Horses
| 1 › 2 › 5 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Short Horse History
 |
| Rene Magritte. El cheque en blanco (1965) |
Horses, donkeys, and zebras belong to the genus Equus. The modern horse, Equus caballus, became widespread from central Asia to most of Europe. Local types of horses include such as the Przewalski's horse from central Asia, and the forest horse of northern Europe, at times credited as an ancestral stock of the domestic horse. It is thought by some that the forest horse gave rise to the heavy, "cold-blooded" breeds.
The wild horse was probably first hunted for food. Horsemeat is still consumed by people in parts of Europe and in Iceland and is the basis of many pet foods. It is one of the rather hidden ingredients in many sausages. Horse bones and cartilage are used to make glue. Horse manure is provided for mushroom growers, and can also be used in organic gardening.
The horse was make domestic a long time after the dog or of cattle, in the end to stand as a partner and friend. After the horse was domesticated, mare's milk was drunk by the Arabs and others.
Riding on horseback once was a chief means of transportation, and is popular still. The horse was widely used as a draft animal earlier. It plowed fields, tracked cattle, and much else. Today it can serve recreation in industrialised countries.
The horse's natural food is grass. The horse is designed for eating plants. It has teeth that allow it to grind grasses, and a rather long digestive tract. The wild horse has good vision. The senses of smell and hearing seem to be keener than in humans.
The domesticated horse is perceptive and can easily respond to cues.
What are called highbred horses are capable of affection and fidelity. Unjust treatment does not suit any animal.
Some horses have become over 60 years old. The life span of a horse is 30 to 35 years at most, usually about 20 to 25 years. But ponies live longer than larger horses. Well-kept riding horses may be used more than 20 years.
Three types of horses:
- Draft horses, heavy limbed and up to 200 cm high (to the shoulder).
- Ponies, by convention horses under ca. 144 cm. Ponies are shorter than ca 144 cm. They may be sturdy, intelligent, stubborn. An Icelandic horse (pony) moves swiftly at the tølt, a smooth sort of running walk. Shetland ponies are smaller than the Iceland and Norwegian horses (ponies). The latter are excellent riding horses.
- Light horses, such as the saddle or riding horses.
What Horses Are Called
A mature male horse is called a stallion, the female a mare. A stallion used for breeding is known as a stud. A castrated stallion is commonly called a gelding. Young horses are known as foals; male foals are called colts and females fillies. There are a great many colours and patterns of their skin.Q: And what do you call a pony with a sore throat?
A: A little hoarse.
Horse Breeds
CAPTION: Princess Elizabeth of England owned a Scottish bred fjord horse called Glen Tanar Hans during the 1940s. Here she is feeding her fjord horse from the silver cup they won at the Royal Windsor Horse Show in 1943.
In course of time two general groups of domesticated horses emerged: the southerly - and the northerly, so-called cold-blooded types. All modern breeds may be classified:
- By where they originated,
- By the main use of the horse (riding, draft, coach horse),
- And by their outward appearance and size (heavy, light, or pony).
Horses in Art
Stories give rise to art, such as stories (myth, fable, and much else), paintings, and sculptures.The Horse In Art
FROM ROCK paintings and onward, the horse has long had a special place in art. It is there on the ancient Parthenon frieze in Athens, in very old Chinese tomb sculptures, in sketches by Leonardo da Vinci, in the Quran, the Bible and other texts - and in many paintings and sculptures, as on Capitol Hill in Rome.In Greek mythology the fabulous centaur suggests archer and horse fused into one being. Even gods are depicted on well-trained horses in ancient Greek.
The ancient Vedic Sun Has Horses
From ancient India and onward, different gods have chariots drawn by horses. Surya is the sun in the sky. Riding a golden chariot he comes, looking on everyone. He rides the skies in his golden chariot of blazing light drawn by seven bay horses - one for each day of the week. The horses are described in the hymns as the daughters of heaven. The chariot is a symbol of a year's course; the horses may also be four, or one with seven heads, and so on.The sun sustains life and is represented as a handsome, golden youth who rides the chariot of light, The swastika, a common Hindu symbol of munificence, belongs to the sun - who gives abundantly, without asking for favours in return.
The Vedic Sun is extremely brilliant, with radiant hair, and shines brightly as a jewel. He helps the world of mankind with his light.
The sun is also truthfulness, and has to do with intellect. The Inner Sun is a being that resides in us and warms us, and has four wives. They are "Knowledge, knowhow, and conscience" (Sanjna), Sovereignty, Light, and Shade. With "Mother Conscience" the Sun has three children. One of them is Manu, the very first Man and lawgiver.
The ancient Indian Sun is called SURYA (the luminous shining one) and ADITYA (the son of the primordial origin of all things). The associated animal is the winged horse, Tarkshya, that personifies the sun (through pars pro toto, ie, a part of a whole represents the whole). [Section source: Macdonald, Vedic Gods]
Ancient Greek Helios and his Son of a Sun
 |
| Horses of the Sun on a Greek Vase. |
Here is a story:
Faeton was a son of the Sun. One day while the Sun was seated on his throne, he swore he would give his son anything he would ask for. The son asked to steer his chariot across the sky for a day. His father tried to dissuade him in vain, saying, "The horses are noble but wild like flames. They will throw you off unless you steer them with an iron firm grip." But he had to keep his oath and give in to his son's request anyway.
