel for debate...;)
 
What people don't seem to understand is that it is bleak midwinter outside. No sign of spring. It's freezing. Most people live in mud. Everyone's fed up and crying out for some sunshine engineered happiness as it still seems like we live in darkness.

Moaning about tv programmes is about the best it's going to get right now. So, either join in wholeheartedly, or start another riveting thread!

:D
 
I personally don't have a problem with the two horses being broken to drive as two year olds, at the end of the day, they're going to grow to be big, strong animals so for safety reasons, surely its better to do all the basic work with them before they're fully grown? Presumably after being started they'll have 6 months or so off before being restarted and their education being furthered?

I'm a bit on the fence regarding the JRT chasing the horse round whilst it was being lunged. When I was watching the programme I was concerned, not for the horse as I agree with what has already been mentioned that these youngsters need to be 'desensitised' from as much as possible so that they don't bat an eyelid when they're out and about at shows etc - if they spooked and things started to go wrong it could cause carnage! I was a little worried that the dog was going to get kicked in the head though, perhaps it would have been better to keep it at bay until the horse had at least got used to lunging? Just my opinion on it.

I did really enjoy the programme though, and wish there were more horsey programmes on! I'd never heard of a fishing horse before so did find it interesting to learn about that.
 
Fii said:
TBH if i had any criticism of the show, it would be that i would have preferred it to have been longer, and done on maybe three or four half hour slots over three or four weeks!
And yes also had some Shires, they didnt even show the ringwood brewery show shires and they are only a few miles from MC!
Click to expand...

Patterdale said:
I think he should have taken a year over it, used Parelli and natural horsemanship, stopped and instead of just calmly and firmly pushing him on, he should have gone back to the beginning every time the horse was unsure.

When the dog came, instead of just getting on with it and jeeping the horse working through distractions, he should have stopped, screamed 'OH MY GOSH, a DOG!! A DOG IS COMING!! WOAH, steadyyyy, WOAH! A DOG!! Oh GOD it's still HERE! Steady boy, IT'S OK!! It's OK!! WOAH!!'

:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Not sure if this was aimed at my comment, but to clarify, i meant that to show more of the heavy horse community, different breeds, different disciplines, and just because i want to see more of them, ;) the program could have been longer!
 
Finally saw this. I wish there had been more Shires, as my horse is half-Shire, but hey ho.

Otherwise, I'm surprised by all the HHO posters who thought Martin's young Clydies were broken to harness in 15 minutes. It's a 45 minute-long TV program, guys. It's edited within an inch of its life. They're not going to show the rather dull (to a general audience) parts of introducing the horses to all the tack they're going to wear. I'm sure all that went on. It just didn't fit into 45 minutes that was meant to be entertainment, not a step-by-step training video on how to break a horse to drive.
 
Eventually watched this off my planner. I enjoyed it, loved the Bud horses too. I reckon Fab would let me vacuum him! May buy a handheld and try it out on him! :p

Must say my only bugbear was all the barbed wire fencing in the guys paddocks, but thats one of my pet peeves generally where horses are kept.
 
Springy said:
No we cant we have to agree implicitly with everything we see on that programme so why start over lets just say it was perfect and we all agree and anyone that doesnt is an idiot who will have horses that walk all over them and knows nothing :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Oh :(:( does that mean I can't wind anyone up about JRT squashing again?

I enjoyed that :D
 
Just seen the repeat and was pleased to see the stallion Axel, he comes out with the hunt all dolled up with the ribbons etc. And he is extremely well behaved even with the other horses close by.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top