Kirk here. I just published a little video. Here's the link:

Kirk here. I just published a little video. Here’s the link:

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1064426558300151

I took a short segment from the following YouTube video to make this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LlcDKnNooI

The video is from 2013 and seems to have been made merely to record and share how “cool” the horses in the festival are. One thing the festival is famous for is the 暴れ馬 (abareuma). “Abareru” means to be violent, go on the rampage, go berserk, etc. If I were a horse and a guy stuck his hand between my legs and tried to grab my private parts, I would probably go berserk too.

This is a key problem in the festival. It’s not just a few bad apples; the “abareruuma” (pissed off horses) aspect is not a side effect but a FEATURE that people enjoy and look forward too. If the festival were famous for “tranquil horses” not “crazy horses,” humans who handle the horses would tend to treat them in a way that would allow them to be tranquil but, alas, that’s not what people have come to expect in this festival.