Jennifer Kelly, author of Sir Barton and the Making of the Triple Crown, spoke at the EHC’s inaugural digital event, “Revisiting History: Sir Barton 100 Years Later” on May 10. Below, you’ll be able to access the video. Enjoy!
Category: Conferences & Talks
National Sporting Library and Museum: Online Resources and Upcoming Event ‘Riding and Music in the Renaissance’
Did you miss the live presentation of Reining in the Beast with EHC’s very own Katrin Boniface, hosted by the National Sporting Library and Museum? Don’t panic! The program can be accessed through this link: https://archive.org/details/final-video-for-reining-in-the-beast-with-katrin-boniface
In fact, the NSLM has a whole host of videos and research resources available on a wide range of topics. Find them all here: https://archive.org/details/@national_sporting_library_museum
The next NSLM online event takes place on Thursday, July 9. Tune in for a talk on Riding and Music in the Renaissance by Robert Eisenstein. Registration details can be found here: http://www.nationalsporting.org/nslm/event_details/1038/
Baldessare Castiglioni, who published the famous Book of the Courtier in 1528, spoke of sprezzatura and the importance of arts over martial skill as the most valuable asset of a courtier. In the Renaissance courts, music was the highly prized and riding masters were teaching skills derived from military equestrian maneuvers to become what would be our modern dressage. What fascinates Eisenstein is that the language used to describe the correct forms of riding and music were exactly the same. Through reading sixteenth century descriptions of both arts, examining the illustrations in riding manuals, and hearing music from that time, we can find connection between riding and music.
Robert Eisenstein is a founding member and program director of the Folger Consort, early music ensemble in residence at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., since 1977. The Consort performs over thirty concerts each season at the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington National Cathedral and other venues. Recent projects include a program featuring dramatic readings from Merchant of Venice with actors including Sir Derek Jacobi, Richard Clifford and Samantha Bond with music by the Mantuan Jewish contemporary of Shakespeare, Salamone Rossi, and the Bassano family, also likely Jewish, with branches in London and Venice. In addition to the US performances the program was presented with the Gabrieli Consort and Folger Consort at the Wanamaker Theatre of Shakespeare’s Globe in London. The Consort opened the Folger’s Wonder of Will year commemorating the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death with a collaboration with the English vocal ensemble Stile Antico, performed in Washington and New York. In September 2019 Mr. Eisenstein served as music director for a production in the Folger Theater of Davenant’s Restoration version of Macbeth. The Folger Consort’s latest recordings are A New World Christmas (2014) and A New Song (2011). Mr. Eisenstein delivers public lectures at the Folger related to each Consort program, and frequently participates in conferences and workshops at the Folger Library.
In addition to his work with the Consort, he is the director of the Five College Early Music Program in western Massachusetts, where he teaches music history, performs regularly on viola da gamba, violin, and medieval fiddle, and coordinates and directs student performances of medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque music. He is a recent recipient of Early Music America’s Thomas Binkley Award for outstanding achievement in performance and scholarship by the director of a college early music ensemble.
Recent performances with his viol quartet/quintet, Arcadia Viols, the Folger Consort and other ensembles include appearances at the Boston Early Music Festival fringe concerts, the Stratford, Ontario Shakespeare Festival, Napa Shakespeare Festival, the Seattle Medieval Women’s Choir and the Chautauqua Festival.
Mr. Eisenstein attended Antioch College as an undergraduate, where he met and began working with his future Folger Consort colleagues. He completed the MFA in Historical Performance at Sarah Lawrence college where he studied musicology and viola da gamba with Richard Taruskin. He and his wife own four horses and enjoy riding in the woods around their home. Although he doubts he will make it to the Olympics he also enjoys working on dressage.
Virtual Event: Reining in the Beast with Katrin Boniface
Hosted by the National Sporting Library & Museum http://www.nationalsporting.org/nslm
Thursday, June 18, 2020 6:00-7:30pm EDT
The last few centuries have seen radical changes in the training of horses. William Cavendish is credited with the invention of “draw reins” in the 17th century, and more the next two centuries inventions and innovations of equine management became more common. From works on “farriery” to the rise of the “horse whisperer”, the methods of these classic trainers are familiar and still in use today, but the central tenants of these systems are likely to astonish modern equestrians. Virtually join Boniface as she examines these methods in light of the repeated claims that they are “more humane” than previous methods, giving us insight into the changing views on animal existence.
To get the link for the Zoom virtual program, register here.
Free for NSLM Members | $5 for non-members
Once your registration is complete the NSLM will email you the program link within 48 hours.
If you have any questions please contact info@nationalsporting.org
Katrin Boniface is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California and a 2019 NSLM John H. Daniels Fellow studying early modern horses and horsemanship. Her dissertation addresses pre-modern definitions of breed and methods of produces horses. She earned her M.A. in Medieval History from California State University, Fresno in 2015 and B.A. in History and English from Stony Brook University, in New York, in 2013. Prior to returning to academics, she earned a trade degree in horse training from Meredith Manor International Equestrian Centre and remains involved in the equine industry. Research areas include medieval and early modern equine nutrition, changing definitions of “humane” treatment in animal training, and genetic history. She is also the the past President and one of the founding members of the Equine History Collective.
