Global Horse Culture

Unique Cowboy Shirts

A Canadian designer living in Kenya has developed this line of colorful cowboy shirts, modeled after a Stetson design. Each shirt is made from fabrics from old clothing found in the markets, so each is one-of-a-kind. The shirts are available online, and shipped from Canada for easy delivery to North America. They are quite funky! Check them out here.

Via a post on Boing Boing

Spectacular Akhal Teke photos

This Canadian website, Argamak Stud, has a page featuring some spectacular photos of Akhal Teke horses. They are such a unique and exotic breed! Their website (a bloggy sort of website) has lots of articles, photos and information about this rare breed. Worth a visit!

PA National: The RCMP Musical Ride

If you are near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Musical Ride exhibition is great entertainment. It's part of the evening schedule most days at the 2008 Pennsylvania National Horse Show.

The sheer number of horses in the ring for the musical ride is impressive. The intricate patterns they perform are beautifully done, and the horses and riders just radiate a cheerful spirit of fun under the formality of the presentation. There's a touch of humor in the choreography, and a real skill and refinement in the presentation. It was a treat to see!

Four Horsepower

What a sweet photo of four Fjord ponies pulling a sled in Canada. Fjords are a stocky draft-type horse (or pony - they are short in stature, but due to their strength are often referred to as horses). Their distinctive dorsal stripe is traditionally shown off by trimming the mane to stand up, so the black stripe is clearly visible. Originating in Norway, the Fjord is now quite popular throughout the US and Europe, both as a driving or draft animal and for pleasure riding.

Photo: pmarkham on flickr.

Marketing Horses

This is one of those books that opened my eyes to details of the history of horses I'd never considered. Margaret Derry is a professor who has written some of the few books out there which analyze the way breeds of horses (and cattle, in some of her research) have been modified through time to suit changing needs, and how breeds have been marketed throughout history. In this book she looks in great detail at the concepts of pure breeding, breed registry development, and the marketing of various horse breeds in North America, with special attention to the development of heavy draft breeds at the turn of the 20th century, and a fascinating aside about the changing market for the Arabian horse in the late 20th century US. Here's a brief quote about the Percheron:

The history of the French Percheron shows another way that a 'type' was forced to become a 'breed' in order to meet American demand. French horsemen bred for a heavier style of Percheron and set up a stud book for this stock, not because they found such animals more desirable or believed a stud book improved breeding methods but because Americans wanted heavier horses and proof of 'pure' breeding. .... Purebred breeders also played a disproportionately important role in the entire horse industry and market, probably because the cultural environment of the time defined improved quality in all domestic animals in terms of 'pure' breeding. Heredity, generally, was understood through the effects of purebred breeding, in spite of the rediscovery of Mendel's laws in 1900. (p. 233-234)

This is a detailed, scholarly book, not light reading, but it is a brilliant piece of scholarship, and I'm not aware of anyone else writing on these subjects.

Exhibit of Sable Island Pony Photos

Photographer Roberto Dutesco has done a series of lovely photographs (not shown) of the wild ponies on Sable Island, off the coast of Nova Scotia. These ponies, descended from survivors of shipwrecks over the centuries, live in rugged conditions on this narrow island. Dutesco's photos can be seen at his website.

If you are in New York City, you can also see the photos at The Roberto Dutesco Gallery, 13 Crosby Street. He has printed many of them in extremely large formats, and the detail in his photos is quite interesting. Exhibit information is on his website.

More info on the ponies at Rare Breeds Canada's website.

Historic photo from Geordie Mott on Flickr