I’ve written something for The Atlantic‘s Object Lessons blog on the long (if potted!) history of horsemeat in America. A much fuller account is on offer in The Age of the Horse! During World War II food shortages, horse meat once again found its way to American tables, but the post-war backlash was rapid. “Horse …
Continue reading “From Taboo to “Ecoterrorism” – Horsemeat’s Troubled Political History in America”
I believe this is an example of art produced in Japan by Japanese artists turning their eye on foreigners and particularly westerners. Not much information is provided by Getty, but I think it’s from Yokohama c. 1900 and shows European trick riders doing their thing.
Wilhelm von Osten was born into the German squirearchy in 1838 and went on to work as a maths teacher. He moved to the eastern Berlin district of Prenzlauer Berg in 1866 and purchased a house at 10 Griebenowstraße. A befitted his background, he was a keen rider and huntsman with an appreciation of horses. …
Continue reading “Clever Hans: A Horse, a House and a Little History”
No headless horsemen, but a suitably atmospheric shot of an undertaker and black horse in funeral plumes in 1913 (which was obviously unlucky for some).
In The Age of the Horse I gave readers some idea of the ingenuity humans used to recycle the bodies of horses used in the nineteenth century west. Of course, this inventiveness was not restricted to the Victorian era nor to the more rapidly industrialised nations – and we’re still finding new uses for …
May 1911: Disused harnesses hanging up in a stable after horse buses were replaced by motor buses. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images/Hulton Archive)
The Equine Army is a BBC documentary about Britain’s horses and mules in the First World War, and the people who sourced, trained and handled them. It’s on BBC4 today at 8pm, and features yours truly squinting into the sun with a migraine. And some cavalry charging. And mules. And some fascinating stories delivered by …
Tommy’s Ark is a collection of first-person accounts of animal life in the trenches of the Western Front, compiled and elegantly edited by Richard Van Emden. This story is from Captain Charles McKerrow, an RAMC attending the tenth Northumberland Fusiliers in 1916. A very funny thing happened yesterday. One of our transport mules turned up …
Continue reading “A Mule’s Life in the Trenches – with Whisky Chaser”
“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 …
While wild horses in the right environment can blend beautifully into their background, the better to fool predators, it’s another story with domestic horses – especially those pressed into service in battle. The Camoupedia is a blog dedicated to the art of becoming invisible. Fascinatingly, it includes three posts about the camouflaging of horses in …
