Jacob Jordaens, Neptune Creating the Horse
 

 

I purchased some classics on horse care... I gradually came to understand that they were like 19th-century religious tomes on how to save your soul: objective, good; instructions, extremely detailed; practical application, impossible.

C.J.J. Mullen

  


Miscellany
 
Back to INFORMATION
 

We've gathered together some handy hints, bits of venerable wisdom and a smattering of ancient lore. If we can't find any fascinating tid-bits for you, then we will hunt out a sensible quotation or an unusual word. We'll leave it up to you to sort the wheat from the chaff.
 
 
September 2009
Below is a listing of some of the books on horsemanship written prior to the 20th Century.
 
Year Author Title
360 BC, Greece Xenophon The Art of Horsemanship
1550, Naples Frederico Grisone Gli ordini di cavalcare
1556, Bologna Count Cesar Fiaschi Trattato del imbrigiare, maneggiare, et ferrare cavalli
1560, London Sir Thomas Blundeville The Art of Ryding (an adaptation of Grisone's work)
1562, Venetia Claudio Corte Il Cavallarizzo
1566, Venetia Pasqual Caracciolo La gloria del cavallo
1584, London Thomas Bedingfield The art of riding (an adaptation of Corte's work)
1584, London John Astley The Art of Riding
1593, London Gervase Markham A Discourse on Horsemanship
1602, Paris Salomon de La Broue Des préceptes de cavalerice françois
1620, London Sir Nicholas Morgan The horseman's honour or The beautie of horsemanship
1623, Paris Antoine Pluvinel Le Manège Royal
1625, Paris Antoine Pluvinel L'Instruction du Roy en l'exercice de monter a cheval
1658, Antwerp William Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle A general system of horsemanship
1729, Paris François Robichon de La Guérinière The School of horsemanship
1790, Portugal Manoel Carlos de Andrade Luz da Liberal e Nobre Arte da Cavallaria
1854, Paris Francois Baucher The principles of horsemanship and training horses
1885, Berlin Gustav Steinbrecht The gymnasium of the horse
1890, Paris James Fillis Breaking and riding
 
The Michegan State University Library holds a collection of rare Veterinary books, many of which deal with horses and horsemanship. An extensive catalogue of the collection was compiled by Henry Koch. Please click here to go the collection.
 
August 2009
The word farrier - meaning 'one who shoes horses' - comes from the Latin ferririus, or 'iron worker'.
 
July 2009
Did you know that there are various Catholic saints that offer protection to horses and their riders? Some of them are listed below:
 
Anthony of Padua, Colman of Stockerau, Eligius, George, Giles, Hippolytus, Leonard of Noblac, Martin of Tours and Vincent de Paul are all patron saints of horses.
 
George, Anne, James the Greater and Martin of Tours are patron saints of equestrians and horsemen.
 
It is not uncommon for people to attach a small talisman with the image of one of the patron saints to the headstall, bridle or saddle of their horses in some parts of the world.
 
June 2009
In an attempt to mislead a pursuing or tracking enemy, horse's shoes were sometimes attached backwards - toe to heels. This cunning method was apparently used in the 11th century by King Alphonso in his escape from the Moorish King Ali Maymon of Toledo, Spain; in 1303 by Robert the Bruce in his escape from King Edward; and in 1530 by Duke Christopher of Würtemburg in his escape from Emperor Charles V. If one believes movies, it was also a common practice in the American Old West.
 
May 2009
The adjective 'tacky', defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as meaning "showing poor taste and quality", began as a noun, tackey, denoting a nag, or an inferior horse. It was first used in print in the United States in 1800 describing 'a cheap pony'.
 
April 2009
Sun Horse
 

The Sun-Horse, figured so freely on the Briton coins, does not appear on Early Sumerian or Hittite seals, where its place is taken by the Sun-Hawk or Eagle. But it appears later and on Phoenician coins. This horse is presumably the basis of Thor's horse (or Odinn's) of the Goths and Ancient Britons-on which Father Thor himself as Jupiter Tonans, The Thunderer, with his bolts, latterly rode, and he is so figured riding on early Briton monuments.

