Did you know that that 'bidet' is an old French word for 'pony'? And that the bidet is so named because you, ah, ride it... Like a pony!

The Cutty Sark and the Horse's Tail

The Cutty Sark - the world's last Tea Clipper - has the beautiful witch Nannie as figurehead. With arm outstretched, her hand traditionally holds a horse's tail, and when this was not available (as at sea), her sailor's would make a 'tail' from rope and place it in her hand.

The origins for this can be found in Tam o'Shanter, a poem by Robbie Burns. Tam, riding his gray mare Meg home from the pub one night, spies a coven of witches dancing. When they are finished, he calls out congratulating the beautiful witch, Nannie, who is wearing a 'cutty sark' (short shift). The witches are incensed and chase him - he races his speedy mare for the bridge (knowing that the witches cannot cross running water) - but the fleet Nannie catches hold of poor Meg's tail and rips it off.

Now, do thy speedy utmost, Meg,
And win the key-stane o' the brig;
There at them thou thy tail may toss,
A running stream they dare na cross.
But ere the key-stane she could make,
The fient a tail she had to shake!
For Nannie, far before the rest,
Hard upon noble Maggie prest,
And flew at Tam wi' furious ettle;
But little wist she Maggie's mettle -
Ae spring brought off her master hale,
But left behind her ain gray tail;
The carlin claught her by the rump,
And left poor Maggie scarce a stump.

An Iberian influence in the maternal origins of the Thoroughbred? You decide. Click here to read the results of a new study into the origins of the English Thoroughbred.

Horse Height Conversion Table

Hands	Cm	Hands	Cm	Hands	Cm	Hands	Cm	Hands	Cm
8.0	81	9.0	91	10.0	102	11.0	112	12.0	122
8.1	84	9.1	94	10.1	104	11.1	114	12.1	124
8.2	86	9.2	97	10.2	107	11.2	117	12.2	127
8.3	89	9.3	99	10.3	109	11.2	119	12.3	130

 

Hands	Cm	Hands	Cm	Hands	Cm	Hands	Cm	Hands	Cm
13.0	132	14.0	142	15.0	152	16.0	163	17.0	173
13.1	135	14.1	145	15.1	155	16.1	165	17.1	175
13.2	137	14.2	147	15.2	157	16.2	168	17.2	178
13.3	140	14.3	150	15.3	160	16.3	170	17.3	180

It seems that horses and their riders were a common target for witches in the past, possibly due to the fact that witches were allegedly afraid of horses. Various methods were devised to protect horses from falling under the spell of an evil enchantress, including:

- Attaching horse brasses to the horse's harness to protect the horse and rider from the evil eye.
- Carrying a rowan-wood whip to prevent the witch from being able to cast a spell over the horse.
- Plaiting the horse's tail with ribbons to keep it safe from witches.
- Tying hair from a black stallions tail about your wrist to protect you from witches.

The first horse to fly by air was Phantom, owned by Betty Rand. Phantom flew from Le Bourget airport (near Paris) to Croydon (England) on the 30th January 1928 and making the return journey a month later.

The aircraft is a Vickers Vimy, an aircraft type originally designed as a World War I bomber but which never saw active service - the were used as passenger aircraft. Powered by twin Rolls Royce engines, the open cockpit Vimy had a top speed of 177 kph, carried 2,300 litres of fuel and had a cruising range of ca. 1,600 kilometres. Flown by Ross and Keith Smith, and accompanied by mechanics Wally Shier and Jim Bennett, a Vickers Vimy Mk IV completed the 17,910 kilometre journey from Hounslow in the UK to Darwin in Australia in 28 days at an average speed of 137 kph, and were awarded a prize of £10,000 by the Australian Government for being the first Australians to fly from England to Australia in less than 30 days.

The wiltshirewhitehorses website provides a listing of not only the thirteen white horses carved into the chalk hills and downs of Wiltshire, but also provides details of Britain's other eleven chalk horses. Some of these horse carvings are ancient, the oldest being the unusually stylised Uffington White Horse, first carved in the Bronze Age.

