Old Polish horse & tack - Certamen Equestre

 Salvete Omnes,

long time ago I posted this description of a Polish horse breed as observed by an English traveler (1737AD) -

 'These are much like the Danish horse, and are generally about the size of the Spanish Jennet, are of a middle stature, but their limbs are much better knit together, and are of a much stronger make, than the Spanish ones. This horse is in many respects, like our natural English horse, except that their head are somewhat slenderer, like the Irish hobby; but their necks and crests are raised upright, and very strong; their ears are very short and small, and their backs capable of bearing any weight; their chines [shins] are broad, their hoofs are judged to be as good as those of any horse in the world.

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They are very good for a journey, and will endure long ones, with more ease than any other horse.' 

So today I am re-posting this short description along with the images of  horses, their tack and riders' costumes from the famous XVII century Certamen Equestre collection which is  a set of prints commemorating the Swedish royal court martial festivities (see my other posts on these prints and their content via Labels) - images edited from Gallica French National library digitized collection.

enjoy

valete

Laura Knight pinxit - horses & circuses

Salvete omnes,

let us move away from Polish history tonight and canter closer to our times - XX century Britain.

when I was a kid, several times a year our town would receive a visit  from a wondering' circus on their country-wide, year long circuit - each visit being full of clowns, acrobats and above everything many animals, wild or beautiful or both - :) .
I used to love watching various wild and domestic animals perform tricks and drills, from Asiatic elephants, African lions, Siberian tigers and other wild cats, monkeys, seals, or just our old good dogs and birds doing various tricks, and finally a big number of each show;  teams of horses and equestrian acrobatics performed by most graceful and agile gymnasts on top of these well-trained and beautiful steeds.

In this spirit I wanted to bring to my blog the art of Laura Knight, British painter of the late XIX and most of the XX century, especially Ms Knight's equestrian art.

-Circuses, horses and acrobats & clowns -

-Gypsy and other  horse scenes from the bygone era -

 

I look fondly at these field plowing paintings - I did some of it when a teenager, I wanted to learn how to turn over and break the soil with a team of horses pulling a plough/plow, and I was lucky enough some of my grand-uncles had horses and used plows, be it with some nostalgia for the bygone times...  

Wiki Commons gallery image

and Alfred Munnings' canvas of Laura Knight painting :

all images are presented here under the Creative Commons licence,

Valete

Muscovy Horses of early 17th century - Captain Margeret

Salvete Omnes,

      Jacques Margeret was a Huguenot mercenary who served in Muscovy (Grand Duchy of Muscovy) starting with tsar Boris Godunov,  tsar Dimitrii Ivanovich, and tsar Vasilii Shuiskii, and being a partner? confidante? of Mikhail Saltykov Glebovich  went over to the Polish side, thus serving with the Polish Crown and our King Sigismund III's army. 

Captain Margeret, while in Polish service,  participated with distinction in the battle of Kluszino, He left Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth circa 1612, eventually settled in Germanies, becoming a confidante and consultant to several rulers and magnates of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and German states, and by 1619 disappeared from the pages of history.

While in France after the death of Dimitri I, he wrote a very interesting account on the Muscovite state, and in his work  he also described horses of the Grand Duchy of Lithuanian, thus we can read about the Muscovite Russian (eg of Vologda) ,Nogai Tatar, Polish and Turkish horses in this work (English translation titled "The Russian Empire and Grand Duchy of Muscovy" ).
I compiled the pertinent pages from Gallica - French National Library - the French original

and two images containing  the old Muscovite Russian saddles

Valete

Joseph Parrocel et al - French Ladies on horseback

Salvete Omnes,
1st post this very first day of October. Let us hope for a good month, although our world is in turmoil and will grow more so, I think.
via Wiki Commons, we can enjoy the exquisite equestrian paintings of the French XVII century painter - Joseph Parrocel.
 The already known to us Swedish Skokloster Castle contains in their collection the series of 6 XVII century equestrian paintings  - as wiki Commons states:

[...] all depicting 

Ladies of the French high court on horseback with similar landscape views in the 

background painted for Louis Marie Victoire, Duc d´Aumont. 

The paintings were given as a gift to or bought by the Swedish ambassador 

Count Nils Bielke during his stay in Paris 1679-82. 

The series were later transferred from Bielkes castle at Salsta 

to Skokloster Castle in 1756. All six paintings bear the 

inscription Pour Monseigr Le Duc Daumont on the back of the canvas.

 . Francoise Madeleine Claude Madame La Comtesse de Saint Geran,  born de Warignes

 

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 Marie-Anne de Bouillon f. Mancini

 

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 Catherine de Neuville d'Harcourt-Armagnac

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 Francoise-Angeligue de la Motte d´Houdancourt (daughter of Duke of Cardona)

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 also a daughter of Duke of Cardona  la Madame La Duchesse de la Ferte-Senneterre, Marie Isabelle Gabrielle Angelique de Lamotte-Houdancourt

 

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 Anne de Souvree, marquise de Louvois, wife to the minister of war of Louis XIV

 

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valete