driving six white horses

May 3, 2008 3:11 PM

One man. Six horses. Together, they do crazy stuff.
posted by oneirodynia (25 comments total)

SFW?
posted by Dave Faris at 3:12 PM on May 3, 2008

Yes. Maybe I should remove the "france" tag.
posted by oneirodynia at 3:23 PM on May 3, 2008

Equus
posted by Knigel at 3:31 PM on May 3, 2008

Erm... seems a little limited compared to this other french horse-guy.
posted by progosk at 3:38 PM on May 3, 2008

It's like he rides a chariot made out of horses!
posted by Citizen Premier at 3:44 PM on May 3, 2008 [1 favorite]

I miss Sigfried and Roy...
posted by twsf at 3:45 PM on May 3, 2008

I know that a six horse hitch without the wagon is incredibly impressive (and dangerous), but his horses don't get all the impressive brasses a be-wagon'd six horse hitch has.

May is also the National Carriage & Driving month in the US!
posted by winna at 3:59 PM on May 3, 2008

Did you say crazy horses?
posted by mr_crash_davis at 4:01 PM on May 3, 2008

So what? This is how I get to work every day. Best way I could find to beat the London congestion charge.
posted by Flashman at 4:17 PM on May 3, 2008

Mephites are a tough crowd! I was impressed that the horses weren't spooked by the helicopter filming them in the Camargue. And if they'd moved apart another foot or so he'd have to be good at doing the splits.
posted by binturong at 5:09 PM on May 3, 2008

One trick pony.
posted by _aa_ at 5:10 PM on May 3, 2008

What about the "L" in the water? It was worth it for that shot alone.
posted by princelyfox at 6:08 PM on May 3, 2008

This is totally different than the woman and six horse show that I saw in Tijuana. Together they did crazy stuff!
posted by Frank Grimes at 6:54 PM on May 3, 2008 [2 favorites]

Oh dear... I was by no means prepared for the amount of cheese I just experienced. Maybe you should add some kind of warning or disclaimer.
posted by evhan at 7:05 PM on May 3, 2008

Previously.
posted by netbros at 8:23 PM on May 3, 2008

Now that's just greedy. Some of us don't even have one pony and here this Frenchman's got 6.
posted by Pollomacho at 9:15 PM on May 3, 2008

That would not seem a tenth as exciting without the music.
posted by obvious at 9:38 PM on May 3, 2008 [1 favorite]

I was bored out of my mind in 2 minutes and 35 seconds. I couldn't imagine watching him stand on the back of horses for 2 hours. Oh, look, he's jumping over another log?!
posted by dobbs at 10:33 PM on May 3, 2008 [2 favorites]

After watching that, I find myself curiously longing for a tall cold glass of Guinness.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 10:52 PM on May 3, 2008

I used to ride horses and did some vaulting. And the thing that's amazing to me is that he has that much control over the horses considering how little contact he has with them. When you are riding a horse you have a lot of cues, every movement of your legs around them, your balance, your body weight shifts, your hands, and even when you turn your head it gives them an idea of what you want. But when you're standing on a horse your cues are limited to body weight, where you step and shift, and the reins (which he isn't holding much of the time). Training them in water would make a lot of sense, it would hurt a lot less the when the rider falls plus the horses can't go too fast.

Anyhow yeah, I can see how watching a guy standing on horses could be boring. But since I was imagining doing it as I watched it, I really enjoyed it. Cheesy music and all. It's kind of like how a soccer-playing American enjoys watching a soccer while a non-soccer-playing American might find it the most boring game on earth I guess.
posted by miss lynnster at 11:11 PM on May 3, 2008

See, this is like that whole my-juggling-technique-is-unstoppable thing now.
posted by dhartung at 12:06 AM on May 4, 2008

I have to agree with miss lynnster. I have horses, and seeing what this guy can do is absolutely amazing and unimaginably difficult. And seeing him run around beside his horses, which are running free beside him, makes me wish I could do that with my horses; what a fantastic feeling that must be. Those horses trust him like mad.

And I've seen Zingaro (and Cheval) a couple of times, and they make me jealous too.
posted by OolooKitty at 10:33 AM on May 4, 2008

oneirodynia: thank you. *i* thought it was beautiful, and that lorenzo (and his horses) was amazing. AMAZING!
posted by CitizenD at 12:28 PM on May 4, 2008

CitizenD, I'm glad you liked it. miss lynnster, I too used to vault, and what blew me away was the part where he turns around and stands backwards. Because that was the one thing I could never master- jumping up and doing a half turn and remaining standing. I always ended up walking off the rump. Though I could stand backwards on the neck for triples...

I admit I turned the sound off after about five seconds. Sorry evhan, I assumed other people are less intolerant than me.
posted by oneirodynia at 6:01 PM on May 4, 2008

I think the guy is probably nice. His horses seem to like him a lot. I like that the world has come up with a way to be successful when his only real performance trick is horse-standing.

But yeah, that music has to go, and the kind of production values in the video in general, need to go. The incongruity between the music and what he's actually doing is LOL-funny.
posted by JHarris at 10:49 AM on May 5, 2008