As one of the last ever space shuttle launches has just taken place at Cape Canaveral, we felt that it was appropriate to add this piece of chain-mail miscellany to our collection.

Say friend, did you know that the US Standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8 1/2 inches?
That's an exceedingly odd number. Why was that gauge used?
Because that's the way they built them in England, and the US railroads were built by English expatriates.
I see, but why did the English build them like that?
Because the first railway lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used.
Well, why did they use that gauge in England?
Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing.
Okay! Why did their wagons use that odd wheel spacing?
Because, if they tried to use any other spacing the wagon wheels would break on some of the old, long distance roads. Because that's the spacing of the old wheel ruts.
So who built these old rutted roads?
The first long distance roads in Europe were built by Imperial Rome for the benefit of their legions. The Roman roads have been used ever since.
And the ruts?
The original ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagons, were first made by the wheels of Roman war chariots. Since the chariots were made for or by Imperial Rome they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing.
Thus, we have the answer to the original question. The United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8 1/2 inches derives from the original specification for an Imperial Roman army war chariot. And the motto of the story is Specifications and bureaucracies live forever!
So, the next time you are handed a specification and wonder what horse's ass came up with it, you may be exactly right. Because the Imperial Roman chariots were made to be just wide enough to accommodate the back-ends of two war-horses.
So, just what does this have to do with the exploration of space?
Well, there's an interesting extension of the story about railroad gauge and horses' behinds. When we see a Space Shuttle sitting on the launch pad, there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are the solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. The SRBs are made by Thiokol at a factory in Utah. The engineers who designed the SRBs might have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site.
The railroad from the factory runs through a tunnel in the mountains. The SRBs had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than a railroad track, and the railroad track is about as wide as two horses' behinds.
So a major design feature of what is arguably the world's most advanced transportation system was originally determined by the width of a horse's ass.

According to the ancient Greeks, in the early days of the world, following the defeat of the Titans, Zeus ruled the heavens, Poseidon ruled the seas and Hades ruled the underworld. These three brothers shared the earth between them. Legend further states that Poseidon gave the horse to the world. Some myths state that he created the first horse by striking a rock with his trident. Another states that the Earth brought forth the first horse after Poseidon's seed falling onto it. Yet another myth states that Poseidon created the first horse when trying to woo the lovely Demeter, who had asked him to create the most beautiful animal the world had ever seen. Regardless of how he managed to create the horse, Poseidon was considered to be the God of Horses - apparently also notable horseman in his own right, and protector of horse competitions.

Have you ever wondered about the origin of the expressions "to be called onto the carpet" or "to be carpetted"? Apparently these expressions, relating to "being summoned before someone for reprimand", refer to members of the horse racing fraternity accused of some crime or misdemenor being summoned to stand on a particular carpet mat at an enquiry in front of the Jocky Club at Newmarket, in the UK.

John 'Swift Nick' Nevison (1639 - 1684) is one of history's most flamboyant and romantic highwaymen, made famous by his charming and gentlemanly manner, and the daring of his exploits. Nevison is most remembered for an amazing ride he undertook in order to establish an alibi.

According to reports, early one summer's morning in 1676 (at approximately 4 am), Nevison robbed a traveller at Gad's Hill near Rochester, in Kent. Unfortunately for Nevison, the traveller recognised him. Nevison made his escape on his bay mare, crossed the river Thames by ferry at Tilbury, and then galloped towards Chelmsfort. After resting his horse for a time, he rode on to Cambridge and Huntingdon, resting his mare regularly on the journey. Finally, he reached the Great North Road, which he followed to York - arriving at sunset. A distance of around 200 miles (ca. 320 km) completed in less than a day - an amazing feat for both man and horse.

On entering York, Nevison stabled his mare at an Inn, repaired his appearance, and strolled to a bowling green where York's Lord Mayor was playing bowls. Here he engaged the Lord Mayor in conversation, entering into a wager with the Mayor on the outcome of the match, and ensuring the Lord Mayor would remember the time - 8 pm.

