Horses in middle earth

i needed a place to post this video, but i remember a while ago we had a discussion regarding the icelandic horses in the hobbit and horse-colour and what kind of horses the rohirim would use. i am trying to breath some fire into this discussion as i am very interested (in fact) in horses.

so we can all agree that the icelandic horse was a good choice for dwarves (as it resembles the dwarve's mentality, strong, short, independent, shaggy, smart and stubborn) but we can also all agree that the fur costumes out on them were rubbish (yes i know i said that these horses do have a thick winter coat, but the shire scenes were filmed in summer and PJ wanted the shaggy look so there u go.) and also i think we should've seen more of the horses, not loose them before they even made it to Rivendell.

so i thought i'de share this video of a pure and rather awesome icelandic horse in the action doing that trademark running thing, called tølt (have no idea what it is in english), pay attention to the rider, he sits completely still. (also a cute video showing how amazing these tough little guys are (accompanied by the devil's tune  )



this is the shaggy look PJ wanted


but this (sadly) is what we got.

Those poor horses must have been roasting under those fake fur suits.  

yes, i know, poor horses, and why couldn't they just look natural? i mean, they look like not-so-well-groomed-teddy bears.. it's a really bad fur-coat.

 

They are stunning arent they !  
I was reading that the Horses of the Rohirrim were mainly grey ? & that Orcs would steal the black ones often. That the Rohirrim horses were of great stature, strong & clean limbed, their grey coats glistened,& their long tails flowed in the wind, their manes were braided on their proud necks. In the section were Aragorn & co meet Eomer & they talk of finding 2 young hobbits, Eomer gives Aragorn a great dark grey horse called Hasufel, a smaller, lighter horse was given to Legolas, who removed the saddle, as he could ride freely. I cant see where it states the colour of the horse tho ?

(oooh no don't start with the grey thing again..)

in the movie at least they're all brown. we kinda have to get a lore master

  I remember now the great debate over grey & what shade of grey ! NO, I dont wanna open up THAT can of worms !

You cant just go about casually saying things like - 'the Horses of the Rohirrim were mainly grey'  

You'll bring down the wrath (and worse) the knowledge of the Lore Masters upon us!  

The debate was about grey and white if I recall correctly. Ah good times. And there may have been a grey area within that debate as well.

He was keen on words and using them when writing.  

oh fook !

Hey Elthir- you edited your post so now my response just looks like a drunken rambling- ok it was a drunken rambling but at least it was a responding drunken rambling  

Petty's last comment made a bit more sense before I edited [before his comment] before he saw that I edited [before his comment].


This post used words, although none were harmed or mistreated in the posting of them.


Edit: oh now my post makes less sense as I didn't see Petty's 'last' comment

This debate is quickly descending into a farce I tell you, a farce!  

And yes Elthir, everybody did love the debate, nothing we love more than being able to argue for months over stuff no one else can even see the point in- its the Forumshire way.
So do feel free to continue.

Wll I edited a part out... so off we go again. Maybe

I didn't edit that last post though.

Edit: nor this one yet. Oh drat.

 

Erm, do you get days when you think...."oh bolly-olly-ocks to the lot of it ?"   I think Im reaching that ?  

And yes Elthir, everybody did love the debate, nothing we love more than being able to argue for months over stuff no one else can even see the point in- its the Forumshire way.

So do feel free to continue.

Ahh thanks Petty

I edited this post a bit.

Talking about horses is one of many things that can get one killed in Forumshire.

what happened to my lovely horse thread

Ironically enough its being norced!

Norc wrote:a pure and rather awesome icelandic horse in the action doing that trademark running thing, called tølt (have no idea what it is in english), pay attention to the rider, he sits completely still.

What you called "actions" are called gaits in English.  That would include walk, trot , canter, gallop etc.  I can't watch the video on my computer, but I'm guessing the tølt is a kind of ambling gate where all feet hit the ground separately. We sometimes call it a single-foot because of that, but that may be an American term. I don't know...

Yes, the Icelandic horses are beautiful, intelligent and kind. My neighbor a few miles away has two of them. I think if I tried to ride one my toes would drag though. They must have had tiny vikings in Iceland!

You see now Azriel what comes of casually mentioning horse colours!  

{{{{ although admittedly that was an interesting piece David}}}}