Moving!

I'm headed to katboniface.equinehistory.org!

   Follow for more horses, horse history, and occasional cats.

CFP: Baroque Horses & Horsemanship

  The theme for WSECS 2018, to be held Feb. 16 & 17, 2018 in Las Vegas, is Conversing among the Ruins: the Persistence of the Baroque.   

   In modern parlance, baroque breeds are those that are heavier than the typical warmblood, but without being draft-like. The Iberian breeds and the Friesian are easily recognized as "baroque," despite the former predating that period and the later being comparatively young in its current form. The Knabstrupper has a "baroque" registration category, despite having a well documented 1812 foundation date. Tack and riding styles likewise have forms described as "baroque," despite often being only tangentially related to that time period. 

  I am looking for additional presenters for a panel on Baroque Horses and Horsemanship; either the baroque period itself, being the seventeenth and early eighteen centuries, or the remembrance of it in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. This period encompasses many notable equestrian works, including Newcastle (1658), with his fondness for Iberian horses, through Baucher (1842).

   E-mail paper proposals to KatrinBoniface@gmail.com by Sept. 29.

This young Andalusian developed the "baroque" neck early

Equine History

If you're here because you have an interest in equine history, and particularly if you are a researcher, take a moment to visit EquineHistory.org

Louis XIV at the Taking of Besancon
by Meulen Adam-Franz van der Meulen, at the Hermitage

CFP: Distributive Preservation and Heritage Livestock

I'm putting together a panel for NCPH 2018 (Vegas), and our third panelist may not be able to attend. The panel is on livestock as living artifacts, in particular ongoing colonialist dynamics in "saving" heritage breeds by importing them. The Caspian is a good example of this. It is, in effect, a form of distributive preservation, with all of the benefits and moral and legal quandaries that practice raises; however, being living creatures, there is the added complication that many imported populations remain isolated and fail to thrive (as in the Cleveland Bay). If anyone might be interested in joining our panel, please let me know by July 13.

Poor neglected blog

That was quite a hiatus. I'm at the National Sporting Library now (and wow is it amazing!), and then I should have most of a month to put my notes in order before teaching again. So, stay tuned?

Into the Woods

Been in the woods for four days, because sometimes it's good to actually take a vacation.
(we'll ignore the grading spreadsheet on the drive 'n' all that.)

Back to the woods! With no grading left (?!)