The Equine History Collective and Cheiron, the International Journal of Equine and Equestrian History are delighted to invite you to the second horse training seminar: ”Horse training and management in the Medieval period”, the first in a series of lectures on horse training from the Middle Ages.

Was medieval horsemanship cruel and abusive? Or did it, on the contrary, foster an ideal relationship of loyalty and companionship between the horse and the rider, epitomised by the practice of chivalry? Evidence gleaned from hippiatric treatises, administrative documents, romances, illuminations and legal sources suggests that it could be both. In this sessions, the authors will focus on the care and training practices showing both sides of the coin of medieval European horsemanship.

To join the event, click here.

Download the poster here.

To see the event on Facebook, click here.

Watch the recorded event here:

More information about our speakers:

Emma Herbert Davies is a PhD candidate at the Institute for Medieval Studies at the University of Leeds. Her thesis is on the warhorses used in English armies in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. She has been riding and training horses for almost four decades and has competed in several hunt races.

SELECT PUBLICATIONS:

David Jones and Emma Herbert-Davies, ‘Evaluation of Mail Horse-Armour’, EXARC (2022), 1-9.

Emma Herbert-Davies, ‘Appraising the Warhorse: Restaurum Equorum in the Reigns of Edward I and II’, in Historical Practices in Horsemanship and Equestrian Sports, ed. by Anastasija Ropa and Timothy Dawson (Budapest: Trivent, 2022), pp. 141-58.

Jennifer Jobst is an independent scholar with a PhD in Information Sciences and a long-standing interest in horse training techniques of the pre-modern era, as well as their practical application and relationship to modern riding. She has presented at several conferences and authored papers on riding and training: from thirteenth century hippiatric treatises, to furusiyya books from the Mamluk golden age, to sixteenth century riding performances and their relationship to dance. She also experiments with the techniques and exercises from original sources with her own horses, to better understand the skill and practical application of pre-modern texts.

SELECT PUBLICATIONS

Jennifer Jobst, “Horse Training in the Thirteenth Century: Insights from Jordanus Rufus,” in The Liminal Horse: Equitation and Boundaries, ed. Rena Maguire and Anastasija Ropa (Budapest: Trivent, 2021).

Jennifer Jobst, “Practical Advice on Equine Care from Jordanus Rufus, c. 1250 CE,” in The Materiality of the Horse, ed. Miriam A. Bibby and Brian G. Scott (Budapest: Trivent, 2020).

Anastasija Ropa is lead researcher at the Department of Sports Management and Communication Studies of the Latvian Academy of Sport Education. She is co-editor of the Rewriting Equestrian History series of books and the Cheiron journal.

SELECT PUBLICATIONS

Anastasija Ropa, Practical Horsemanship in Medieval Arthurian Romance (Budapest: Trivent, 2019).

Edgar Rops is a Latvia-based independent researcher. Edgar studied law at the University of Latvia and Bangor University (UK). His research focuses on Welsh law and the history and folklore of premodern Livonia.

SELECT PUBLICATIONS