#CFP: Historical Practices in Horsemanship and Equestrian Sports
Online Conference: 28-29 August 2020
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 conference is open to papers from all historical periods, and In particular, we encourage the speakers to consider the links between historical and current practices in horsemanship and to inquire into possible tendencies and future developments in equestrian sports.
We understand the word sport 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. On the other hand, equestrian sports often developed and were justified with a certain end in mind, for instance, as military practice.
Possible research strands include, but are not limited to, the following issues:
- Origins and evolution of equestrian sports
- Social practices related to horsemanship
- Reciprocity in horse and human relations; horses as athletes
- Revival and survival of traditional equestrian sports and practices
- Horse care and breeding
- Approaches to training horses and riders
- Preparation and use of horses in warfare
- Equipment for horses and riders
All disciplines and approaches are welcome, and we are open to a variety of presentation formats. If you have a proposal that seems to fall outside the suggested themes, we will be happy to discuss it.
Please submit your title, an abstract of 250-300 words and a short biography (50 words) or CV to Anastasija Ropa (Latvian Academy of Sport Education, anastasija.ropa@lspa.lv) and Timothy Dawson (levantia@hotmail.com) by 1 July 2020. You will be notified about the outcome of your application on 10 July.
A volume of articles based on selected papers will be published in the Rewriting Equestrian History Series by Trivent Medieval. Please indicate in your application if you would like your paper to be considered for publication. The papers presented at the conference will be 15-20 minutes long, but longer treatment is possible in the published article.
EHC 2020 Conference Update
Dear EHC Community,
We know that many of you were looking forward to attending EHC 2020 at SUNY-Old Westbury. Given current uncertainties and their effects on planning and fundraising, however, the EHC executive board has made the difficult decision to postpone the conference until the spring of 2021. Know that this was not an easy decision, and is certainly a disappointment for us, as it must be for many of you. We will work our best to make the spring 2021 conference a reality, and we still intend to hold it at a location on the East Coast accessible from Europe and Africa. In addition, around November 2020, when the fall conference would have otherwise taken place, we will host an alternate online event open to all; the format for this event is not yet set, and we welcome thoughts from the EHC community.
Meanwhile, the EHC executive board does not wish to wait until November to hold a virtual event! Mid-year digital events were a major goal discussed at last year’s annual meeting, and these ways of continuing to foster community and to share ideas have become ever more critical. We have several events in the works; details will be forthcoming.
Thank you very much for your understanding during this difficult time. We hope that all is well with you and yours, and to “see” you virtually in the not-too-distant future.
Best wishes,
Chelsea Shields-Más
President
Christian Krueger
Treasurer
Janice Gunther Martin
Secretary
Katie Richardson
Officer at Large
Katrin Boniface
Past President
Kathryn Renton
Past Treasurer
Horses & Heritage of Saxony (Germany) in July 2020
An opportunity for presenting equine research and exploring equestrian cultural heritage sites in Europe on private tour is on offer from Alexandra Lotz, founder of Horses & Heritage. We caught up with Alexandra to find out what it took to put this program together, and what you might expect from 6 of days with like-minded equine scholars, heading behind the scenes at some of the best-preserved equestrian cultural heritage sites in Germany!
M.A. World Heritage Studies
M.Sc. Building & Conservation
Dipl.Ing. Interior Architect
1. How did this event come about?
During the past years, I participated in several conferences and study programmes related to horses and history in England and the US. I absolutely loved meeting fellow researchers from other parts of the world and feel that we all hugely benefit from getting to know each other. The Horses & Heritage Study Programme is an occasion to meet, present your own pieces of research, and discuss common issues of our field during the symposium — all while visiting places significant to horses in history.
There are a lot of fascinating equine historical heritage sites in Europe, but many of them are only little known or difficult to access for an international audience. Many of them are operating only in their mother tongue, which makes it difficult for people who are not fluent in German to get information. That’s why I have designed the Horses & Heritage Study Programme for English speaking participants.
2. What is current state of preserving equine historical heritage sites in Europe?
This is very different. Some are increasingly prominent, some are neglected or transformed to different uses. Actually, the horsy history of places is often overlooked, mostly due to a lack of awareness or economic pressure.
The Horses & Heritage Study Programme 2020 will focus on Saxony, located in the very east of Germany. During the past 30 years after German Reunification the state capital Dresden and the surrounding region have undergone an incredible development. The palaces we will visit have regained their former glory and house first class collections, including precious carriages, saddles, harnesses or paintings illustrating horses in history.
We will visit both Saxon State Studs, which belong to the most significant institutions of their kind. They are living heritage sites with some hundred years of tradition. Besides being managed as active horse breeding and training institutions they are increasingly perceived as heritage sites and enjoy high preservation standards.
