On the first Saturday in October, the eerie hamlet of Sleepy Hollow, New York, hosts an annual street fair that draws thousands of tourists. This town is best known as the setting for some of America’s most original ghost stories. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Written by Washington Irving. But Irving’s story was written long before automobiles dominated transportation.
Lee Dillion, an ambulance nurse, was sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic. headless knight Riders have a choice. She can sit for another hour with two miles left, or she can get in the car and head into town to play the show as scheduled.
Self-proclaimed daredevil Dillon and her team prepare her stunning black friesian Named Eagle. Dillion gets out of the truck in his Headless Horseman costume and trots down busy Route 9. As the Headless Horseman himself speeds past toward Sleepy Hollow, drivers stuck in traffic are getting much more than they bargained for on this busy day.
“The people in the car were completely insane,” Dillon said. popular science. “It was wonderful.”
The bond between horses and humans
Dillion is also the owner of Corinthian Equestrian Center In nearby Warwick, one of the Hudson Valley’s few brave horsemen braves this brutal costume, hops on horseback, and plays the part of the region’s most famous undead denizen. What started as a Halloween gag with his son Luke has become a special seasonal side hustle for Dillon and the other riders. The Headless Horseman can be found at: annual halloween paradea film festival, a haunted farm attraction, and various dramatic readings of Irving’s stories. The Headless Horseman also leads the popular horse. Mickey’s Boo to You Halloween Parade At Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, inspired by the 1949 film The adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. that comics That was one of Dillon’s inspirations.
“I loved Disney movies as a kid. I fell in love with this horseman and thought that was the coolest thing,” Dillon says. “When I was probably 10 or 11 years old, I said that one day I would have a big black horse and be the Headless Horseman.”
[Related: Why do we see ghosts?]
But an accomplished and avid rider like Dillion is just one member of the team behind this eerie sight. What makes this possible is a horse with impressive height and power. And yes, horses themselves can be a little scary too.
“Horses have very finely tuned fight-or-flight reflexes, and the fact that they can do the things we do to them, such as riding them and keeping them in cages, is… “I always think that’s really amazing,” says the equine veterinarian at Cornell University School of Veterinary Medicine. Michelle Delko say popular science. “The truth is, if they really didn’t want to do these things, they wouldn’t do them. But they trust us. It’s like they understand there’s a partnership going on. .”
The horse is incredibly smart animalsHowever, generations of breeding have influenced which horses are the most prolific. According to Delko, this partnership dates back thousands of years, when herds of wild horses began interacting with early humans, just as dogs were domesticated.
“We’ve taken the time to select individuals of the species that are interested in humans,” Delko says. “They were the ones in the herd who let us get closer and who were brave.”
During that time, this bond has aided humans in agriculture, warfare, travel, and provided sports, recreation, and entertainment. A well-trained horse is like a bicycle, stopping almost instantly like a handbrake when the rider gives the appropriate command. Still, they Sometimes it’s unpredictableSo it’s up to the rider to set a calm and confident tone.
“When you’re riding a horse in a parade or something like that, it’s your job to never be complacent, no matter how close your partnership is,” Delko says. “Humans must always remember that horses don’t want to hurt you or anyone else. It’s just hardwired into their genes to react the way they do. No matter how well trained you are, you may react in a certain way.”
Explosion proof against real world ghosts
At parades and events, such as Spooky Happenings Around Sleepy Hollow, riders are generally looking for specific characteristics.
“You want a horse that is smart, reliable, and learns,” Dillon says. “I have to learn to trust that I’m not going to embarrass them. I also have to trust that they’ll see it for me. I also have good feet and good gates. Their gates are , showing that they are powerful and majestic.”
In the short story Irving writes Dark-colored horses were preferred for literary accuracy, as the ghost “looked like a large-sized horseman, riding a powerfully built black horse.” Dillon uses Eagle and a fellow Fresian named Falcon, who participate in the annual Halloween parade on October 26th. Both are terribly dark in color and very sweet, especially with apples and carrots.
When in costume, Dillion can barely see in front of him and relies primarily on his horse to maneuver safely. She can see their ears and follows them.
“You don’t actually have to listen because the horse’s ears tell you exactly where everyone is. The horse’s ears are like satellites,” says Dillion. “Their hearing and vision is three to four times better than ours. I keep an eye on him because he tells me where the crowd is.”
A horse is prey animalso in order to survive in the wild, they have evolved finely tuned senses. In order to engage these senses and gain enough confidence and ease to take the horse into a less controlled environment, riders use a training technique called a. Explosion-proof. The rider slowly works to desensitize the horse to various sounds and stimuli. The training process varies depending on the type of event.
[Related: How horror movie soundtracks prey on our fears.]
“Some people might take a scarf and wave it in front of their face, and it becomes something big like a plastic bag that makes noise and waves around them,” Delko says. “Then someone will take away the tarpaulin. So we’re going to very gently increase the stimulation, the weirdness, the sounds.”
One of the events Dillon attends is a haunted event. Bouburn at Thunderbird Farm In Goshen, New York. In addition to Dillon as the Headless Horseman, Booburn also features various jump scares and terrifying chainsaw-wielding characters. According to Dillion, horses don’t particularly like the sound of chainsaws. A few weeks before the Halloween season, she works with Eagle or Falcon to get them used to the harsh sound of a saw.
“When you’re riding a horse, you put your feet around the horse and hold the reins. They’re connected to the mouth,” Dillon explains. “If an inexperienced horse is scared, it will think it needs to be scared. If you are confident, your horse will be confident. If you are not confident, you cannot move forward.”
Her “Ichabod,” aka her boyfriend Jerry, or another rider from the equestrian center, will also be on hand to help manage the crowds eager to take photos with the equine Halloween legends. During this year’s street fair, Eagle and Dillon spent three hours taking photos with excited patrons.
“Today is another work day.”
Just like humans, various horses strengths, weaknesses, personalityyou will enjoy certain tasks more than others. A plow horse is not a show horse, and a dressage horse does not make a good race horse.
“For that horse, it’s just another day at work,” Delko says. “They come to understand that this is their job and they really just want to do their job. Some of them love performing.”
Eagles and Falcons get very excited when they see Dillion in that impressive costume, and they know what’s going to happen.
“Eagle gets so excited when I put on a costume,” Dillon says. “He blooms quickly. He’s very sensitive to sound, very positive, so he likes to gallop and go fast, which he loves.”
We’re just as excited as the crowd of spooky season enthusiasts who are about to see one of Halloween’s most famous figures live.