The traditional worship of "Odinn's horses" still persists in some parts of England--for example in Sussex, where I observed bunches of corn tied up to the gables of several old timbered cottages and steadings, and was told that it was to feed "Odinn's horses" as a propitiation against lightning bolts. Offerings of grain to Indra's Sun-horses are repeatedly mentioned in the Vedic hymns; and the horses are invoked also in prayers as the vehicle for Indra's visitations.

The Sun-horse of the Ancient Britons is also the source of the modern superstition regarding the good luck of finding a horse-shoe pointing towards you--on the notion that it might have been dropped by Odinn's horse.

Excerpt from The Phoenician origin of Britons, Scots & Anglo-Saxons by L.A. Waddell, 1924.
 
March 2009
What is the origin of the idiom "to get one's goat" come from?
 
The most popular theory for the origin of this idiom comes from prominent writer and commentator H.L Mencken, who (among others), traces the phrase back to the racetrack, where trainers believed that putting a goat in a skittish racehorse's stall would calm the horse. If an unscrupulous gambler stole the goat the night before an important race, this theory goes, the horse might be so upset that its performance would be affected. Ergo, "to get one's goat" meaning "to upset and thereby make vulnerable."
 
February 2009
The Unicorn
A description by Jorge Luis Borges, from The Book of Imaginary Beings.
 
The first and last versions of the Unicorn are virtually identical. Four centuries before the Christian era, the Greek author Ctesias, physician to Artaxerxes Mnemon, reported that in the kingdoms of Hindustan there were extremely swift wild asses, which white skin, a purple head, blue eyes, and a sharp horn on the forehead; the base of this horn, Ctesias tells us, was white, its tip was red, and in the middle it was thoroughly black. Pliny (VIII, 31) gives yet more detail:
 
"The Orsæan Indians hunt down ... a very fierce animal called the monoceros, which has the head of the stag, the feet of the elephant, and the tail of the boar, while the rest of the body is like that of the horse; it makes a deep lowing noise, and has a single black horn, which projects from the middle of its forehead, two cubits in length. This animal, it is said, cannot be taken alive".
 
In 1892, the Orientalist Schrader posited that the Unicorn might have been suggested to the Greeks by certain Persian bas reliefs portraying bulls in profile, so that only one horn was shown.
In the Etymologies of Isidore of Seville (composed in the early seventh century), we read that a blow from the horn of the Unicorn can kill an elephant; this recalls the analogous victory of the Karkadan (rhinoceros) in the second voyage of Sinbad. Another of the Unicorn's adversaries was the lion, and one of the nine-line 'Spenserians' in the second book of that tangled allegory The Faërie Queene has preserved the way a battle between those two noble creatures might be fought: The lion would stand in front of a tree; the Unicorn, head lowered, charges; the lion steps aside, and the Unicorn's horn sticks in the tree trunk. This description dates from the sixteenth century; at the beginning of the eighteenth, the union between England and Scotland would pit the English Leopart (or Lion) against the Scottish Unicorn on the kingdoms' coats of arms.
 
In the Middle Ages, bestiaries taught that the Unicorn might be captured by a virgin; in the Physiologus Græcus, we read the following: "He can be trapped by the following strategem: A virgin girl is led to where he lurks, and there she is sent of by herself into the wood. He soon leaps into her lap when he sees her, and embraces her, and hence he gets caught". A medallion by Pisanello and many famous tapestries illustrate this victory, whose allegorical applications are familiar to us all. The Holy Spirit, Christ, mercury, and evil have been symbolised at one time or another by the Unicorn. Jung's treatise Psychologie und Alchemie (Zürich, 1944) records and analyses these symbols.
 
