Miniture Circus Ponies

This video is from a circus performance. These miniature ponies in the video are scared and confused. It's obvious that they don't want to be in the show. What I don' t get is in the middle of the video (3:03), the ring master starts whipping one miniature pony in the head, even though it appears to be performing very well.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• carnival
• circus
• mini ponies
• ponies
• horses
• mini horses
• miniture horses
• pony

[guiseofyouth]

First of all those are ponies not miniature horses. Secondly, what visual cues are you picking up to state that they are "scared and confused"? They looked like normal ponies doing their jobs to me. Maybe I missed it, but I didn't see any whipping any of them on the head. There were a few times you see him flip the whip at them, which isn't touching them but keeping their spacing even and/or giving them a cue to turn etc.

[noanimalabuse2]

@guiseofyouth sorry, your right they are actually ponies. You can see at the end of the film the circus people have trouble getting them out of the ring, the ring master is getting frustrated and is starting to whip them more. To reply to your comment saying that they are not scared and confused, you can see that at times their ears are back, which means that they are annoyed. At 3:02, this is when the ring master whips the pony in the head. This is what I was referring to before.

[guiseofyouth]

@noanimalabuse2 just watched 3:02 a few times. I'm pretty sure he didn't hit the pony. The whip is used as a guide and tool. When you use it like that where it looks like he's hitting the pony on the head he's throwing it between the two ponies to keep their spacing even. The pony jerked his head up because he saw the whip, sure, but it didn't hit him and it was saying "slow down".

[noanimalabuse2]

@guiseofyouth yes right because you were there...

[noanimalabuse2]

@guiseofyouth yes right because you were there... watch 3:03 does that help? PS I'm not saying that they are being abusive with the ponies just that the ponies OBVIOUSLY don't want to be performing, and are pissed and scared at the same time. Also this is a show that people pay money to watch and you can see (well at least I could clearly see) that he was getting pissed at how the show was going. AND any thing that is a training tool could also be used as a weapon. You work at the circus dont ya

[LadySmartcat]

also at 7:05 the pony that is lagging behind, is misbehaving. My guess is he's new. That toss of his head is attitude like a kid saying "I don't wanna do this and you can't make me." But notice how the ring master doesn't whip him in the face or discipline him for it. The horse gets confused after the first two leaves. I bet he's saying "they got to leave, why can't I?" But the show goes on and I still see no abuse or even a reprimand for naughty behaviour. It's obvious the ponies are loved.

[LadySmartcat]

The ponies aren't scared. They are nervous of the noisy crowd yes, but not scared. Live around horses, work around horses, and you would know the difference between nervousness and fear.

[LadySmartcat]

HA! These are not MINATURE PONIES!!!!!!! My parents breed miniatures and they are half the size of these ponies, these are more likely welsh ponies as they don't look stocky enough to be shetlands. I don't see any abuse either. If these ponies were scared and confused they wouldn't perform. end of story. This is a common circus routine with horses and ponies. The man with the whip is giving them queues nothitting them with it. If he had hit them with it, there would be a much bigger reaction

[guiseofyouth]

@noanimalabuse2 They could have their ears back for many reasons. They're listening to the ponies behind them, they're paying attention to the whip coming from behind them (which is a training tool, not abusive), they could be annoyed with the pony behind them, they could be annoyed that they have to work, sure, but that doesn't correlate with being scared or confused or mistreated or abused. Have you ever been to a horse show? Horses in any discipline can act annoyed!

[iluvmyhorse13]

@guiseofyouth you are right they are ponies! but at the end of the video the horses were clearly upset and i would know because i have been around horses my whole life and i own them therefore i no more than you about horses and ponies!!! its a great video and circus animals are commonly disrespected! it is soooooo obvious these ponies dont want to be here!!!