All month long we will be featuring speaker’s abstracts for the upcoming Equine History Conference: Why Equine History Matters. Register now!

‘Jobb horses’, Piebalds, and a horse called Chance: Horses on an 18th-century estate
Eloise Kane, University of Bristol

    The value of the horse to those of us studying studying the past is difficult to overstate, as few animals share such a long and complex relationship with humans. This paper will consider the role of the horse in shaping experiences of the world of 18th-century England, looking at historical archaeological evidence for its participation in travel, leisure, hunting, livelihood and landscape. From 1767, the Fox family of Kensington, London, attempted to create a new country seat, a mansion house and landscape park some 80 miles to the southwest in Wiltshire. For seven years, the estate saw an intense period of activity and improvement, ending in disaster in 1774 when the mansion house was burned to the ground. By privileging the horse in a close reading of the Fox household accounts, it is possible to map life on and off the estate, making visible that which may be overlooked when we concentrate on people as the most salient actors in our narrative. If we concern ourselves less with the humans, not only are other animals and our relationship with them more apparent, but so too are the people themselves.

Read more about Eloise Kane here.