Thursdays are my favorite day of the week because they are the day that I have my riding lesson. Although it is also my busiest day of the week. It takes me about an hour to get ready (Yes, I will admit to being one of those people who take forever to get ready in the morning.), 20 minutes to drive to the stable, five minutes of waiting around and finding what horse I'm riding, ten minutes to get ready (We only get ten minutes, if it takes longer it cuts into our lesson and is our fault), we get a bit of time to warm up while everyone and the instructor finishes getting ready and gets into the arena, the lesson goes for about an hour overall though. Then at least 20 minutes to get them back in their stalls after the lesson, which is a longer process during the summer because they get extra sweaty and need to be cooled down; and another twenty minutes to drive back home, IF we don't get stuck behind a billion bikers or find the train chugging along the tracks we have to cross.
So maybe that only equals up to four hours, but when you take into consideration that the actual lesson is only one hour, its fairly extensive. Actually, today I'm leaving an hour early so I can clean my saddle before my lesson, but that's for a post later in the day when I'll give you all the treats of my lesson.
Right now, I actually wanted to talk about these puppeteers I just recently stumbled across. Or rather, the puppets themselves. The play is called "War Horse" and the puppets are life sized, ride-able, horses. It started in the UK (Leave it to them to come up with something amazing) and is been running for four years. I'm fairly sure that it took six years to prepare. It is spreading throughout the world though.
The horses are extremely life like and seem to have personalities. I didn't even really pay attention or notice the puppeteers while I watched different videos! The main way the puppeteers do it is by making the puppets breath. Basil Jones, the co-founder of Handspring says, "You have to believe that even though someone is sitting right at the back of the auditorium, they can see the puppet breathing."
I think this especially has appeal to me because a life-size, ride-able horse that you didn't have to feed or clean up after (Or board at a stable) was my childhood dream. It didn't even have to have a team of puppeteers moving it. I use to try to get my parents to get me the life-sized horses that tack stores would display their equipment on. These days I wouldn't have much use for that. But I would absolutely love to see this play!
Here is the article I stumbled across, I took the quote from there. And the have another video which is also fun to watch.
Here is a you tube video of a foal scene in the play. I love how the foal has straight wooden legs that can't bend, it reminds me of how wobbly foals actually are.
There are also tons more videos about this around.
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