William Robinson Leigh's Indian ponies, horses & riders

 Salvete Omnes, 

a quick entry - William Robison Leigh (1866-1955) and his equestrian art as available on Wiki Commons ,

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Gilcrease Museum Collection. actually huge collection of Leigh's works  - amazing collection of Indian ponies - oil on canvass.

Pony

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William Robinson Leigh at  the auction house Christie's. 

Sotheby's auction house.

Invaluable portal.

And more Wiki Commons 

Bears in the path

Amazing landscapes of Grand Canyon - 

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Valete

Guardroom with a saddle and armor by Thomas Apshoven

 Salvete Omnes,

Flemish painter Thomas Apshoven (1622- circa1667) painted genre scenes, including guardrooms similar to David Teniers the Younger.

. in this detail we see a fine riding saddle typical of the period - mid XVII century - in Western Europe

saddle, horseman ax and a sabre with a thumb guard/ring

a pair of pistols for a horseman 

a cavalry trumpet?

a spur?  pieces of armor

The Wiki Commons galleries have   this painting showing a village life -

in the background there are two wagons painted in rather sketchy manner, being far removed from the main scenes by the river - boats, washing laundry and bathing etc.

. two types of water wells in these paintings 

enjoy

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Horses & World War II

Salvete Omnes,

May 8th in the West and May 9th in the Rus. Federation and Belarus etc are celebrated as the Victory Day over the Nazi Germany in World War II. Albeit the war in Asia lasted until August 1945.
Horses played huge role during the world war, from Europe to Africa and Southeast Asia - from cavalry mounts (especially for the Soviet side) and draft animals for the German side, poor in automotive products and always low on petroleum products.

Thus millions of horses went to war and died in process, especially during the German invasion of the Soviet Union - in his book on cavalry in that war Janusz Piekalkiewicz states that Germany mustered 2 million 700,000 horses and the Soviets 3 million 600,000 of equine poor souls. 
German losses were high and in 1942 they initiated horse confiscations in the occupied Polish lands and further east etc. They robbed my great grandfather of his prized breeding stock without compensation nor legal title to it, but the brute force.

Glory to all cavalrymen, wagon drivers and their horse companions. 
!Vivat Victory Day!

Valete