Among all the sights of the docks, the noble truck-horses are not the least striking to a stranger. They are large and powerful brutes, with such sleek and glossy coats, that they look as if brushed and put on by a valet every morning. They march with a slow and stately step, lifting their ponderous …
Category Archives: Literature
He rode an Arab horse That King Darius had sent him. […] You could not name the price of this horse, Because he was so swift, and knew how to spin on his heels. His back was two colours: On one side he was white as an ermine, On the other, black as a mulberry. …
Talking Horses: Honhy, Honhy, Hon! A Victorian Policeman is Saluted.
In his 29-year career as a policeman in Victorian London, John Pegg oversaw over 1,300 convictions for cruelty to horses. This poem was written “on behalf” of those horses by George H Hutt in 1892. Read more about Hutt – “the police poet” – and Pegg here, along with a collection of other “horses’ …
Continue reading “Talking Horses: Honhy, Honhy, Hon! A Victorian Policeman is Saluted.”
Wild Horses Dragging You Away
A thousand horse and none to ride! – With flowing tail, and flying mane, Wide nostrils never stretched by pain, Mouths bloodless to the bit or rein, And feet that iron never shod, And flanks unscarred by spur or rod, A thousand horse, the wild, the free, Like waves that follow o’er the sea, Came …
Talking Horses: My Name is Red
Talking Horses is a series of extracts from novels, poems and short stories both classic and obscure that feature fictional horses who enter into the conversation. My Name is Red (1998) by Orhan Pamuk, translated by Erdağ M. Göknar: Ignore the fact that I’m standing here placid and still; if truth be told, …
Talking Horses: Strider
Talking Horses is a series of extracts from novels, poems and short stories both classic and obscure that feature fictional horses who enter into the conversation. Strider: The Story of a Horse, (1886) by Leo Tolstoy. Also known as “Kholstomer”: Old age is sometimes majestic, sometimes ugly, and sometimes pathetic. But old age can be …
The War Horses of Somalia
I just finished reading a 1996 essay by the Somali scholar Said Sheikh Samatar called “Somalia’s Horse That Feeds Its Master”. It has much to say about Somali history and character, but I thought I’d glean the stories of the horses for you, because after all, why else are we on this blog? Until the …
Flying on Four Hoofs
Beautiful short story in today’s Guardian by Xu Zechen, translated by Helen Wang: They used to ride past the melon shack on their way to graze the horses by the Wulong River. Afterwards, when the horses were full, they would bring them on to the dirt road to gallop, and race against the cars and …
May the Horse Live in Me
One of the less than lovely things about writing a book is acknowledging that your favourite lines of enquiry sometimes just don’t fit into the finished product. They are the wildest, most fascinating goose chases, but they just will not bend and be shaped into that book thing you’ve built. They won’t be twined into …
Ship of Foals
Third horse from the front was the mare. An enormous black and white cob with heavy legs covered in wiry, coarse hair. He remembered loading her up back in Co Kerry and doubting she’d fit in the bay, but if they don’t fit you make them fit and he’d got her on. She’d seemed a placid …