Markham on Stallions, Amblers et al

Salvete Omnes, 

 

once upon a time in the early XVII century there was this English horse-writers Gervase Markham (died in 1637AD) - 

and being a gentleman, hoseman,  and a horse soldier he wrote a lot, after his career in the wars of his era, putting  his horse-related experiences to paper.

Thus from his book  The perfect horse-man. Or the experienced secrets of Mr. Markhams fifty years practice.,  1671 edition, there come these pages - on stallions and mares(he mentions Neapolitan, Turk, Spaniard, Barbary, Englis, Dutch, French or German[horses] and a Polish - as Polander - horse for breeding in England) and ambling among many other advice and observations.

You can read a copy at the Archive Library or google books or some other digital collection library out there. The pages I selected come from the Archive digital copy.

from the Chapter of the office of Breeder  

 

from the Chapter of the Office of Rider

the excerpts from the Chapter on ambling and training a horse to amble

more of Gervase Markham's writings in the future

Valete

Paso Fino and other criollos of Puerto Rico

 Salvete Omnes,

 

a short entry as this month is so young and promising us warm Spring and invigorating sun.
ad rem,

 

a team of scientists analyzed  genetic data related to the Paso Fino horses, especially in their relationship to the Puerto Rican horses, and come up  with their results in this article. 

I mean the results are not really dramatic since in 1508AD Ponce de Leon and his conquistadores permanently settled the island of Puerto Rico (Borinken) and immediately started breeding horses brought from Europe and those already born in the Spanish-occupied Caribbean islands. Horses from these islands and a little later from Panama and Venezuela participated in the conquest of the Americas and provided bloodlines to the breeding herds of the Spanish, Portuguese and later other European colonists

and a lady on horseback - XVIII century painting by Jose Campeche, native of San Juan, Puerto Rico, himself a disciple of a Spanish painter Louis Paret y Alcazar, banished to Puerto Rico by the king.

Enjoy

Valete

Gaited, ambling & pacing horses

Salve,
I just received a book by Lee Ziegler titled Easy-Gaited Horses. It is not a new edition, but the 2005 one. I have not read it yet,  but I am looking for any pertinent info on different experiences with horse training as I may do some horse groundwork later on in May. Naturally, I am watching my videos with Parelli and other natural horsemanship trainers that I can get from libraries etc.
Having said that, I admit freely I am very  interested in the easy-gaited horses. I have ridden some pacing horses like the Peruvian Paso, Standardbred, Paso Fino etc.
Loved the experience ...
So today I decided to add some information form M. Horace Hayes' treatise Points of Horse: on the ambling horses from the 1893 edition

Here finally a little note Captain Hayes made about the Peruvian Paso, but I would like to point that obviously he did not know much about the Spanish Caribbean horses, nor about the ambling horses of Mexico (this is before the nightmare of the Mexican Revolution) and Central America, nor Colombia and Venezuela, where pacing horsese were in vougue, still cherished, used and bred.

enjoy