Saturday, June 11, 2016

Jingle Jangle Horses - Stallions

Today I  went to watch the Chagu-Chagu-Umakko ("Jingle Jangle Horses") Parade with a new (fellow horse-loving) friend.

As with the other horse events here, there were many stunning horses involved.  They were all draft type.  The real focus of the event are the Jingle Jangle horses themselves, with their incredibly elaborate and beautiful costumes.  Last year it seemed that they were all mares, or at least that's all I seemed to see at the end of the parade.

However, today there were several stallions that ended up leading the parade and this post is about several of those hunks!

The first one I saw was this guy.  I was confused to see him only wearing a saddle.  I didn't remember any horses without the elaborate costuming last year.


He was SO shiny.  I took a bunch of pictures of him.


I noticed a few other stallions and their handlers milling around, but this next one immediately captured my attention.  He just looked so...  smooth.  There was something about him.


My favorite of the day though was this grey.  He was stunning - and VERY full of himself.


The first stallion I saw, now on the move.


I noticed all of the stallions had left the unloading area.  I looked around for a little while and finally found them all in the park area of the shrine where the event starts.

This guy was a looker too.


Mr "smooth", all saddled up.


Another chunky bay boy.


I could not find my favorite grey for the longest time.  I milled around with the crowd for a while until finally I spotted him, on the far side of the park, away from everyone else.

Check out that mane!


He was still very fidgety and wanting to GO...  somewhere.

I also saw this mythical creature.  The park area was shady, but he managed to be standing in a sunbeam.  He reminded me of a unicorn... a BIG one.  He was the only "white" (light grey) horse in the entire event.


Handsome guy.


The start of the parade, it turned out that my "crush" for the day was to lead the whole affair.  He came charging out of the shrine, rarin' to GO.


Fast forward four hours later, near the end of the parade (they walk from a shrine in a rural town to another shrine in a big city).  Most of the horses, and people, were pretty tired by now.


Mr. Attitude had lost some of the pep in his step after such a long walk, but he was still alert and gorgeous.


The (huge) "unicorn".


Not all of the stallions were leading the parade, some actually did wear the jingle-jangle regalia!  This was one of them.  


Stay tuned for a post on the real stars of the parade...

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