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Why can't the BBC get horse things right?

Spoiler alert: sorta bad review of the new PBS series “All Creatures.” Especially the equine abscess segment.

Episode one. Horse with abscess. In a paddock with ankle deep very wet mud a hoof is lifted and a hoof knife is deployed (sort of, barely) and amazingly perfect exudate spills out with a color apparently approved by production design, not mother nature (especially in that insanely filthy environment)! despite the hoof not even being fully cleaned; then the hoof (of course) was set down again into ankle deep disgusting footing. OH YES THEY DID HAVE IODINE IN THOSE DAYS. Also “sugardine.” Oh and the part about the “horse shaking hands” - any British (esp. Yorkshire!!) groom worth his stipend and 3 squares would never on pain of being turned off without a reference (service jobs being even in those days fully dependent upon a good reference) have allowed someone to approach a horse known for striking – from the front, no less and bend down in front of the offending forelegs!

Then: After Emmy-award level widened eyes from newbie vet (displayed so consistently and frequently one wonders whether his education had actually rendered him capable of effectiveness in any farm environment whatsoever) it was also amazing that he achieved miraculously clean clothing immediately following said striking incident.

I won’t bother repeating the amazing miracle after the calving incident.

You would think with the long history of stellar equine horse (and general livestock and farm) management in that country that the producers could at least have retained an advisor to the show to help make things just a tad more realistic. The widened eyeballs just didn’t cut it.

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Yeah, the horse scene could be better. IIRC the calving scene stuck fairly closely to what was in the book. For the most part I liked it and will watch the next episode. It’s sure is better than what has been on lately.

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I loved the book series as a teen because the animal parts were funny but accurate and precise, and Iearned things. The human relationships were perfunctory and sketched in.

I caught part of the show last week and realized I was never going to care about the characters plus the vetting was going to be fake-o all the way because they weren’t going to be cutting into actual animals. On the other hand all the vet “reality” shows are totally fake too.

Too bad. I wanted to like it.

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I just bought the series of books today for my mom to read again. When I was a teen we enjoyed the books together. I’m looking forward to giving them to her. She loved the new series, minus the horse scene which she thought was dumb. She cried during the calving :cry: She is 83 and spent alot of time at her grandparent’s farm.

The books were some of the first things I ever read–Reader’s Digest had excerpts, so I read about Tricki Woo even before I went to kindergarten. I read all of the books so many times, I do think the covers wore through in places from sheer overuse. I think the series is great and timeless literature, and I rate them as high as Arthur Conan Doyle, P.G. Wodehouse, and L.M. Montgomery for comfort, family reading you can read throughout your life and the life of your children.

I think the first two seasons of the old ACGAS were, if different from the books (they emphasize the human relationships more than the animals, understandably so), still great TV. I have to confess that I still have a crush on Peter Davison as Tristan. It was an absolutely brilliant move to cast a gentle and unassuming man as a complete rake. It made the character so vulnerable and likeable.

I was invited to a prescreening of the first episode and Zoom meeting with the cast of the new ACGAS before it aired (me and probably a hundred other people, so not a big deal, btw). The younger people who had never read or seen the other versions were over the moon with how wonderful it was. I enjoyed it, particularly Sam West as Siegfried, but not as much as the earlier version, and certainly not as much as the books.

In the interview, and also in my readings about the first, I learned that because of the limited budget for the 70s show, there were no stunt doubles or special effects. Which means that when Timothy West as James Herriot has his hand up a cow’s ass, that is West with his hand up a cow’s ass. They were also allowed to sedate animals humanely for shots.

Now, that is not allowed. Only licensed vets can perform physical interventions on set, and you can only medicate an animal on set when it’s medically necessary. So they warned that the veterinary stuff might not be as realistic in the new one.

I will probably still watch it, although I don’t watch a great deal of TV, and have a long queue of other things to see beforehand!

I thought the same thing. That paddock was disgusting and why did he keep crouching down in front of the horse? Made no sense. Then after miraculously opening up the abscess and setting that open hole back into the muck, the next shot shows the horse being harnessed up for work. He’s got an open hole in the sole of his foot and they expect it to go back to work right away? Way to ensure long term lameness.

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Small point of order; it’s not a BBC production, it’s an independent production company and the series was aired on Channel 5 in the UK.

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Oh good, it is not just me noticing those things. I, too, loved the books and enjoyed the earlier TV version. I liked the casting. But yeah, the horse stuff created some cringes. And then a cow laboring for 5 hours before the vet comes, then 5 more hours with the vet? And when the calf is finally pulled cow and calf are totally fine and the humans act like that is completely expected. Just get the calf out after 10 hours and all is expected to be good, right?

I read all the books, watched all the original series & have been re-watching the original series again on BritBox. I think it would be pretty darn difficult to recreate the original. So many of the scenes and interactions were replicated from the books. It is perfect watching for right now (during the pandemic) as it is warm, human and humane. No blow-em-up, shoot-em & senseless violence.

The 1st episode, although not just like the original, I found quite enjoyable. I will look forward to the next episodes & just need to suspend my requirement to be absolutely accurate.

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Calving is not like foaling. With a foal once the birthing starts the foal has to be out of the bag in time to breathe to survive.

The bag around a calf has pink spots, the calf can breathe so yes the cow can start calving in the morning. The owner comes home from work 8 hours later and gets the cow in the crush to wait for the vet or someone else to come to help as it takes 2 people if not 3 to pull out and down to get the calf out, and cow and calf are fine.

That is what happened to me.

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Yeah, I had forgotten about the cotyledons on cow placenta. Still, when my friend was dairy farming, it was quite common to lose calves that had been stuck a long time and were “laid wrong” and even worse, the cows sometimes (less often but not rarely) had complications. Those calf pulling devices looked quite brutal but they assured me it was tolerated quite well.

So, yeah, cant fault them as not possible.

We might fare a lot better as not dairy cattle. Bazadais famous for birthing small calves that get double muscling in a couple of weeks so you hope for much less calving problems.

I rolled my eyes a bit at it but LOVE the scenery and Sam West (and the new Herriot is dishy too).

I loved the books and so wanted to love the show. I tried to watch the first episode and all I could think of were two things: Why is Herriot so afraid of animals, and that he should get his money back from vet school.

I’m still getting used to the new actors. So far, Siegfried seems much more arrogant and dismissive; Tristan is not very loveable either. Maybe I’m remembering the old series through rose-colored glasses.

The funniest thing I notice is how white and perfect Helen and Mrs. Hall’s teeth appear. England is not known for great dentistry, especially back in the 30’s. Honestly, they should both have missing teeth and not perfectly straight, blazing white choppers.

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