Gratuitous Whinny Report: The Gilded Age

[anon38350891]

I enjoy being driven out of my mind by gratuitous whinnying on movies and TV. So the first episode of the HBO series The Gilded Age was rewarding. It’s got lotsa great looking horses! And the added whinnying by the sound guys is 100% wack.

Scenes of carriages and carts being drawn by gorgeous huge draft horses, their heads down, doing their jobs: WHIINNY LIKE YOU’RE A FILLY IN HEAT! It’s also ventriloquism whinnying: no movement of mouths or nostrils.

This show innovates by having a sort of normal sounding whinny immediately followed by a maniacal screech-whinny, like someone is dragging a horse off-set by its ears and the horse vocalizes like a mistreated dog.

It also innovates by adding outdoor whinnying to scenes set in drawing rooms. This I guess is intended to remind viewers that “this is old-timey and there are horses out there”. Good to know.

I now have a game with myself: count down the seconds after a horse appears on-screen, until the inevitable ventriloquistic whinny. .

I guess it’s so far not as bad as the horses whinnying over high jumps or while galloping flat out in westerns, and at least these horses are solid, well-muscled and well-fed.

Anybody else watching this series? The dresses and hats are beyond gorgeous.

[Snowdenfarm]

I think this needs to be a drinking game.

[eightpondfarm]

i have watched one episode and enjoyed it. Will try to remember to record the rest of them.

Your OP was pretty funny btw.

[shiloh]

Blucher!

[Fiesta01]

I never regretted not having HBO before this post.

[StormyDay]

It’s in almost every show with a horse, and yes it drives me crazy.
Even in the Witcher, which was good about not doing it, until the second season when the horse somehow whinnies without moving its nose or anything.

[ratchet]

As I’ve stated in another thread and what I insist on reminding my non horsey friends whenever this topic comes up, if the sound designers want to reinforce the presence of horses it really ought to be gratuitous farting instead of whinnying

[starsandsun]

Makes. Me. Crazy.

[2DogsFarm]

Same
I love Christine Baranski

[Paint_Party]

@shiloh

Blucher!

[ZELLA]

During that time, a fine carriage would never be pulled by a pair of --gasp-- Fjords!

[Jarpur]

Our previous dog (rest his soul) would become very upset at the whinnying on tv – sounds which he recognized as a horse in distress (even though no horse was actually in distress).

I had to reassure him, and even had to take him out to our barn the first several times he experienced this, so he could check that our horses were okay - he just knew that some horse, somewhere, was upset, and someone needed to do something about it, right away.

Eventually, I could simply say “TV” when the whinnying started up, he’d sigh, and ignore the sound. But he was never entirely okay with it - he thought it was wrong (and he was right about that).

[moonlitoaksranch]

I always wondered…is the gratuitous whinnying so people know those are horses and not, you know, cows?

I think it would be awesome if they just used random animal noises when they show horses on screen. Monkey, cows, goats…

[anon38350891]

@ZELLA

During that time, a fine carriage would never be pulled by a pair of --gasp-- Fjords!

They were so gorgeous! But yes, they caught my eye as in hmmmm?

[swmorse]

My sister-in-law and I watched Merlin on Netflix and had the captions on. When horses snorted the caption said horse blusters.

[ratchet]

The captions for horse snorting on Wheel of Time said “horse sputtering”

[rockymouse]

I guffawed at this and woke up my sleeping husband.

[Spudsmyguy]

Watching Poldark the other day and of course, the gratuitous whinnying was ridiculous. One sounded like a cat was being strangled until I realized is was supposed to be his horse making that noise as he galloped away. He does an awful lot of galloping along the cliffs doesn’t he? Everything is an emergency.

[quietann]

I am hoping it comes out on another service once HBO is done with it.