I should hope not! I need to use smilies more often when I'm kidding but sometimes it feels like "it's not as funny if you have to explain the joke".
Some more pics... http://www.buzzfeed.com/kimberleydadds/10-awesome-pictures-of-peter-capaldi-owning-his-new-doctor-w
Tabloids in the UK say it's a mechanical horse. They may just be misinterpreting the prop in the shoot, but equally, could be true in the fiction (but on closer look at the mix of real/dummy horses in the pics, maybe not).
From the photos above, it looks like Capaldi is sitting on a fake horse in close-ups while his stunt double is riding the real horse in long shots. Which is probably a pretty standard filming technique.
Yep, came round to that after a second look at the pics. Anyway, wonder how Strax will cope with the regeneration. Not in serious plot terms, Sontarans know about that stuff even ignoring the Strax Reports videos, but I wouldn't be surprised if there's some comedy comments from him: "Why does he need a new face? One face should be all one person needs. Or one army! One face, standard issue for an entire army, that's the Sontaran way!"
This got me thinking, when did the Doctor first meet Vastra, Jenny and Strax anyway? The Doctor could have been in a previous incarnation when he met Vastra, given that she did know about regeneration in AGMGTW. Jenny likely did meet him for the first time in AGMGTW since she didn't recognize the TARDIS. But Strax, there is no real indication either way. It could have been a previous Doctor, though season 6 takes place two years after season 5, from the Doctor's perspective, so I guess it could have been there.
Vastra is the sister (Pouch-mate?) of the Silurian Prisoner who was killed in The Silurian Two-Parter, wasn't she?
I think the Doctor must have met Vastra sometime after (from his perspective) the events of "The Hungry Earth"/"Cold Blood," because he didn't seem to have encountered her particular subspecies (i.e. makeup design) of Silurian before, and he explicitly said that he hadn't seen humans and Silurians working together before. So a revived Silurian living in Victorian London has got to be something he came across subjectively later than those events. Therefore, the only incarnation of the Doctor that Vastra can have met is the Eleventh.
There's no indication of that. That Silurian did have a twin sister, the Silurian military commander in that same story. And they were both also played by Neve McIntosh. However, it's never been stated that Vastra is related to the other two. Which now raises the questions how and why does Vastra know about regeneration? Although, I suppose she likely heard stories about other men known as the Doctor, and then asked the necessary questions and got an explanation.
Ah, OK, I must've mis-remembered a line of dialogue, about "my sister" somewhere along the way that led me to believe she was the Commander, or at least another sister (For example, maybe The Doctor went back and saved her (Or he had a profound impact on her, that allowed her to save herself), and she became a force of good in the Universe)
Well, she is the inspiration for Sherlock Holmes, apparently. So she's good at deduction. Maybe she met Jago and Litefoot and learned about other incarnations of the Doctor from them.
Yes, the eleventh Doctor must have met her after Cold Blood, no way around that and before AGMGTW for that matter. That doesn't mean the Eleventh Doctor is the only incarnation or even the first Vastra has ever met.