Global Horse Culture

Horses of Heaven

My friend Angela Swedberg introduced me to fellow beadworker Al Zammataro, who recently attended the annual festival of Sant'Alfio in Sicily. The story and photos he shared with me are unbelievable and should be quite an eyeful for those of you interested in unusual horse adornment!! The full set of photos follows in the rest of the post.

New film explores Escaramuza

A new film, currently in production, takes an inside look at the world of Escaramuza. Escaramuza means "skirmish", and the riding combines an unsettling blend of pretty girls in fancy clothes riding sidesaddle with fast-paced, heart-pounding drill team maneuvers. It is really a unique tradition!

I spoke to filmmaker Robin Rosenthal about the making of the film - read on below to see what she had to say about how she got into the world of Escaramuza and some of the challenges she and her husband faced in making the film.

Escaramuza: Riding From the Heart is looking for financial support to complete the editing and marketing of the documentary. The deadline for pledging your support is July 16th! Even small amounts are helpful. You can view the trailer and find out more about pledging to help support the completion of this unique documentary by using the widget below:

Beaded Horseshoes

I've always liked the idea of decorated horseshoes, though I've never tried to decorate one myself until recently. These are two shoes from my mare who died over the winter. I decorated them in very different styles. 

The first is wrapped in gold-colored ribbon, then wrapped in red thread with coral and turquoise beads here and there. At the bottom I did a larger grouping of turquoise beads. Mostly everything is held in place by the power of string, though there's a touch of glue on the back here and there to help in case the string shifts or stretches:

  

The next one has red and blue beads glued in the channel on each side, and copper and nickel metal rings strung on thread and wrapped around parts of the shoe. At the bottom I added a piece from a necklace that might have been from Afghanistan originally (long ago disassembled for use in making stuff!), and then added little strings of red beads and cowrie shells to that.

 

The Sporting Collection now has a blog

I've mentioned this The Sporting Collection before, as it features a wonderful array of antique horse gear.

And now there's a blog, too! Take a look, and find out fascinating details about all kinds of old bits, whips, stirrups, and other gear.

Web provides more access to museum collections

These days more and more museums have wonderful online access to parts of their collections - even items not on display in the regular exhibition halls. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has a lovely searchable set of horse-related items you can view online.

Browse the whole set of horse trappings here. Or take a look at this spectacular 16th century Italian saddle. It is described in part as "a rare example of a complete European war saddle" with "vividly hued silk velvet covering, highlighted with glistening gold thread." (Source: Saddle [Italian (Milan)] (04.3.252) | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art )

Recreating a Historic Russian Hunt

With fabulous costumes and Borzoi hounds! What a scene. Thanks to Mike for the tip!

Cab Stand

A photographer friend of mine sent me these shots of dozing taxi horses in Cuba. Her specialty is people, and you can see some of her super portraits from the Caribbean, China and other far-flung places at her website, SelahPhoto. Thanks for the contribution, Suzanne!

 

Breton Show Harness

Just another quick photo: a Breton horse in a fantastic show harness, with elaborate metalwork all over and bells around his neck. Just lovely!

Romanian Wedding Procession

This brief article about a traditional village wedding ceremony in Romania includes several photos of the amazingly decorated horses used in the procession. Take a look at the Winter Wedding in Valen.

There are more photos of Romanian rural life, (though not of horses) at photographer Kathleen McLaughlin's other website, here.

A Song for the Horse Nation

I had a wonderful visit yesterday to the incredible "Song for the Horse Nation" exhibit at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York City.

Better yet, I had the pleasure of meeting the woman behind the blog Horse Pollen. We enjoyed the fascinating exhibit together, and additional brainstorming about blogging, horses and social media.

Keep an eye on Horse Pollen for her upcoming post about it. Update: Here it is!

The exhibit continues through July 7, 2011. It is well worth a visit if you are in the area. The exhibit fills several rooms and the workmanship and creativity in the pieces is inspiring. If you are a beadworker, it is not to be missed! The museum building itself is beautiful and contains several other excellent exhibits and a great gift shop.

If you can't get to the exhibit you can buy the book, which is illustrated with tons of beautiful photos.