Moving!

I'm headed to katboniface.equinehistory.org!

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

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.

Explain

    If the radio silence didn't make it obvious, things have been particularly busy. I'm about to be swamped in student papers again, but in the meantime I thought I'd share the lighter side of having a niche research area.

    I'm used to being the go to person when someone stumbles across an equine reference in their own research. What is a grulla? How big is a hand? What does "a freno" mean? We ask questions of others when we stumble into their specialties, and it enriches our understanding. I'm also used to the standard conference questions that nearly every equine historian gets about who ate horses and when. Lately, however, one of my colleagues has effectively turned this into a meme. I get sent assorted horse pictures, with often just the word "explain" attached. And while occasionally they're still serious questions, for the most part they are absurd and entertaining.

They really are good prep. You never know what sort of off topic threads will come up.

    And sometimes you learn new things even from truly oddball questions. I wouldn't have glanced twice at this "book," which looks like a cheap romance but doesn't come up on any book searches. But having been sent this, I did look twice, at the horse somehow jumping a house. And then I realized what was really wrong here. It was supposed to be a "story of the first thanksgiving," and I was pretty sure there were no horses on the Mayflower. So I had to check. 

    Handily for this one, I had a photo of the Animals in War Memorial memorial I'd snapped from the bus in London coming home from Leeds.

And sometimes, you just need something to lighten your day.

Call for Panelists: Equine Sciences at WSECS 2017

   Seeking one or two more panelists for WSECS to be held at UC Santa Barbara Feb. 17&18, 2017. The conference theme is “Eighteenth-Century Science(s).” This panel will consider the ways in which new ideas about how the world did and should work were applied to the equestrian arts. Please contact KatrinBoniface@gmail.com no later than Sept. 28.

Charge! Historic Selection of Equine Panels

  I've had about a year to adjust to the idea that I'm not just going to Leeds, I'm presenting.

     I leave tomorrow, and it's only just sinking in. Really, though, there is no way I could miss this year. Usually, I am alone in presenting on anything equine; this has also been the case for the handful of other scholars in the humanities who look at them. But at this year's IMC Leeds there will be three full panels, a roundtable, and a couple stand alone papers. Not to mention a large assortment of other animal studies works. I am beyond delighted to be a part of this, and can't wait to see what inspirational sparks fly.

What a week!

    We were in Maryland (mostly) the past week and change, and it was of course a crazy packed week.

     ...before you worry, the kittens are now big enough and healthy enough for a normal living situation and were safely ensconced with their rescuer. Who is now trying to figure out how to keep both of them. I am entirely unsurprised. And by that I mean I planned on it ;-)

   Where was I? Oh, yes, crazy packed week. So we flew out from Cali last Saturday. And Sunday I was off to WV with a former student for a riding clinic. Had a blast showing her around my alma mater, and getting some rust knocked off my riding by Nancy.

I got to ride in this. It was ridiculously nice. 

   And then back to MD! Family things! Sportsball! Actually, that was fun, too.

  The weekend got rescheduled a good half a dozen times, but we did still end up in Baltimore and managed to meet up with one of the two lovely people we'd planned on seeing. We went to the Walters Art Museum. I had planned a fuller post on this trip (it was amazing, and I'm really amazed I never knew it was there, given its founders' role in equine history), but between current events, recovering from airport plague, and needing to prepare for Leeds, that will have to wait. For now, have some pictures:

(click for more)

Signal Boost: Call For Panelists

"Hi All,

I'm looking to assemble a panel for RMCLAS 2016  (March 30-April 2) in Santa Fe, NM. The panel concerns centering animals within History or other disciplines. My paper analyzes the University of Arizona Insect Collections. I seek to complicate the normative definition of archive as a fixed, static space and analyze the technologies and media used to preserve, display, and portray insect specimens for human understanding and entertainment.

Please contact me via email at dblalock@email.arizona.edu if you are interested in participating. This call for panelists is cross posted to H-Net LatAm, Grad, and Animal.

Thank you,

Danielle Blalock
PhD Student - The University of Arizona
Department of History
http://history.arizona.edu/user/danielle-blalock "

I am working on an equestrian paper for this panel, and we are still looking for one or two more panelists.

Cavalrice

Worth a read!
https://nslmblog.wordpress.com/2015/11/12/markhams-masterpiece1683/
The National Sporting Library is a fantastic resource if you're in the Middleburg, VA area.

???

"Inverse Stirrup"
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/y2015/0266716.html

Whew.

    We just got back from a busy weekend at the Andalusian World Cup in Vegas. I'd love to tell you all about it, but if a picture is worth a thousand words, than these are worth millions.

New Book

    "Who’s Talking Now? Multispecies Relations from Human and Animals’ Point of View" is now available as an e-book from InterDisciplinary Press. It is a fascinating collection, including a chapter I wrote for it on the medieval horse.

Mythbusters: Equine History Edition

      So, there are a million and one myths & origin stories for different breeds, tack, traits, and riding in general. I want to put together a collection and do some mythbusting (or confirming). Send me your favorites!

Conference Intermission

    I will be at the Phi Alpha Theta regional conference at CalState Stanislaus this weekend speaking about the Hanoverian Creams.