A little white horse with the forelegs of an anetlope, the beard of a goat, and a long twisted horn on its forehead is today the most common image of this fantastic animal.
.
Leonardo da Vinci attributes the Unicorn's capture to the beast's "lack of temperance" and "the delight that it has for young maidens"; that aspect of its nature makes it "forget its ferocity and wildness" and lie in the lap of the maiden, and thus it is captured by hunters.
The maiden and the unicorn, Domenichino, Rome
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January 2009
Here are some thoughts on the judging (and therefore the riding) of young horse dressage tests, written by Susie Hoevenaars and Mary Seefried for Dressage NSW, 2008.
 
December 2008
For those with a penchant for the arcane, we have collected several articles on the genetics of Iberian horses.
 
November 2008

We often hear and read that the pure bred Arab horse has one rib, and one lumbar vertebrae less than all other breeds of horses, a statement possibly attributable to Carter (The Story of the Horse, National Geographic magazine, 1923), in his discussion of native horses North Africa. Whilst it is true that many pure bred Arab horses have one rib and one lumbar vertebrae less than many horses of other breeds, it is not a hard and fast rule. Lady Wentworth, in her book The Authentic Arabian Horse (1943), gives "...some of the more notable results of post-mortems" on the subject:
 
Breed
Specimens
Ribs
Lumbar Vertebrae
Pure Bred Arab
50
17
5
9
17
6
4
18
5
1
18
6
Syrian Arabs
3
17
6
Thoroughbreds
1
19
5
4
18
5
1
18
5
3
18
6
2
17
6
Common Horse
3
19
5
3
19
6
1
18
5
Mongolian
1
19
5
Prjevalski (feral cross)
1
18
6
Barbs (modern)
4
19
6
Barb (Gibralter)
1
18
6
Zebra
1
18
6
Donkey
1
18
5
 

Scientific studies, such as Anatomical Variations of the Spine in the Horse (Robert M. Stecher, Journal of Mammology, 1962) indicate similar variations in the number of ribs/lumbar vertebrae per horse.
 
October 2008
'Zodiac Horse' from 'Obras de Albeyteria' by Martín Arredondo, 1704.

Astrology played an important part in medieval and renaissance medicine, whereby the influence of the stars on the body was studied and charted. Veterinarians followed the same techniques for horses. In this chart, the signs of the zodiac are associated with different parts of the horse's anatomy.
 
Martin Arredondo Zodiac Horse
 
 
September 2008

Very often, in books on the history of the andalusian or Spanish horse and even in material published by the official stud book, reference is made to the Spanish horse in history and the praise that has been heaped upon this breed by classical authors such as Xenephon, Pliny and Seneca. But no one ever says just what these authors wrote. Being of curious dispositions, we have attempted to determine 'what was really said'. So far, we have been able to uncover Pliny the Elder's comments on The Horse, including several comments on Iberian horse breeds.

Click here to find out more.
 
 
August 2008
ANCCE has released some information on the joint disease OCD. Please click here to read more.
 
 
July 2008
Theodosius I, a passionate horseman who would eventually become the Emporer of Rome, was born in Spain in 346 A.D. According to B. Davis, he passed laws limiting saddle weights to 60 pounds, and saddle bags to 35 pounds; to disobey this law would result in the confiscation of the equipment. He also stated that Imperial horses were not to begin their training until age six and were to be retired at twenty. He is possibly better known for making christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire, and (in supporting christianity) ordering the destruction of 'pagan' temples, which resulted in the destruction of the Library at Alexandria.
 
July 2008
Florinus, in his Hausbuch of 1750 asserted that ropes that had been used in hanging were worth their weight in gold. "Covered with a woollen cloth and wrapped around the legs of refractory horses, they turned the worst criminals into lambs".
 
June 2008
The first olympic games to feature mounted horses (race) was held in 624 B.C.
 
May 2008
Lethologica
noun
The inability to remember a word or call to mind the right word.
An unfairly complicated for an all too common condition. It is derived from the Greek lethe meaning 'forgetfulness' and logos meaning 'word'.
 
