Global Horse Culture

Showmanship

Showmanship is a judged presentation of livestock in hand. You'll see showmanship classes at 4-H shows, involving cattle, horses, goats and other animals. You'll see showmanship judged at dog and cat shows, too. Participants are judged on the clean and breed-appropriate appearance of the animal and themselves and  the quality of their formal presentation, such as standing the animal nicely, walking or jogging the animal for the judge and so forth.

In the horse world, particularly with popular "western" breeds such as Paints, Quarter Horses and Arabians, showmanship competitions have gotten quite fancy. Handlers dress up in fancy attire, and the horses are presented in complex patterns, that include walking, jogging, halting, pivots and circles. You can read more about the details of horse showmanship here and here.

Take a look at this video for an example of the type of patterns and presentation required:

US breeds around the world

If you live in the US you're familiar with imported horses - breeds rarely found here a few decades ago that are now popular or exotic breeds still rarely seen outside their homelands. From Friesians to Gypsy Vanners, Hanoverians and Holsteiners to Akhal Tekes, foreign breeds can be found around the US. For that matter the Arab and Thoroughbred were brought here centuries ago and have left their mark on many US breeds. (ETA: of course you could go further with this, as all the modern horses in the US originated at some point from imported horses!)

But what about the other way? Did you know that many US breeds can be found around the world? Take a look at a few international fans of some of our homegrown horse breeds:

Saddlebreds in South Africa - the first Saddlebreds were taken to South Africa in 1916 (read more about the history here). In fact some bloodlines that are now scarce in the US can still be found there, and US breeders have been known to bring back stock from South Africa's breeders.

Quarter Horses in Brazil - Brazilians love the American West, and Quarter Horses are popular for barrel racing, reining, cutting and other traditional cowboy sports.The linked page says there are over 300,000 registered Quarter Horses in Brazil!

Moreover there are:

Tennessee Walkers in Germany

Appaloosas in France

Morgans in the UK

Of course there are a few Rocky Mountain Horses in the UK, too, as I wrote about a while ago.

Know of others? Mention them in the comments!

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.

Virtual horse shows: no travel, low cost, but with real judges and prizes!

Rod Miller was raised with horses. He's worked with Reiners for nearly 20 years, including spending 6 years as a judge at competitions all over the US.

Judging opened his eyes to something he hadn't really noticed before. "I found that each year when I went back somewhere to judge many of the beginners from the years before were not there. I started to think about why and didn't like the answers I was getting, for example: 'It was to expensive,' 'I can't compete against people who can pay the best trainers, and buy the best horses,' and 'my horse isn't good enough for the new level I have to show at and I can't afford a new horse.'"  When he talked to people who were successful in the sport about the problem, they shrugged. "It's an expensive game," they said. "Not everyone can afford it."

Rod started thinking about a way to solve that problem, and came up with the idea of a Performance Horse Development program. The program would focus on the process of training that leads to a  competitive Reining horse, but would award the process along the way. As a standard, he defined what it means for a horse to be really "broke." A "broke" horse, by PHD definition, will "wait for its rider's cue, then willingly accept and follow that cue." Simple, no?

Trotting (and pacing) races under saddle

In the US we usually think of Standardbreds as harness racing horses. But here and in other parts of the world the Standardbred and similar breeds are also raced under saddle. The US Trotting Association has an interesting article about the hows and whys of under saddle racing here.

Here's a video of such a race in France:

Prix du Cornulier 2006
Uploaded by lucskyturf. - Basketball, baseball, pro wrestling and more sports videos.

One interesting feature of under saddle racing is that many of the riders are women. This has been true historically, too. The famous Standardbred Greyhound broke a record back in 1940 with a woman riding.

And more recently the speedy mare Moni Maker broke that record, with jockey Julie Krone riding.

A nice little 10 minute documentary tells the story of Moni Maker's achievement, with footage of historic races, an interview with Julie Krone, and Moni Makers record breaking trot.

Part 1 is here.

Part 2 is here.

Circuses in American History

The Circus Historical Society is a great organization for those interested in the details of circus history. Their website has excellent research resources, and the organization holds an annual convention. Many members specialize in particular areas of circus history, and some are active in modern circuses. 

There are some interesting articles on the site (about all aspects of circus history, not just horses). One discusses earlier styles of horse act, including dramas acted out by people on horseback, or "scenic" riders who posed in costume to depict famous characters or well-known scenes from myth and legend while standing on horseback. Later, fast-paced action became more appealing to audiences than these earlier forms.

This Wiki page has a small collection of photos of circus horse acts, both modern and historic. Many of the photos are old ones from the German federal archive.

The poster shown above is from the New York Public library digital archives. Click on it to visit the original page and see a larger version.

Back in time

This website has a section about the horse show at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, Missouri. It's interesting to see what breeds of horses were popular then, and how they were presented. This comment about the Morgan horse class caught my eye: "There were all different shapes, sizes, and colors of Morgans present at the fair. Some fair exhibitors preferred the neat and trappy step.  Others preferred Morgans having the trot more straddled out like an old fashioned Wilkes trotter. Short legs and long legs were jumbled together and it created confusion in the show ring."  I like seeing the photos of the breeds in times past - often they change quite a bit over the decades, sometimes they change very little. Other breeds featured included Roadsters and German Coach Horses. Take a look!

Massive teams of draft horses

The Pony Expression has a recent post about draft animals that includes an impressive picture of an enormous team of horses, plus info about draft horses and oxen. Go take a look!

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.

That'll Cure Ya!

I was recently listening to an audiobook entitled "The Arabian Art of Taming and Training Wild and Vicious Horses" by P.R. Kincaid (originally printed in 1856). There is a very brief bit about Arabian horses at the beginning, and then it moves on to general horse training (of the old fashioned sort!). But what caught my ear was this bit about colic:

Take 1 gill of turpentine, 1 gill of opium dissolved in whisky; 1 quart of water, milk warm. Drench the horse and move him about slowly. If there is no relief in fifteen minutes, take a piece of chalk, about the size of an egg, powder it, and put it into a pint of cider vinegar, which should be blood warm, give that, and then move him as before.

ANOTHER.—Take 1 ounce laudanum, 1 ounce of ether, 1 ounce of tincture of assafoetida, 2 ounces tincture of peppermint, half pint of whisky; put all in a quart bottle, shake it well and drench the horse. (from the e-book, available via Project Gutenberg).

In case you wonder, like I did, about the details of the recipes, I have linked some of the ingredients and methods with sites that have more information.

I find this recipe both wacky and thought-provoking. Some of the ingredients have strong relaxing or stimulating effects. Heck, if I have a sore belly, I often turn to peppermint tea for relief. Turpentine? Not so much.  Asafoetida is a common ingredient in Indian food, and is said to be good for the digestion. It is, however, possibly the worst smelling spice in the world. In cooking, it is used in very tiny quantities.

(And of course, as with anything you see on the internet, don't try this at home!)