Global Horse Culture

New book!

I am thrilled to have been a part of a new book, just launched today. The Better Deal: Practical Horsemanship Training for You and Your Horse was co-written with horsewoman Margaret Beeman. We spent a year working on this project, setting out Margaret's approach to horsemanship. Margaret focuses on the the need to understand the nature of the horse and the herd rules, and then offers a detailed look at what the person needs to learn about their own body language and emotions in order to communicate effectively with the horse. The second part of the book offers a series of ten exercises on the ground which can be used to evaluate and work through problems at all levels, including problems under saddle. She has used her approach to help students who are regional, national and international competitors, as well as helping pleasure riders and drivers. The book is thoroughly illustrated with  photos.

I spent four years training with Margaret, and it made a huge difference in my horsemanship, allowing me to get over my anxieties and try new things I never would have dared before, from hunter pacing and fox hunting to starting my own young horse.

Read more about the book and find out how to order here.

Link roundup

Here are a few interesting links and blog posts I've come across recently:

For those interested in details of ornamental tack, here is an academic article (with many illustrations) about the different styles of tack found in various Central Asian and Siberian ethnic groups. It's quite fascinating! 

Our friend Dario has a post with extensive links to images of Neo-Assyrian horses, tack and horsemanship, as depicted in ancient art.

Bunny Ain't No Kind of Rider has an intriguing book review and a cute post about William Shatner (horse related!)...

And heartfelt good wishes to Julie at Riding Aside, who is sadly forced to cease blogging for the time being. Send good thoughts her way!

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.

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!

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 .

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.

Old Cowboy Pictures

I borrowed this book, Cowboys: Images of the Old West: Book of 30 Postcards, from a friend - it's quite nice. Each page is a postcard that can be torn out and mailed, although who would want to tear up such a neat little book! It's small and affordable, so it makes a great gift. Each page is a photo or reproduction of an old poster, with a brief description of the subject on the back. Some of the featured people were cowboys famous from the movies or rodeo circuit, others are unknown guys working on ranches in the Old West. It's an interesting little book.

Horses in History

Enlightened Horsemanship has a recent post about a forthcoming book on horses in human history. It looks detailed and interesting! Take a look!

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!)

All About Cowgirls

I was reading a nifty book called Cowgirl Legends the other day, which has short biographies of dozens of women who performed in rodeos in the early 1900s. Back then there were touring rodeo companies featuring trick riding, bronc riding, steer wrestling and so forth that toured the big cities in the US, drawing huge crowds. Some of them even toured overseas, putting on shows across Europe and Asia. There were  a lot of well known female trick riders, but also a fair number of cowgirls who rode broncs and competed in more typically male sports like steer wrestling.

The traveling rodeo seemed to be the kind of thing one ran off to join, like the circus, although a few of the women grew up in rodeo or show families, and carried on the tradition from there. The most fascinating story for me was that of Gene Krieg, who grew up with the call of the rodeo in her heart, scaring her neighbors by standing on her horse and galloping down the street. When she was sixteen she was sent off to take care of her sister. A newspaper announcement about the Cheyenne Frontier Days caught her eye, and she switched trains to join the rodeo show. She was a hit in bronc riding and trick riding. She traveled around the world. Her career ended tragically with an accident at Madison Square Garden. She lived another 50 years, but never performed again.

The stories of the women in "Cowgirl Legends" are collected from  The Cowgirl Hall of Fame in Fort Worth, Texas. The museum website has an overview of the exhibits, past and present, and some photos of items from the collections. There's a small online gift shop, too. It looks like a great place to visit!

Another fun read is Cowgirls of the Rodeo, free excerpts from which are available on Google Books. 

And my favorite is Cowgirls: Women of the Wild West, which is chock full of photos of the clothing, saddles, boots, guns, and other gear used by cowgirls. It doesn't focus just on cowgirls in the rodeo shows, but looks at the daily life of women on ranches, on the frontier, outlaw cowgirls, and depictions of cowgirls in Hollywood movies and novels, too.

Photo: vintage postcard from Moffat on flickr.