Japan has dedicated days to almost everything. For example in 1983 the coffee importer?s association declared October 1st to be ?????, Coffee Day, and some things are so important that they have more than one day, like ????, Horse Day whose most important date seems to be September 23rd. Naturally being a horse lover I visited Setagaya ward?s huge horse park, Bajikouen (????), for the annual horse show. Bajikouen, as I have written before, is the old venue for the equestrian events from the 1964 olympic although it was actually planned for the 1940 olympic games (which was cancelled due to WW2). Today Bajikouen is the centre of Japanese equestrian sports and open year round to the public. It?s a fantastic place to visit since there?s usually some sort of event or competition going on or you can go just to enjoy the parks or pick-nick spaces.
This year?s special events included horohike, ???, a first for me. Horohike is performed by two riders with horses from the emperor?s stable and is an old event with an obscure history that is said to have started sometime between 800-1200 A.D. The religious event, is said to symbolize Spring and Autumn and features the two riders gradually unfurling ten meter long banners. If you?ve seen any old war movies you?ll know that cavalry mounted standards and banners bob quite ungracefully up and down by the way the horses move, which is also why the riders do the sit up sit down sit up sort of movement. So naturally, the Japanese devised a way to make the horse trot in a gait that doesn?t involve any up down movement at all! In English this kind of gait is called the pace, and the only way I can describe it is that it looks just like the way a camel moves, both left legs move forward at the same time, and vice ? versa. This special kind of movement is very difficult for most horses and requires intense training for years to be successful, and the faster the horses go the more difficult it becomes. It is also a very energy efficient way of moving, as the least amount of energy is used to move the horse and rider forward.
At first the two horses would pace slowly across the field gradually picking up speed as the riders unfurled more and more of the banners. Controlling the horses speed, keeping track of each other to move synchronized while handling the banner, it looked incredibly difficult and after a long build up the banners finally unfolded and the horse paced as fast as they could while riding in a special cross-pattern. Very impressive of both riders and the horses! Personally, when I ride I have trouble just keeping the horse getting bored and wandering off with me on top of it, but seeing this made me want to get up in the saddle again.
So remember to add September 23rd in your diaries if you?re in Tokyo. Great fun and totally free for anyone to attend. I?ll post more photos from some of the great events that day later on this week.
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Source: http://tokyobling.wordpress.com/2011/09/25/horohike-the-emperors-horses/
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