The Horse with the Flying Tail
| The Horse with the Flying Tail | |
|---|---|
 A scene from the film | |
| Directed by | Larry Lansburgh |
| Written by | Janet Lansburgh |
| Produced by | Larry Lansburgh |
| Narrated by | George Fenneman |
| Edited by | Warren Adams |
| Music by | William Lava |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Buena Vista Distribution Co. |
Release date | December 21, 1960 |
Running time | 48 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The Horse with the Flying Tail is a 1960 American documentary film by
Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color
in 1964.
The film portrays this horse as having been a nondescript
mare of mostly Thoroughbred
breeding.
This horse's registered name was Pelo de Oro, which was given to him at birth. He became an
open jumper and was shown in the national horse show circuit in the United States. Open jumpers compete for scores based on faults (if a jump is refused or a rail knocked down) and time elapsed to complete the course. Prior to his Olympic fame, he had a reputation as a temperamental jumper who was inclined to stop at water-and-ditch jumps. Such refusals would disqualify a jumper from an event. His nickname
among competitors was "Sneaky Pete" for those reasons.
He was an excellent jumper (when willing), however, and when he cleared a fence, Sneaky Pete consistently would raise his tail in the characteristic fashion shown in the photograph displayed from the film. That uplifted tail, raised so high, was repeated by the horse for each faultless jump and spectators at horse shows relied upon this signal from the horse to record his scores, without waiting for the results from the judges, hence the title of the film about his career.
When he was obtained by
Bertalan de Nemethy, and together the two men trained the horse to be the Olympic-level open jumper he became. "Sneaky Pete" then became known as Nautical and was ridden regularly by members of the U. S. Equestrian Team in international competitions.[3]
See also
References
- ^ "NY Times: The Horse with the Flying Tail". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. 2010. Archived from the original on 2010-03-18. Retrieved 2008-11-08.
- ^ "The 33rd Academy Awards (1961) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 26 May 2019.
- ^ Benz, Kafi, How Sneaky Pete became Nautical, Seagate Press, Sarasota, Florida, 1991