Subsequently, when Nevison was arrested and tried for the robbery of the traveller at Gad's Hill, he produced the Lord Mayor to provide him with alibi - it was not considered possible that he could have made the 200 mile in ca. 16 hours, and thus Nevison was exonerated.

In December, we like to try to find Christmas or New Year traditions relating to horses. This year, we have found an old (and apparently almost defunct) Welsh tradition known as the 'Mari Lwyd' (or 'Grey Mare'). It is possible that this tradition derives from the ancient worship of the Goddess Rhiannon.

The skull of a horse, decorated with colourful ribbons, is fixed to a pole in such a way that the jaws can be manipulated open and shut by the pole-bearer, who is covered with a white sheet flowing down from the skull. The Mari, accompanied by a boisterous party of local men, goes from door to door through the village, snapping its jaws at passersby.

At each door, the ritual begins with the singing of traditional stanzas by the Mari Lwyd party, challenging the householder for entry into the house. Next follows the pwnco, an exchange of wits in traditional and improptu verse, usually consisting of heavy leg pulling in which the combatants mock each other's "singing, drunkeness, niggardliness etc".

If the Mari Lwyd can "subdue the inmates with superior witticisms and extempore humerous rhymes", the party may storm the house and partake of Christmas cheer (in the form of cakes and ale) with the inhabitants. On departure, the ritual is completed by the singing of a farewell song.

Year	Author	Title
360 BC, Greece	Xenophon	The Art of Horsemanship
1550, Naples	Frederico Grisone	Gli ordini di cavalcare
1556, Bologna	Count Cesar Fiaschi	Trattato del imbrigiare, maneggiare, et ferrare cavalli
1560, London	Sir Thomas Blundeville	The Art of Ryding (an adaptation of Grisone's work)
1562, Venetia	Claudio Corte	Il Cavallarizzo
1566, Venetia	Pasqual Caracciolo	La gloria del cavallo
1584, London	Thomas Bedingfield	The art of riding (an adaptation of Corte's work)
1584, London	John Astley	The Art of Riding
1593, London	Gervase Markham	A Discourse on Horsemanship
1602, Paris	Salomon de La Broue	Des préceptes de cavalerice françois
1620, London	Sir Nicholas Morgan	The horseman's honour or The beautie of horsemanship
1623, Paris	Antoine Pluvinel	Le Manège Royal
1625, Paris	Antoine Pluvinel	L'Instruction du Roy en l'exercice de monter a cheval
1658, Antwerp	William Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle	A general system of horsemanship
1729, Paris	François Robichon de La Guérinière	The School of horsemanship
1790, Portugal	Manoel Carlos de Andrade	Luz da Liberal e Nobre Arte da Cavallaria
1854, Paris	Francois Baucher	The principles of horsemanship and training horses
1885, Berlin	Gustav Steinbrecht	The gymnasium of the horse
1890, Paris	James Fillis	Breaking and riding

The Michegan State University Library holds a collection of rare Veterinary books, many of which deal with horses and horsemanship. An extensive catalogue of the collection was compiled by Henry Koch. Please click here to go the collection.

In an attempt to mislead a pursuing or tracking enemy, horse's shoes were sometimes attached backwards - toe to heels. This cunning method was apparently used in the 11th century by King Alphonso in his escape from the Moorish King Ali Maymon of Toledo, Spain; in 1303 by Robert the Bruce in his escape from King Edward; and in 1530 by Duke Christopher of Würtemburg in his escape from Emperor Charles V. If one believes movies, it was also a common practice in the American Old West.

The adjective 'tacky', defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as meaning "showing poor taste and quality", began as a noun, tackey, denoting a nag, or an inferior horse. It was first used in print in the United States in 1800 describing 'a cheap pony'.

