HN’s Horses in Horror-o-thon! [insert creepy voice] Final Day

For our finale, we’re headed way back to 1949 with Disney’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

For the same reasons that I watch The Small One every Christmas, I watch this classic cartoon every Halloween. Some things just never get old.

The characters are more caricature than anything else. Ichabod Crane is a bookworm/wannabe ladies man,

Brom Bones is a good ol’ boy,

and Katrina is… well… not a feminist. They actually describe her with the word “ripe,” which is cringe worthy. The storytellers also are quick to point out that Ichabod only wants her for her money.

There are musical numbers aplenty, but that’s not what makes this cartoon amazing. It’s really the details, like how the narrator says the word “foreboding” just as the images turn dark.

But let’s get to the good part, the part that children born after 1950 have permanently imprinted on their brain — the Headless Horseman. So, basically, Brom is spurned at the local shindig when Ichabod steals his dance with Katrina.

In vengeance, he tells the story of the headless horseman… because real men end arguments with campfire tales set to song.

Superstitious Ichabod is totally freaked out on his ride home. The classic Disney style presented here with hands closing over the moon and trees closing in on each other… amaze-balls.

Then we finally see him! The pumpkin hurling, red cape wearing, sword wielding Headless Horseman and his demonic steed!

We are led on a whirlwind chase scene.

Ending on the infamous Halloween image of the Horseman throwing his pumpkin head.

Poor Ichabod didn’t make it… or did he? Mwa-ha-ha!

Watch Disney’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow here.

Go Riding & Happy Halloween!