Horse Riding: The Story of a Horse

The movie traces the significance of horse riding throughout history and its evolution alongside man. It will be a utopian drama shown through the eyes of an omniscient narrator. The story will be presented in an episodic manner to showcase how man has evolved along with horses and how the significance and skills of horse riding have changed. The movie will end with a man teaching his daughter how to ride and the daughter will gallop into the forest as an escape from her present troubles.

Proposal
Title: Horse riding: the story of a horse
Concept
The proposed movie deals with the theme of horse riding. Horse riding was an essential skill for
people for commuting. The movie will be a utopian drama shown through the eyes of an
omniscient narrator. He will be identified as a man throughout history. It will source the need for
horse riding the development of cars and end with the horse being cherished as valuable pet and
partner through human evolution and growth of society. The story will end with a picture of a
child riding a horse towards the woods. This would mean the horses are led to the place from
where their ancestors were once domesticated for human use. The story will be narrated by a
character who will not be visible but will narrate the story and the evolution of man alongside
horses. This will make the story fit for the screen. There will be individual dialogues spoken
between two characters and captions would be flashed on the screen to label the time period or
year.
Method
The story will be presented in an episodic manner to showcase how man has evolved along with
horses and how the significance and skills of horse riding have changed. The movie will be a
utopian drama shown through the eyes of an omniscient narrator. Through the episodes various
periods of history will be show how horses were used. There will be dialogues and use of
captions or subtitles to indicate the period of time. This will make the story fit for the screen.
Most of the story would be presented by the narrator. The story would closely mimic the real
world but would use a time-lapse feature to cover the span of many centuries within a few
minutes 1. It was thought that using representative figures for man through various centuries
could help to tie the story down rather than introducing various characters 2.
The movie will be recorded through a mobile camera mounted over a tripod and hand held at
times. Maximum of two characters and a horse will be present in one scene. The main footage
will be used along with other video and stills available on the internet to present a better picture
of historical significance of horse riding.
1 Smith, Experimental Time-Lapse Animation and the Manifestation of Change and Agency in
Objects, 47
2 Taylor and Tumurbaatar, Horseback riding, asymmetry, and changes to the equine skull:
Evidence for mounted riding in Mongolia’s Late Bronze Age, 137

Technological determinism
Technological determinism is a theoretical assumption that says that the change or growth of
society can be directly linked to change is technology. This will be traced through the life of a
horse that will be representative of the horses in history. Its life will be shown from the time
when horse riding was the chief form of transport to horse-driven carts, the rise of motor vehicles
and the present situation3.
Episodic media
Since the story traces the significance of horse riding throughout the history, it is preferable to
present it through episodes. The episodes will be shown within the same content but will be
divided according to the historical period. This would allow the movie to be tied well together
and the audience will be more ready to accept the changes in costumes and mannerisms of the
characters 4.
Escapism
Horse riding may have been a necessary skill once but today it is a hobby and leisure activity. It
reminds people of the gone times and the lack of simplicity. The movie will end with a man
teaching his daughter how to ride and the daughter will gallop into the forest as an escape from
her present troubles.
3 Law, The horse in West African history: the role of the horse in the societies of pre-colonial
West Africa, 12
4 Hansen, Nostalgic Media: Histories and Memories of Domestic Technology in the Moving
Image, 23

Script and Storyboard
The opening scene would show a title for the movie and then a video of the wall or cave
painting, wall engravings, sculptures, paintings of horses and man together for about 15 seconds
long. This would set the mood and theme of the movie5.
Scene 01a – prerecorded stills of cave and wall painting of horses from pre
historic times
Start: 02.00s, Duration:
3s each
Cut-in, cut-out.
[Narrator’s voice]: “Horses have been used since 3500 BC and were used for
riding and driving carts till the 1900s”
Scene 1b – domestication of horses (prerecorded video)
5 Brunow, Mobile cinema as an archive in motion: A Wall is a Screen and urban memories."
NECSUS. European Journal of Media Studies 7, 258.

Start: 10.00s, Duration:
5s
[Narrator’s voice]: “Horses have been used for transporting, hunting, farming
and etc since times immemorial.
Scene 1c – prerecorded stills of horse ridden soldiers

Start: 15.00s, Duration:
4s
[Narrator’s voice]: “wars have been a constant in human history and soldiers
rode horses for an added advantage over their enemy”
Scene 02 - scenarios of a horse market
Start: 19.00s, Duration:
3s
[Narrator’s voice]: “horses were viewed as prized possession their horse

market was
Scene 2a – two people conversing about horses
Start: 21.00s, Duration:
10s
Footage of the conversation
Person 1: Do you own horses? want to buy some more?
Person 2: No, I do not think I need to invest in horses.
Person 1: Goes on to list down the uses and benefits of owning horses.
Scene 3a –

Start: 31.00s, Duration:
10s
Father: I was a great horse rider in my times and it brought me many laurels
and peace. I want you to learn how to ride a horse and develop a deep
relationship with it.
Daughter: But father can horse follow the instructions we give them and can
they be trained?
Father: yes, they have been used for so long in history, even before cars
bicycles were into existence.
Scene 3b – father and daughter horse riding together

Start: 41.00s, Duration:
4s
[Narrator’s voice]: “they share companionable silence as they wander into the
wilderness”
Scene 3c – Galloping into the forest
Start: 45.00s, Duration: Footage of girl galloping towards the edge of forest.

5s
[Narrator’s voice]: “ the woods and the horses have been a constant companion
of man and still continues to be s0”

References
Brunow, Dagmar. "Mobile cinema as an archive in motion: A Wall is a Screen and urban
memories." NECSUS. European Journal of Media Studies 7, no. 1 (2018): 255-262.
Hansen, James Paul. "Nostalgic Media: Histories and Memories of Domestic Technology in the
Moving Image." PhD diss., The Ohio State University, 2017.
Law, Robin. The horse in West African history: the role of the horse in the societies of pre-
colonial West Africa. Routledge, 2018.
Smith, Vicky. "Experimental Time-Lapse Animation and the Manifestation of Change and
Agency in Objects." In Experimental and Expanded Animation, pp. 79-102. Palgrave
Macmillan, Cham, 2018.
Taylor, W. T. T., and Tumurbaatar Tuvshinjargal. "Horseback riding, asymmetry, and changes to
the equine skull: Evidence for mounted riding in Mongolia’s Late Bronze Age." Care or
Neglect (2018): 134-154.