The most popular theory for the origin of this idiom comes from prominent writer and commentator H.L Mencken, who (among others), traces the phrase back to the racetrack, where trainers believed that putting a goat in a skittish racehorse's stall would calm the horse. If an unscrupulous gambler stole the goat the night before an important race, this theory goes, the horse might be so upset that its performance would be affected. Ergo, "to get one's goat" meaning "to upset and thereby make vulnerable."

The first and last versions of the Unicorn are virtually identical. Four centuries before the Christian era, the Greek author Ctesias, physician to Artaxerxes Mnemon, reported that in the kingdoms of Hindustan there were extremely swift wild asses, which white skin, a purple head, blue eyes, and a sharp horn on the forehead; the base of this horn, Ctesias tells us, was white, its tip was red, and in the middle it was thoroughly black. Pliny (VIII, 31) gives yet more detail:

In 1892, the Orientalist Schrader posited that the Unicorn might have been suggested to the Greeks by certain Persian bas reliefs portraying bulls in profile, so that only one horn was shown.

In the Etymologies of Isidore of Seville (composed in the early seventh century), we read that a blow from the horn of the Unicorn can kill an elephant; this recalls the analogous victory of the Karkadan (rhinoceros) in the second voyage of Sinbad. Another of the Unicorn's adversaries was the lion, and one of the nine-line 'Spenserians' in the second book of that tangled allegory The Faërie Queene has preserved the way a battle between those two noble creatures might be fought: The lion would stand in front of a tree; the Unicorn, head lowered, charges; the lion steps aside, and the Unicorn's horn sticks in the tree trunk. This description dates from the sixteenth century; at the beginning of the eighteenth, the union between England and Scotland would pit the English Leopart (or Lion) against the Scottish Unicorn on the kingdoms' coats of arms.

In the Middle Ages, bestiaries taught that the Unicorn might be captured by a virgin; in the Physiologus Græcus, we read the following: "He can be trapped by the following strategem: A virgin girl is led to where he lurks, and there she is sent of by herself into the wood. He soon leaps into her lap when he sees her, and embraces her, and hence he gets caught". A medallion by Pisanello and many famous tapestries illustrate this victory, whose allegorical applications are familiar to us all. The Holy Spirit, Christ, mercury, and evil have been symbolised at one time or another by the Unicorn. Jung's treatise Psychologie und Alchemie (Zürich, 1944) records and analyses these symbols.

A little white horse with the forelegs of an anetlope, the beard of a goat, and a long twisted horn on its forehead is today the most common image of this fantastic animal.

Leonardo da Vinci attributes the Unicorn's capture to the beast's "lack of temperance" and "the delight that it has for young maidens"; that aspect of its nature makes it "forget its ferocity and wildness" and lie in the lap of the maiden, and thus it is captured by hunters.

Here are some thoughts on the judging (and therefore the riding) of young horse dressage tests, written by Susie Hoevenaars and Mary Seefried for Dressage NSW, 2008.

We often hear and read that the pure bred Arab horse has one rib, and one lumbar vertebrae less than all other breeds of horses, a statement possibly attributable to Carter (The Story of the Horse, National Geographic magazine, 1923), in his discussion of native horses North Africa. Whilst it is true that many pure bred Arab horses have one rib and one lumbar vertebrae less than many horses of other breeds, it is not a hard and fast rule. Lady Wentworth, in her book The Authentic Arabian Horse (1943), gives "...some of the more notable results of post-mortems" on the subject:

Breed	Specimens	Ribs	Lumbar Vertebrae
Pure Bred Arab	50	17	5
	9	17	6
	4	18	5
	1	18	6
Syrian Arabs	3	17	6
Thoroughbreds	1	19	5
	4	18	5
	1	18	5
	3	18	6
	2	17	6
Common Horse	3	19	5
	3	19	6
	1	18	5
Mongolian	1	19	5
Prjevalski (feral cross)	1	18	6
Barbs (modern)	4	19	6
Barb (Gibralter)	1	18	6
Zebra	1	18	6
Donkey	1	18	5

Scientific studies, such as Anatomical Variations of the Spine in the Horse (Robert M. Stecher, Journal of Mammology, 1962) indicate similar variations in the number of ribs/lumbar vertebrae per horse.

