Throwback Thursday -- The Gala of the Royal Horses

Early last month, we had an event come to my work. This time, it wasn't a music artist I'd never heard of or a sporting event I'm not interested in. Instead, it was a horse event!

 

Called The Gala of the Royal Horses, the show is loosely based on dressage, with a big dose of Spanish flair. Besides traditional dressage riding demonstrations, there were Spanish themed performances, and a couple of Lipizzans performed the famed "Airs Above Ground."

 

Parts of the show were certainly cheesy to actual equestrians, but the crowd loved it. In a talk with one of the riders prior to the show, he remarked, "Things are different in the performance than they would be in a show or training session. Sometimes I'll get bitten or kicked, or the horse will misbehave. I can't correct him, just grit my teeth and smile."

 

There were certainly moments where the horses misbehaved, and I enjoyed watching the trainer's face during those moments. While he had a smile on his face, you could tell he was bothered. How difficult!

 

Overall, it was a fun night. A big group of my riding friends from the area attended, and we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. My job for the night was to take photos for our in-house archives. So, enjoy my shots!

Here the trainer was demonstrating teaching the piaffe. They used 3 horses in various stages of learning the move.

At the end of a fancy Spanish-themed performance during which this horse carted around a girl with a big skirt draped over his butt, the rider turned the horse to leave the ring. The horse either spooked, or the rider spurred him unintentionally, because he bolted for the out-gate. It was a little dicey there for a second, and I caught this shot just before the group passed beyond the curtain. I'm not positive that girl didn't hit the concrete on the other side.

A couple of young Lipizzans doing liberty work.

The main trainer did a dressage demonstration with this Andalusian. It appeared to be mostly Third Level. The horse kept flubbing his lead changes, which really seemed to be starting to annoy the rider. Whoops! Like most of the show, this section made liberal use of the Spanish Walk. Does anyone else think the Spanish Walk looks silly?

Whatever this horse's failings at lead changes, he was a piaffe machine! Also, get a load of that TAIL! So lovely!

The start of the Airs. Here a Lipizzan demonstrates some Levade. Of course, I managed to catch a moment where he was hopping around... oops.

I have no idea what this movement is called, so I'll just call it "The Flail." The horse would rear as high as he could, then strike out with his forelegs.

See ... lots of flailing about.

The famous Capriole! These guys went SUPER high into the air to perform this. Much higher than I've seen previously. It was almost impossible to capture on film, though.

I was told this horse was originally selected as a prospect for the Spanish WEG team, but ended up not being able to mentally handle the training and was replaced by Fuego. I have no idea if that's true, but he was a really quality mover, especially when you consider he is an Andalusian. Here he is gearing up for a bit of extended trot.

Here's another shot of the fancy Andalusian. He was my overall favorite. Just a gorgeous mover!

In case you were wondering, yes all of these horses were wearing body glitter. Whaaaat?! I know!! Is body glitter USEF legal? If so, I need to get Pig decked out!