War Horses Week: Russley Park Remount Depot, World War One, Women, Horses and Sources

“You are doing a man’s work and so you’re dressed rather like a man, but remember just because you wear a smock and breeches you should take care to behave like a British girl who expects chivalry and respect from everyone she meets. … See to it that [a Land Army Girl] means … a …

Whole Heap of Little Horse Links

Horse manure generates bio fuel. For book two I’m spending a lot of time thinking about horses as industrial power and product – is this the latest chapter? The British Ministry of Defence are already on the case. (LA Times, thanks to Jane Badger Books) Enjoy In Our Time on the legends and facts behind …

Whole Heap of Little Horse Links

An Irish Draught called Rupert performs on stage at the Royal Opera House in London (simplymarvelous) Elizabeth I’s sidesaddle came up for auction in England. (Sidesaddle Girl) A British farmer working a 265-acre farm with a team of Percherons (simplymarvelous) Facebook is hot on the heels of a self-styled record breaker in the US who …

The Horse: from Arabia to Royal Ascot via the British Museum

How could you fit the history of horses and humans into a space? Not even the British Museum could hold it: it would be crammed like Tutankhamun’s tomb. Selene’s chariot horses on the eastern Parthenon pediment would be eyeball to eyeball with Da Vinci’s triple-life-size Spanish steed. The central atrium would be the tackroom to …

Drinka-Pinta-Donk-a-Day

The Guardian reports on a Newcastle University study to be published in the Journal of Dairy Science this month and notes, among other things, that we should be drinking donkey milk as it’s higher in protein and lower in fat than cow milk. In the nineteenth century physicians believed that donkey milk helped to cure …

Heavy Horse Week: Sweet Punch

Suffolk Punches from the Hollesley Bay Colony Farm near Woodbridge in Suffolk. The horses were cared for by inmates at Her Majesty’s Prison Hollesley Bay, until the entire stud was bought  by the Suffolk Punch Trust, who have opened a visitor centre on the site. Although now a rare breed, Punches had an excellent year …

Heavy Horses: Peak Oil

The 1960s and 1970s saw a surge of interest in heavy horse breeds just as the animals were vanishing on British farmland, replaced by the tractor and the truck. People began to start working with horses again, keen to “preserve the old ways”, and heavy horse visitor centres sprung up where tourists and locals could …

Heavy Horse Week: Opium for Shires

How to Manage a Vicious Horse so as to do anything with him [a recipe from horseman Jack Juby‘s notebook of horse cures] Take Oil of Fennel, oil of Cinnamon, oil of Thyme, oil of Rosemary, Tincture of opium, Tincture Arnica, illontara, oil of Nutmeg, oil of Anniseed, one ounce of Lunas powder. Take a …

Heavy Horse Week: Jack Juby

Jack Juby MBE, who died in 2004,  was one of the last of his breed. “Groom” doesn’t begin to sum up his work. “Horseman” he certainly was, and a trainer and master of heavy horses in Norfolk – a service for which he received his MBE. He was employed by the Peacock family for most …