Horsemanning was reportedly a popular way to pose in a photograph in the 1920s in which the illusion of a beheading was created.[1] The horsemanning photo fad derives its name from the Headless Horseman, an evil character from Washington Irving's short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow".[2] Soon after its (re-)discovery later in the 20th Century, a series of horsemanning photos began trending on sites like Buzzfeed and people got inspired to recreate the original fad. Horsemanning began experiencing a revival in the mid 2011, along with other photo fads such as planking and owling.
The objective of horsemanning is to make it appear that the photo’s subject has been beheaded. Horsemanning requires two individuals, one situated with one's head hidden (i.e., tilted backwards) with the other hiding his body and exposing only his head.[3] The resulting photo appears to show a headless body with a disembodied head lying beside it; in fact, it consists of one person's body and a different person's head.