Can anyone tell me what is going on in this video?

That is just shocking! Oh my goodness!

My husband tells me I have a one track mind all the time so I can say still don't think it looks good!LOL

The horse looks to have something tying his legs together but they're not hobbles, nor are they really hindering his movement.

Also, the video has been speeded up to make it look more 'dramatic'.

I don't see a frightened, abused horse. I see one making a concentrated effort to do as his handler is asking.

Mls pardon our ignorance but we don't really have a clue what is going on there. I know I have never seen anything like that before.

Because I hate to be judgemental, I reviewed the video. There is obviously two horses. The first is calm. He is pretty easy to watch. Its hard to tell with the grainy video but he doesnt seem tethered, hobbled or even really held back.

The second horse, on the other hand, appears to be in a full panic. This could be artfully trained but it sure looks like panic to me. Since I am not familiar with this type of exhibition...how would I know otherwise?

Since you seem to know what is going on there, do you have any other information on this? Why do they train their horses to dance? How do they do it? Why did one horse look night and day different from the other? Is general dancing what they are going for or is the calm horse more the goal...or is the paniced horse the goal?

All I ever commented on this video was that the horse looked frightened. The last horse does look frightened.

Corino, the title of the video tells you what the horse is doing. I am guessing that is how MLS figured it out too.

I do not think the second horse looks abused or even panicked. There is a little bit where he looks like he is trying very hard to do what he is asked but is a little confused. But not panicked.


It is pretty cool to watch these ponies dancing in hand like this. Interesting for sure.

If you watched the video - you would see the scroll bar that offers instructional videos for sale.

Everyone will have their own opinion and it just so happens most people don't agree with a horse being hobbled and taught something against it's will. That horse really doesn't look to happy to me . A happy horse doesn't have their ears back and thrash around like that. If the horse was dancing it wouldn't look so terrifying ... more pretty.

Taught something against their will, hu?

Did the horse in your avatar photo volunteer to bend at the pole to that extreme or did you have to teach the horse to do that?

I could easily say that you taught the horse that against its will.

Horses move their ears to listen and pay attention. Ears perked forward all the time is not a realistic thing. Again, reference your avatar photo.

So your horse is always happy and complies readily to learning new things?

Ok so I went and looked at half a dozen other dancing horse videos on youtube and found out a bit more. While I still don't agree that the horse in this video is calm and happy about doing its job...he does seem to be the exception to the rule. I would guess that the horses are supposed to look fast and dramatic about the dancing. There is one really nice video on youtube that has a white horse doing the dance and it is quite beautiful. I never claimed abuse...I just didn't think that horse particularly cared for his job. The white horse, on the other hand, seems proud to do it. Needed very little coaxing to start and actually looked like he was dancing. Inbetween dances, you can see his handlers petting and loving on him.
I am no judge of this type of talent but I would rather watch the white horse dance than the scramble legged horse in the other video


Edit to state: With the 'abuse' mindset, we can find abuse in every single thing we do with horses. This Attan is new to me...I had never seen it before. Which to me, makes it unfamilar...but not abuse. Think of every single thing you do with a horse and it can be classified by SOMEONE as abuse.