Faeton set off, but as the chariot got high up in the sky he got dizzy and could not steer the horses. The chariot of the Sun came so near to the earth that it was torched, mountains collapsed, fields turned into white ashes, and thousands of people were burnt up. At last Faeton could not be helped, and Zeus (Jupiter) threw his thunderbolt at him to avoid that all earth burnt up. The thunderbolt lightning hit Faeton above the Po River and burst his chariot. The body of Faeton fell into the river, and he was buried nearby. On his grave was inscribed "Pity his fall, but praise his brave heart!" His sister wept over him by the river bank till they were turned into weeping willows. [Gh 264-65]
A Winged Horse, Pegasus
Really long ago a monk was sitting in the shade of a tree while wondering why cows had not been made to fly. At that moment he was hit in the head by bird's dirt from above, and at once said piously, "Thank you, Lord, that the cow does not have wings."Have you thought about how large the wings of a horse would have to be to make it fly? They would perhaps compete with the wings of a medium airplane. Have you throught how it can flap his wings by use of bones and sinews and muscles that are not there? It is plainly not enough to put wingls on a lump on the back of angels either.
Do some horses have wings? In earlier times Romans really thought so, as evidenced in Pliny the Elder's Natural History. He mentions a winged horse called Pegasus, and also recounts that Ethiopia produces horses with wings, armed with horns - but the winged horse is a fancy thing, and what is more, horns are not to be found on ordinary flying horses. [Pliny the Elder, the Natural History, Book 7]
There are stories about Pegasus. Here is one:
In the wake of some false charges brought against him, the hero Bellerophon was sent to combat with a monster. It was expected by others that he would perish in the attempt; but Athene (Minerva) pitied him and gave him a winged horse, Pegasus. With its help he won. Another version is that he simply had found the winged horse by a fountain in Korith, where it was standing by itself, drinking.
By the help of his winged horse he could kill the monster. He came in from above and killed it with his lance. Later he also took revenge on a false queen by help of the horse. He took her for a ride on Pegasus, and when they had come above the clouds he tipped her off. He even tried to fly with Pegasus to heaven, but that time he was unseated and killed.
The winged horse became a constellation, and it is imagined that it grasps a lance. Further, its soaring flight has been interpreted as an allegory of the soul's immortality. Today the winged horse is a stock symbol of poetic inspiration.
Norse Horses
In Norse mythology Skinfaxe is the horse of Day, and Hrimfaxe is the horse of Night. The sun also has the horses Alsvid and Arvak - but first there was a monsterous giant, his wife and their cow, Audhumbla. She licked on icy salt stones, and from that came Bure, who got Bor, who got Odin and others. They shaped the heavens, the earth, and the sea from the horrible giant's dead body. The gods also formed man and woman, Ask and Embla, from two trees. The heavenly bodies were also formed. The lovely children Sun and Moon were placed on their chariots, each chariot got two horses. And it started with a cow.Gods have named horses too. Heimdal had Gulltop, Odin has the eight-legged Sleipner, Frey hads Blodughofde, the giant Hrungner has Goldfax, and heros have named horses. [Ng, passim]
Famous Real Horses
Some : Bucephalus, the charger of Alexander the Great; El Morzillo, Cortes's favourite horse - the Indians erected a statue to him. Copenhagen, the Duke of Wellington's horse, was buried with military honours.
Proverbs and other Sayings about Horses
A PROVERB is seldom completely true, but may still surprise by insights. Be a little tentative, then.Calvin Hall has found, based on dreams, that in nightly dreams and several myths the horse represents libido, or vital energy. It is similar to the concept of prana in ancient, Sanskrit Upanishad books. Thus, horses may be taken to represent energy for though or thinking, but much more too. In one ancient source it is held that inward horse-power (prana) is God (Brahman). So there you have it. Can you be truly spiritual unless you ride your own [inner] horse? [Medm]
Finally, some of the following sayings and proverbs may look like parody, but they are not intended to be so. Perhaps deeper meaning are had by comparing the points about prana here.
What a horse learns, he often is made to do over and over
The farm horse at last learns to do what he has to.
Ride a white horse if you are up to it.
Riding a horse well is above much else.It's too late to shut the stable door after the horse has bolted. [British] ◊
He that has a white horse and a fair wife, never wants trouble. [British]
Give the horse enough
You should give enough quality food to your horse when you can.Let the horse and donkey provide for him that learns to make us of them. That is the age-old teaching.
Even the saint can do little when it pleases not the deep horse.
 |
Literature
Ebu: Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica 2007 Ultimate Reference Suite DVD. London: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2007.
Gh: Hjortsø, Leo. Græske guder og helte (Greek Gods and Heroes). 2. utg. København: Politiken, 1984.
Medm: Hall, Calvin. The Meaning of Dreams. New ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1966.
Ng: Munch, P. A. Norrøne gude- og heltesagn (Norse Legends of Gods and Heroes). Rev. ed. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 1981.
Nha: Pliny the Elder. Natural History: A Selection. Translated by John Healy. London: Penguin, 1991.
Tnh: Pliny the Elder. The Natural History. Trs. John Bostock and H. T. Riley. London: Taylor and Francis, 1855. On-line [www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Plin.+Nat.+toc]
 |
 |
 |
 |
USER'S GUIDE to abbreviations, the site's large bibliography, letter codes, dictionaries, site design and navigation, tips for searching the site and page referrals. [LINK]
DISCLAIMER: To help us out: [LINK]
© 1998–2007, T. Kinnes. All rights reserved. [E-MAIL]