The black stallion? You mean the movie where the unregistered Arabian races against thoroughbreds with an “unknown” rider at the helm?
@Mondo I share your aggravation with the spur comments!! When I was on a drill team, spurs were required attire, along with the full skirts over rump and other items when “out in public” as a Team. The thinking was that horse was not allowed to refuse going forward, whatever peculiar location we were in. We faced MANY new or odd things during parades, Rodeo halftimes, and so on.
Well if we “had” to wear spurs, I wanted very cool ones to go with our Western styled attire!! So I asked for fancy ones for Christmas. Husband spotted some silver engraved Garcia, western spurs on the cover of my Western Horseman magazine. He ordered me a pair and they were as gorgeous in my hands as they were on the magazine!! Think Gunsmoke’s Festus jingling along the sidewalk. Spurs had shiny big, blunt rowels, chains under the instep, jingle-bobs to make noise. I wore them to practice, where they left most folks in awe. There was a comment about “Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes, she wIll have music wherever she goes,” that made all of us laugh!
The Old Bat I rode was not upset with the spurs, she knew what they meant. Just an aid for leg cues . We had MANY miles of riding country roads with my toes FORWARD to avoid getting snagged on mailboxes, twisting my ankle!! No chance of heel turning in accidently to poke her with a spur.
I did get a few comments from the ignorant about cruelty. Even some from other riders! I asked if horse acted scared hearing me walk up to her? She actually yawned most times I said that! Ha ha Then I asked if they saw ANY spur marks on her! Old scars, cuts? Of course there were none. Then I told them to look at the whole picture before jumping to conclusions!! Don’t mistake a very well trained horse being mistreated because rider wears noisy spurs!! Horse MUST always respond as requested NOW, in possibly dangerous situations, lIke Police horses do. All Military riders wear spurs when on a horse.
Unfortunately my present horses are so light to the leg/foot, that I can’t wear my Garcias now. No tough situations they won’t go forward into. I think they would be insulted with spur touches! I miss the jingling music.
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yes that one. When I read the book I knew nothing of racing. In the movie it is clearly a match race. They could run a jackass if they wanted to.
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I just finished watching the last half hour of the movie. The books were conflicting, as I clearly remember that in one The Black was described as “pure Arabian” but in another (and I think, earlier), The Black was described as “too big to be pure Arabian.” The Black was allowed to enter the match race because, I believe, a track reporter/handicapper(?) privately witnessed and clocked The Black’s speed.
And it’s funny, too, because The Black was bred to a Standardbred mare, and Bonfire (The Black Stallion’s Blood Bay Colt) was born.
I have to say that, in my opinion, Walter Farley could really WRITE an exciting ‘horse race.’
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Yes, I remember the match race.
The whole thing was very unrealistic in terms of Alec & The Black’s relationship as well as the willingness to let this unregistered horse anywhere near a track.
I loved the movies…but definitely don’t consider them accurate so it just surprised me.
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it isn’t realistic to real life. I never said it was, I said the movie was faithful to the book. And except for the match race which while we know it is silly, it was well done. It has some of the best racing footage I have ever seen in a movie, including Seabiscuit and Secretariat.
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I’m sorry, I guess I misunderstood! When you said without mistakes, that’s where my brain went.
And I agree - still one of my favorites.
Well, you can’t be surprised that the general public who doesn’t know about spurs to begin with would find big rowels and chains to look like a torture device. I am surprised that the the team allowed one person to wear spurs like that; unless they all did for the uniform. It just draws attention from the uninformed.
@S1969 You could wear whatever type spurs you liked. You just had to have spurs on. There were the more common roweled, western spurs, English spurs, and the various slip-on spurs that seemed to fall off during rides. The big skirts covered the rumps, tucked around your leg, so spurs were not real visible most times.
I really had no issue with the general public’s spur questions. They didn’t know horses or our need for spur wearing reasons. I am willing to help folks learn, glad to talk to them! It was the ones that “appeared” western at shows, rodeos, who actually got rather bent. This criticizing right off, without asking any questions to learn more, had them just jumping to all wrong conclusions. Tiresome type of people in any setting! They were probably just wearing the weatern clothes, not actually knowledgeable horse folks.
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So true! When in competition, FEI levels (I’m a dressage rider) require spurs. If you have a sensitive horse (you’d better have a good leg at that level anyway), you wear a tiny little Prince of Wales spur just for the requirement. I do have a pair with a blunt rowel that is (believe it or not) dressage legal. I save that for the warmbloodosaurus that I occasionally ride. 
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I feel that a subtle roll with a rowel spur is more humane, and effective than POW’s, which I swear many riders use as calipers.
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Yup. As long as the rowels are dull and free rolling, they’re LESS likely to make a mark/rub hair out than PoW spurs.
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Which brings me to a shelf sign I saw once at MAJOR tack store: Prince of Whales Spurs. I kid you not.
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That made me snort coffee out of my nose.
picturing a blue whale with a crown on its head winking at me
Prince of 
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I watched The Black Stallion Sunday night. It was lovely seeing it again. I think this was the third time I’ve seen it; I know I saw it in the theatre the year it came out and at least once on TV or DVD since then.
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And the music!! What a great score!
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I don’t know if you noticed, but the music was by Carmine Coppola.
Yes, and his son Francis Ford Coppola produced it.
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Prolly has been around since the early 90’s on the internet. This isn’t anything new.
