Global Horse Culture

Amazing Book of Rare Horse Colors

I just got this book, and I couldn't recommend it more. It is a coffee-table style book full of full page gorgeous photos of horses with the most unusual colors and patterns. There are brindles, blue eyes, pintaloosas, badger-faced Gypsy horses, dun paints, wild Curly horses...all photographed in fabulous action shots and artistic poses.

A super book for those who love unusual horse colors!

Past times - some historic images

Here's a roundup of some lovely vintage photos of horses from around the world.

Love this old shot of a couple out in their sleigh, posted on flickr by Lynn.

Tim Flach, Photographer

This month's issue of Cowboys and Indians has an online slideshow of horse photos by Tim Flach. These are lovely studies of variety of horses - from studies of light and shadow on the bodies of horses to stunning landscapes that include horses. Flach's website has another slideshow, with more fantastic photos. Some of them verge on the strange - horses modeling an assortment of flymasks and other protective gear, for example - and the final shot is perhaps the most unusual photo of a horse jumping I've ever seen.

All of the photos come from his recent coffee table book, Equus .

Behind the scenes with a horse photographer

National Geographic has a short but nice video profile of equine photographer Mark Harvey.  Neat to see behind the scenes. Take a look here.

The Twenty Mule Team

Flickr user Caveman 92223 posted this interesting old photo of the historic twenty mule teams used to haul borax from the mines to the railway back in the late 1800s, in Death Valley. The history of the  mule teams can be found on Wikipedia. They were famous in their day due to the enormous size of the wagons and weight of the loads; both the drivers and mules worked in extreme conditions.

Trick Riding, Korean Style

Stewils on flickr has a nice photostream of images from a folk museum in South Korea, showing a demonstration of trick riding.

More Thai Cowboys

I posted a while ago about cowboys in Thailand. Chrisada on flickr has some photos from a ranch in that region. Here's one, and there are some others on Chrisada's photostream.

Horses in Russian Art

Horses in Russian Art is a fantastic book - one of my favorite horse art books. It is pretty much nothing but pictures. The wide variety of paintings, sculptures, and even old photos include scenes from battle, horses in harness, rural and farm horses, and even a whole set of illustrations of the finest horses at the old stud farms. The art includes a lot from the 19th century, but also some more modern paintings.

It's really neat to see the Russian breeds, traditional tack, and old riding costumes. I'd highly recommend this book for anyone interested in the Russian or old Soviet breeds, historic tack and costumes, or horse art in general.

A little silliness

Via Boing-Boing I found this site (in English) and this one (in German), featuring the extinct "long horse" breed. Good for a chuckle!

Just one wee horsepower

Pop over to flickr and take a look at this picture. Possibly the most innovative design in horse-drawn vehicles I've ever seen (except maybe those German unicycles!!). I imagine that's a pretty heavy vehicle to pull, with all that metal in the construction, though it's not uncommon for large horse-drawn carriages (combined driving vehicles, Amish carraiges, etc.) to weigh many hundreds of pounds. Once the vehicle gets rolling, there's not much effort needed, if it is well balanced. Stopping and starting, or going up and down hills, is where the hard work comes in.