J. Hoefnagel - la gineta lancers from Jerez de la Frontera

Salvete Omnes,

1560s Jerez de la Frontera by Anthonis van den Wijngaerde

 a short entry on this May day - from Jerez de la Frontera in Spanish Kingdom.
 Joris Hoefnagel (1542-1601AD) was a Flemish artist and frequent traveler in the XVI century. 

He drew and printed many so called map (topographical) views of the cities of his era. 

In these maps he recorded images of riders in various poses and actions - like these two lancers with the adarga shields on the Jerez de la Frontera's views.

they seem to be dressed in  Morisco style, or at least they are wearing a Morisco headgear, while horses' bridles are adorned with large feathers.  

the pursuing lancer has a sabre while the pursued a sword

.

They are riding in the la jineta/a la gineta style

horses wear ornate halzbants with horse tugs in the Turkish style

Italian ecuyer and equestrian researcher Giovanni Batista Tomassini wrote this article about a la brida y a la jineta/gineta styles of riding in the XVI century.

Valete

Enrique IV of Castile - la gineta & la brida

 Salvete Omnes,

long time ago I copied the image of Enrique (Henry) of Castilla (Castile), as his mounted image was picture perfect cavalier riding la gineta or in the Spanish Moorish fashion, with short, wide stirrups and long lance.
Looking at the images of Enrique I came across the photos of the stained glass window from el Alcazar (royal castle) of Segovia. 

.. and some more images of this king from miniature.

.and for comparison, also from Segovia - a knight riding la brida (long stirrups), astride his armored horse wielding a sword

in both images the mounted knights are armored with plate armor
.

kings coats of arms from the Segovia cathedral

later, posthumous image of the king

Valete

Passion of Christ from Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry

 Salvete Omnes,

Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry - French XV century manuscript is a veritable treasure chest of beautiful imagery and symbolism done in the most exquisite style and with outstanding artistic skill and talent. 

But since we are in the Holy Week - La Semana Santa - so I have collected the  Passion of Christ  illuminations from this Late Medieval book of hours or a collection of prayers unified in a book form for praying the canonical hours. 

interesting rider ,on the right, in the foreground - he is riding a la jineta/gineta, short, and has rowel spurs, a big curb-bit on a gray horse

***

Judas  

                                                                     
Valete

Jean de Feschal - late medieval treatise

Salvete Omnes,
back form the break of sorts - the USA in upheaval and things are very emotional, violence and rioting out there - all this qualifies for a Chinese saying -
Ad rem, a short entry- :)
while 'talking' about the medieval and early modern hinged-bits on one of the Facebook groups I was pointed to a manuscript by a French lare Medieval or early modern hippologist chevalier Jean (Jehan) de Feschal,  - Traité d'Hippiatrique .
 ''De nombreuses inscriptions dans une écriture cursive du XVIe siècle (peut-être plusieurs mains) sont présentes dans le manuscrit.''
so, the author of Gallica information on this manuscript seems to ponder the difficulty with precisely pinpointing the year this family manuscript was produced, and indicates that the writing style belongs to the XVI century style and there are various hands present, thus might have been more writers to this folio.
It is accessible for viewing and/or download on Gallica - French National Libary.

it may be interesting to search and find out which Jehan de Freschal  it might have been - as there were at least two Jean de Feschal(separated by more than 2-4 or more  generations?) two of this family: I found
1. Jean, seigneur de Ture et de Bourgon,
2. Jean du Feschal, seigneur de Marbouë & du Gripon, capitaine du château de Caen.
and the coat of arms shown in the manuscript shows that this family branch was entitled to use the coat of arms of the Montecler one on their escutcheon-  more about this Le Mains family of de Feschal  see here. 
The manuscript has more than 160 pen and ink and watercolor images of various bits.
Among them this interesting  bit for la gineta/jineta.(view 70 on Gallica)

Valete

Old Poland Horses

Czolem,
this time I am posting my own two, rather old, illustrations intending to continue my discussion about the so called Old Poland/Polish Horse:
one (color one) could be a 'bachmat' - from Tatar/Turkish language  (but the root of this word is old Iranian, another proof that Turkish people were taught all about horses by the Sarmatians and Saka - themselves Iranians) word for a smaller, but muscular yet fast and faithful warhorse; and the black and white drawing is an attempt to portray a rumak  with typical tack of mid XVII century that was a preferred mount  of our winged hussars and richer nobles - originally from old Persian 'argamak' which is a word for a splendid, noble warhorse. Both types were present in Old Poland, while the names are still in use in the modern Polish language.
There was one more 'horse word' used to describe war and parade horses: dzianet. This name was used for especially beautiful parade horses, and later on, during the XIX century came to denote  a noble and very beautiful horse, often used in poetry or novels, eg. Nobel laureate Henryk Sienkiewicz's "Trilogy." The word itself comes from Spanish - yennet or jennet or gennete, whether it meant a ridding horse or horse ridden in a special manner, with short stirrups (a la jineta) still remains an answered question. From Spanish this word passed into Polish language via Italian language with the arrival of our good queen Bona Sforza, wife to His Royal Majesty and Grand Prince Sigismund I (1467-1548). In 1518 Queen Bona brought to our lands many Italian horses, of Neapolitan extraction, trained in then fashionable Italian horsemanship and they were most likely ridden a la jineta, and thus we have dzianet name for this highly trained and beautiful parade horses. Dzianet is not used in everyday Polish language to describe horses  anymore.

to be continued