April 2008
Home pregnancy tests for horses
Along with such oft heard wisdoms that a mare exhibiting stallion behaviour during a pregnancy is carrying a colt, and that a mare showing in season during pregnancy is carrying a filly, we can offer the following superstition:
 
Take a hair from the mare's tail, and tie a nail to it. Hold the nail on the hair over the mare's hips. If it doesn't swing, the mare is not pregnant. If it swings in a circle, the mare is carrying a filly, and if it swings straight, she is carrying a colt.
 
March 2008
Did you know?
It appears that the 'need for speed' is not a modern phenomenon. Leslie D. Johnson in his essay Speeding in Antiquity (The Classical Journal, 1949) provides several examples for our edification:
 

"Hither, my Cynthia is borne by her well clipped ponies. The excuse was Juno, but Venus was the actual reason. Oh, Appian Way, tell me, I beg, how great a triumph did she celebrated, as you watched, hurling her wheels headlong over your stones, a show, herself, sitting on the very edge of the pole, she hovered, and dared to shake her reins through the rough places." From Propertius
 
"Driving his team, he (the rich man, bored with life) races headlong to his villa, rushing on as if to bring aid to a burning building" From Lucretius, whose 'burning building'' comment makes us wonder whether there really are any new quips under the sun.
 
"That well-known Sabinus, whom you see, my friends, says that he was the swiftest of mule-drivers and that no onward rush of any flying car could pass him by..." From Virgil
 
It appears, however, that not all citizens were fond of such dashing driving. Johnson writes that: sympathetic Claudius appeared to listen to desparate pleas for action, for Suetonius says: "he provided by an edict that travellers should not pass through the towns of Italy except on foot, or in a chair or litter". The earliest of pedestrian zones, perhaps?
 
February 2008
For those of you with an interest in free jumping horses, here are some thoughts on free jumping by Volker Ehlers, of the American Hanoverian Society.
Thoughts on Free Jumping
 
January 2008
According to legend, the first Bagel was created in 1683 by a Viennese baker wanting to pay tribute to Polish king Jan III Sobieski for saving the Austrian people from Turkish invaders during the Battle of Vienna. The king, apparently, was excessively fond of riding and so the baker formed the bread in the shape of a stirrup ( bügel in German). Traditionally, hand made bagels are not round, but slightly stirrup-shaped.
 
It is thought that the name changed to Bagel following its introduction to New York in 1880.
 
Whilst some information indicates that bagels were around as early as 1810, we think that the stirrup legend is much more fun.
 
December 2007
Just in time for Christmas, we have dug around and investigated the history of the Hobby Horse. Click on the link below to find out more.
History of the Hobby Horse
 
November 2007
In February 1938, Arthur Walton and John Hammond from Cambridge University's School of Agriculture published their study on 'The maternal effects on growth and conformation in Shire horse-Shetland pony crosses'. Since this time, many other studies have been performed, however this one seems almost to have passed almost into folklore, and is referred to by many in discussions such as "can the foal grow too big for the mare to safely foal?", or "what size stallion can I put to my mare?".
 
Whether you have such questions, or would just like to read this notable study, we are sure you won't be disappointed.
The maternal effects on growth and conformation in Shire horse-Shetland pony crosses
 
October 2007
Veterinary Practice, ca. 1584
Whilst tying a horses head up and using a funnel to administer a drench may no longer be common practice, the crush itself is quite similar in it's basic design to many available today. The horse shoe decoration is a nice touch.
Veterninary Practice, Fugger ca. 1584
 

September 2007
Dasypygal

Adjective

Having hairy buttocks.
The word is derived from the Greek dasys meaning 'hairy' and pyge meaning 'buttocks'. It is pronounced 'das-i-pai-gul', with the emphasis on the third syllable. This adjective may be useful in describing your horse, or the men in your life.
 
August 2007
A useful tip courtesy of Pliny the Elder:
"If a horse be shod with shoes made from a sword wherewith a man has been slain, he will be most swift and fleet, and never, though never so hard rode, tire."
 
July 2007
Interesting things to do with your horse:
"To find a vampire, lead a white horse through a graveyard. The grave he will not step on is the grave of the vampire."
 
   
     
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