As you watch this three-day eventing from the Soviet Union in 1958, you’ll be thinking, “this is a bit hairy” and then you’ll see the water jump…
Category Archives: Russia
Haunted by Horses in St Petersburg
Last weekend I travelled to St Petersburg to start research on a new book and I thought I’d share my equestrian shots. I was only in this fascinating, complicated city for two and a half days and did not venture out of the very heart of it but I still found some horse history of …
Two Wild Horses in St Petersburg
A little nugget on the wild horses featured in The Age of the Horse: St Petersburg, 1900 (I believe): two young Przewalski horses or Takhi captured in Tibet are paraded for curious locals. They are gifts from the Grand Lama to Prince Hespère Ouchtomsky, “confidential friend of the reigning Tsar” and an aficionado of all …
Sunday Morning Time Travel
Wonderful news for overworked writers who don’t have time to maintain their blogs: British Pathé have uploaded their stock of vintage film clips to YouTube. As the old slogan of the British tabloid the News of the World used to claim, “all human life is there”, and quite a bit of horsey life too. So …
Art & Horseyculture: Scenes of Equine Life in Sixteenth-Century Lapland and Finland
Snowshoes. Not just for humans, according to this 1565 woodcut from Olaus Magnus’ Historia delle Genti. Alternatively, this is an early version of Subbuteo. Courtesy of the US Library of Congress.
Whole Heap of Little Horse Links
Yes, we’re still deep in the horse meat scandal. You can now buy a “horse burger” fancy dress costume (Business Insider) Only 13% of Americans would consider eating horse meat (almost twice the percentage who would eat dog), whereas 34% would consider alligator lasagna (KTAR) Groups in Oklahoma want to build a horse abattoir. (SFGate.com …
Whole Heap of Little Horse Links
A young Scottish showjumper who’s only been riding for three years has been sponsored by Euromillions lottery winners. (Horse and Hound) Meanwhile a nineteen-year-old started a millionaire’s fund of his own when he became the youngest ever winner of the showjumping CN International via Karen K. (Spruce Meadows) Corrective surgery for thoroughbred yearlings before auction. …
Siberian Harness Buckle Discovered in Alaska
I got really excited and wondered if this was somehow Scythian until I realised that “ancient” here is used to refer to what a European would call “medieval” but this is still pretty fascinating. Story from Horse Talk: The object, about 2 inches by 1 inch and less than 1 inch thick, was found in …
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They Shoot Horses
Spiegel Online just published a large feature on a new history book which details transcripts of conversations between German combat veterans of World War Two. As you can imagine, they make for an uncomfortable read. I found this extract, which seemed to me to sum up our strange attitudes to horses. Pohl: “I had to …
Steppes Daughters
Thank you to Andrew Curry for passing on this photo–audio essay about a boarding school for cossack girls in Russia by Anastasia Taylor-Lind. Please click through to watch – it’s absolutely stunning. More details and photographs on Anastasia’s website (linked above).