FONE FOTOS of MY HORSE INDY VS. EADWEARD MUYBRIDGE

 

Tech notes: Rectifying the absence of pics of my horse Indy on my phone, I went to photograph him walking in the turn-out paddock. When he suddenly began cantering, I rested the phone on a pipe corral railing to minimize camera-shake and twisted it to pan his action, which didn't last more than about 20 seconds. My theory is get the action shot, don't stop to futz with equipment-- there's always post-production for any inadequacies.

Musing: two years ago Indy was recovering from multiple genetic malaises that essentially lamed him. With corrective shoeing, electrowave therapy, medication and a patient year of regaining ground in the tiniest of increments, he is a happy, healthy riding horse again, just not up the steepest hills anymore. For those readers who aren't horsepeople, not every injured horse comes back to recovery...

Further musing:

 Video LINK

  

from these still photos: 

Indy's various canter strides are reminiscent of a fascinating chapter in proto-motion pictures. Eadweard Muybridge, an adventurous type who survived a serious stagecoach crash and murder charges, photographed still shots in of a galloping horse in 1872. When seen in rapid sequence they present a movie of same. Leland Stanford funded the complex project of tripping shutter releases to stop the action to win a bet, that all four feet of a horse are off the ground at a gallop. This gait had always been stylized by artists as front feet sticking straight out with back legs sticking straight out, as in this Currier & Ives print print and all Western art prior. The proto-motion picture proved that this schematic was impossible for horses in real life, and more natural depictions followed thereafter...