Hosted by the Latvian Academy of Sport Education, August 24-27, 2020. Organized by Timothy Dawson and Anastasija Ropa.

For the past five years the International Mediaeval Congress at Leeds in the UK has hosted a series of sessions on horses and related animals and equestrian practices. The interruption in that flourishing tradition has offered the opportunity to break out of that temporal field and look at equestrian activities over a greater span of time and into the present.

Thus, this conference is devoted to discussing historical practices of horsemanship and equestrian sports, their emergence and evolution over centuries and into the present day. The speakers have been encouraged to consider the links between historical and current practices in horsemanship, and to inquire into possible tendencies and future developments in equestrian sports.

While in the past, equestrian sports often developed and were justified with a certain end in mind, for instance, as military practice, in this even the word sport is understood in the broadest sense, to include the connotations of play, leisurely and cultural activities, which are not necessarily practiced with a practical outcome in mind.

The participants include people who are not only scholars in the traditional sense, but also practitioners in a wide range of equestrian pursuits, and crafts people experienced in producing and replicating equestrian equipment, and some who combine all those aspects. The conference will, therefore, appeal to a wide audience who are interested in equestrian matters, offering not only rigorously researched food for thought to take away, but practical advice that might be of use to attendees.

A volume of articles based on selected papers will be published in the Rewriting Equestrian History Series by Trivent Medieval.

The conference will take place via Zoom. Attendance is free, but prior registration is required.  

For more information, including the conference program, please visit the conference website.