Very often, in books on the history of the andalusian or Spanish horse and even in material published by the official stud book, reference is made to the Spanish horse in history and the praise that has been heaped upon this breed by classical authors such as Xenephon, Pliny and Seneca. But no one ever says just what these authors wrote. Being of curious dispositions, we have attempted to determine 'what was really said'. So far, we have been able to uncover Pliny the Elder's comments on The Horse, including several comments on Iberian horse breeds.

Click here to find out more.

Theodosius I, a passionate horseman who would eventually become the Emporer of Rome, was born in Spain in 346 A.D. According to B. Davis, he passed laws limiting saddle weights to 60 pounds, and saddle bags to 35 pounds; to disobey this law would result in the confiscation of the equipment. He also stated that Imperial horses were not to begin their training until age six and were to be retired at twenty. He is possibly better known for making christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire, and (in supporting christianity) ordering the destruction of 'pagan' temples, which resulted in the destruction of the Library at Alexandria.

Florinus, in his Hausbuch of 1750 asserted that ropes that had been used in hanging were worth their weight in gold. "Covered with a woollen cloth and wrapped around the legs of refractory horses, they turned the worst criminals into lambs".

An unfairly complicated for an all too common condition. It is derived from the Greek lethe meaning 'forgetfulness' and logos meaning 'word'.

Take a hair from the mare's tail, and tie a nail to it. Hold the nail on the hair over the mare's hips. If it doesn't swing, the mare is not pregnant. If it swings in a circle, the mare is carrying a filly, and if it swings straight, she is carrying a colt.

"Driving his team, he (the rich man, bored with life) races headlong to his villa, rushing on as if to bring aid to a burning building" From Lucretius, whose 'burning building'' comment makes us wonder whether there really are any new quips under the sun.

"That well-known Sabinus, whom you see, my friends, says that he was the swiftest of mule-drivers and that no onward rush of any flying car could pass him by..." From Virgil

It appears, however, that not all citizens were fond of such dashing driving. Johnson writes that: sympathetic Claudius appeared to listen to desparate pleas for action, for Suetonius says: "he provided by an edict that travellers should not pass through the towns of Italy except on foot, or in a chair or litter". The earliest of pedestrian zones, perhaps?

According to legend, the first Bagel was created in 1683 by a Viennese baker wanting to pay tribute to Polish king Jan III Sobieski for saving the Austrian people from Turkish invaders during the Battle of Vienna. The king, apparently, was excessively fond of riding and so the baker formed the bread in the shape of a stirrup ( bügel in German). Traditionally, hand made bagels are not round, but slightly stirrup-shaped.

It is thought that the name changed to Bagel following its introduction to New York in 1880.

Whilst some information indicates that bagels were around as early as 1810, we think that the stirrup legend is much more fun.

In February 1938, Arthur Walton and John Hammond from Cambridge University's School of Agriculture published their study on 'The maternal effects on growth and conformation in Shire horse-Shetland pony crosses'. Since this time, many other studies have been performed, however this one seems almost to have passed almost into folklore, and is referred to by many in discussions such as "can the foal grow too big for the mare to safely foal?", or "what size stallion can I put to my mare?".

Whilst tying a horses head up and using a funnel to administer a drench may no longer be common practice, the crush itself is quite similar in it's basic design to many available today. The horse shoe decoration is a nice touch.

Dasypygal

The word is derived from the Greek dasys meaning 'hairy' and pyge meaning 'buttocks'. It is pronounced 'das-i-pai-gul', with the emphasis on the third syllable. This adjective may be useful in describing your horse, or the men in your life.

A useful tip courtesy of Pliny the Elder:

"If a horse be shod with shoes made from a sword wherewith a man has been slain, he will be most swift and fleet, and never, though never so hard rode, tire."