@peedin is a horse expert and can probably say something well-informed here.
I forget the names, but we have a couple other horse-people here.
Heres a better example. Watch the first 35 seconds. Especially after the rider pases through the gap between two large rocks.
I agree after reading the thread the horse may just be making natural head movements. It may be reacting to walking on the steep, rocky path.
It whinnies around the 25-30 sec mark.
Yup. Most of that is reaction to the bit combined with navigating a twisty course.
Agreed. Watching that clip, every time the horse has to navigate a tight spot, or a place where the footing may be uncertain, you can see his head go up.
Exactly. And that horse wasn’t neighing; it was a bit of overlaid sound (“neigh = horse”) added after filming. If the horse had actually whinnied you’d see fluttering of its nostrils. Horses are a lot less prone to making any vocal sounds than the movies show, and it’s a bit annoying that the producers think it’s necessary for the audience to get it, duh, there are horses here!
/pet peeve
Omg yes. Major pet peeve!
I’ve been around horses a fair amount. I know the effect you are describing. Bobbing their head’s up (usually twice) is just something horses do. The horses I was around were affectionate - I equated them with dogs in that sense.
As mentioned above, I always thought it was their way of gaining perspective of their situation. It might be partially in response to the bit but they will do it without a bit in their mouths as well.
I always figured that horses in Westerns were bobbing their heads in rhythm to “Sunset On The Sage”.
My wife is a horse enthusiast and experienced rider. When watching movies she will point out when the inexperienced actor is clearly pissing off the animal they are riding and will shout directions to him/her. The horse doesn’t care he is one screen, he cares he has had to deal with a clumsy asshole in the saddle for weeks who doesn’t know what he is doing. All the catering, pampering and voice coaching in the world can’t make a cowboy. Now that I have begun to see it I think it’s funny.
Dogs can tell you a lot about someone, but if you know anything about horses they may be able to tell you even more.
It was easy to pick out the skilled riders from the actors trying to fake it in the Lord of the Rings movies. I remember one scene where Aragorn and others were riding together at a walk; the other horses were slopping along in whatever frame they felt like, while Aragorn’s horse was comfortably collected, moving elegantly.
That kinda works for the Hobbits. I don’t remember if Shadowfax was upset. Sir Ian McKellen seems like he’d know horses though.
I recall that when watching the funeral procession of Queen Elizabeth there was a long road leading to the chapel for the final service and internment. The horses were bobbing their heads up and down on that final leg, noticeably so and in contrast to their more sedate appearance up until that point. One of the BBC commentators remarked on it and said it was a sign that the horses were tired from the long day of processions and getting restless, expressing their discomfort and eagerness to call it a day.
Horse owner of 4 decades. The following is for horses that do the traditional 3 gaits (not including the gallop). Horses nod their heads in rhythm with the walk and canter. Their heads stay still at the trot. If a horse throws its head, it’s either uncomfortable or wants to run. The majority of actors are not horseman, so dollars to carrots they are uncomfortable and someone is jerking at their mouth.
There are many types of gaited horses, such as Tennessee Walkers and Saddlebreds. Some have standard gaits, like the 3 gaited Saddlebred, and some have additional/instead of gaits, like the 5 gaited Saddlebred. Tennessee Walkers don’t trot. icelandics tolt.
Likely it was in part an effort to keep going despite being tired. The head bob, as @peedin notes, is part of the walk and canter gaits – analogous to us swinging our arms as we walk, pumping the arms when running. Getting tired? Swing/pump those arms harder.
As I understand it, they lack the neural wiring to do some gaits. Not just that they walk unconsciously, but that they lack the means to entirely control their gait consciously.
I can’t speak to the head bobbing, but animal welfare has not always been great in Hollywood.
Two Westerns in 1939: Stagecoach and Jesse James deliberately killed horses for stunts. And of course there were examples of dozens of horses being killed for grand spectacles in moves of the decades prior. But the point is, given that the golden age of Westerns was basically 1940 - 1960, we’re talking about the period just after horses were trivially killed for the sake of a shot. I doubt that their comfort immediately became a high priority.