Dancing Horses -the one I missed!

[watervole]

 Yesterday at Swanage Folk Festival I was lucky enough to see one of the best dancing horses of all.  The Minehead Hobby Horse is one of a very rare breed (there's another one at Padstow, but that's about it).

It's a wild and energetic animal and it led the Swanage procession and I suspect the young man inside was totally exhausted by the end.  (I gather he had rope burns from all that energetic swinging)

Here's some footage of it from another occasion.  It's the Sailor's Horse from Minehead -which may help to explain why it looks as much like a boat as a horse, but it definitely has a tail!

Watch on YouTube

Comments

[twinfair]

You probably don't know this but I lived in Padstow for four years when I was young. The image of the two 'Obby 'Osses dancing frenetically around the streets, the repetitive melody of the traditional music played until dusk and the two 'Osses meeting at the May Poll at 4pm (I think it was) and competing with each other, dying and being reborn, as a representation of Spring and the upcoming Summer, is still vivid in my mind.

I'd love to go back there one year but it gets so crowded now it would not be easy and staying down there almost impossible.

[watervole]

Oooh.

Sounds amazing. Thanks so much for describing it for me.