Tuesday 17 September 2013

Barefoot in slow motion

While we were at the RRR we had an opportunity which was too good to miss. Lots of rehab horses gathered together, lots of different surfaces to film on and for a few short hours some dry weather.
Ross MacKenzie from Firebird Films spent the day with us and was endlessly patient with our strange requests to film horses at ground level and from all different angles. 

The result is this and I hope you think its worthwhile...


All but one of the horses are rehabs - some left Rockley years ago, some a few months ago. All are self-trimming and are now kept not on complicated or expensive track systems but on livery yards or simply at home. 

What they have in common is fantastically dedicated and hard-working owners - they are an outstanding credit to them. 

Very many thanks to everyone who rode or waited around on a chilly Sunday morning to help us get this footage. Apologies to anyone we missed out or didn't manage to capture on film - we will get you next year :-)

13 comments:

Media Wurzel said...

Wow. Great footage. I can't really see any need for going as far as using the Phantom Flex (unless it is to analyse something really specific). Well done Nic. And well done all the pony people who took part. Oh. And well done Ross for keeping moving things in focus!

BruceA said...

WOW. This is the best thing I have seen all year. I love the ones who have HF perfectly and those who are getting there on their journey. This was very moving. I loved the piebald hoof waving around, but getting it down heel first at the finish!

amandap said...

Just fantastic. Huge congrats to you all!
Brought a tear to my eye.

Nic Barker said...

Thanks all, and yep, Ross was a trooper :-) I did tell him that he shouldn't necessarily assume he could always film at ground level in front of cantering horses ;-)

Unknown said...

Beautiful, just.. beautiful.

Molly's hoof blog said...

fantastic!!

Dom said...

Amazing footage. Love seeing the heel first landings. Fascinating to see the way their conformations affect their foot falls. Also fascinating to see the tendons releasing in slow motion...

...but my favorite part of this video was seeing the birds swooping in slow mo in the background.

Great choice of music too :)

Unknown said...

Bloody amazing!! Made me cry!! Desperately shared to the doubters on my Facebook page. Wish I could scream it out to the world "take the shoes off NOW"!

AmandaB said...

Amazing video made me blub like a baby too! It's so good seeing all those horses with a magnitude of problems looking so fantastic and moving so well . So if that's a bunch of 'navicular' horses ....... I think I might buy another one ! :-)

prairrie said...

Its hard to improve on nature.

M's mum said...

Wow. Just... wow.
xxx

amandap said...

prairrie said...
"Its hard to improve on nature. "


I believe it is not possible and if we believe it is possible or even that we know better, it is to the detriment where living creatures are concerned.

Nic Barker said...

Well said AmandaP - millions of years of evolution are hard to beat!