3. Who are you hoping will participate?
I hope for participants who are enthusiastic about horses in history, curious to explore some first class sites in central Europe and happy to share their own experiences.
The symposium on the first day is an opportunity for getting to know each other’s focus. It is not mandatory to give a presentation but I thought that for some people it might be helpful when trying to raise travel funding.
(Note to readers: This first program will be capped at 25 participants.)
4. Which activities are exclusive to the event?
All activities mentioned in the programme are exclusively arranged for this event. It includes a symposium in the Dresden Museum of Transport, which is located in the former Royal Mews, a magnificent 16th century Renaissance building, and visits to the State Art Collections of Dresden Palace, and the State Studs at Graditz and Moritzburg.
The program fees include all entries and guided tours around Dresden, a boat trip on the river Elbe, a carriage ride at Moritzburg, special dinners at special Moritzburg and Pillnitz, and a wine-tasting at the oldest and most prestigious Saxon Winery, “Schloss Wackerbarth”. (Accommodation is not included.)
The full program can be found here.
5. What do you hope this event might generate?
Depending on the response, I would like to offer a Study Programme in different regions and countries every year. There is so much to see, to learn and to discuss! If enough people are interested in this sort of exchange, we can build a strong network strengthening our field of research and passion.
Horses & Heritage of Saxony (Germany)
Dates: July 6th to 11th, 2020
Location: Dresden, Germany and surrounding areas
Deadline to make inquiries: February 15, 2020.
Application: Submit an application form to indicate your interest by February 15th: https://www.horses-and-heritage.net/english/study-programme/
Fees: 770 Euros, with initial deposit to reserve spot by February 29th, 2020.
CFP: Equine Cultures in Transition 2020, Deadline January 31
There is still time to submit an abstract to the Equine Cultures in Transition Conference – Past, Present and Future Challenges (deadline: January 31). This conference will be held June 16–18 at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala and the Swedish Equestrian Centre of Excellence at Strömsholm, Sweden. From the conference website:
“Questions regarding past, present and future challenges in relation to horse – human activities and interaction are in focus for the conference, with the following sub-themes:
- Psychological, pedagogical and didactic perspectives on the relation between human and horse. The theme also includes challenges for equestrian coaching.
- Historical, philosophical and ethical perspectives on human-horse relationships
- Consequences for the human-horse relationships connected to the lifestyle of modern humans – for example leisure, sport, tourism, technology and media.
- Issues related to equine assisted therapy, in relation to the human body, mind and social work
- We will also organize open sessions for those of you who would like to address an issue outside of the sub-themes.”
For more information about the conference sessions and themes, and to learn how to submit an abstract, visit https://www.slu.se/globalassets/ew/org/inst/hippo/pdf/equine-transition/call-for-paper-equine-cultures-in-transition-2020.pdf.
Registration for the conference opens February 17 and closes May 28.
2019 Equine History Conference Recap
Above: The group after the tour of the W.K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Center
The second Equine History Conference (#EqHist2019) brought together a fantastic group of scholars Nov. 13–15, 2019 at Cal Poly Pomona (see final program). Hosted by the W.K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Library, the event opened with a welcome from Emma Gibson, Interim Dean of the University Library at CPP. The theme of the conference, “Embodied Equines,” invited papers that explored how people have understood, shaped, sustained, and used equine bodies.
Sandra Swart and Margaret Derry at registration 
Left to right: Katie Richardson, Head of Special Collections and Archives at CPP (and EHC board member), and Alexis Adkins, Archivist at CPP Special Collections and Archives
On the first day, Sandra Swart gave the keynote address on “The Equine Experiment“—the role of both horses and race in producing the colonial hierarchies of South Africa, despite the immense difficulty of transporting and raising horses there—the role of blood taking on an ominous configuration with respect to racehorses and apartheid.
EHC President Kat Boniface introduces Sandra Swart 
Sandra Swart presents the keynote address “The Equine Experiment in Africa: Bloodlines and Bloodlies”
Conference attendees had the opportunity to tour the W.K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Library to view the “Miniature Menageries” exhibit of Hagen-Renaker figurines, examine new additions to the Library’s collections, and browse the Library’s many books and journals.
From the collections of the W.K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Library
The first conference session included discussions of Arabian horsebreeding: Margaret Derry’s analysis of competing registries, John Schiewe’s discussion of best practices, and Tobi Lopez Tayor’s explanation of how Cold War politics influenced the importation of Russian and Polish Arabians to the US. The next session examined the human-horse bond and different styles of horsemanship.
Right: EHC Treasurer Kathryn Renton presents “Libros de gineta and the Social Presentation of Horsemanship in Habsburg Spain.”
Members of a Spanish-led team of scientists and archaeologists presented work on the myth and reality of Pizarro’s horse, excavations an Iron Age site with sacrificed horses in Iberia, and studies of the genetic inheritance of curly-coated horses around the world and of the Spanish colonial horse in American horse populations.
Right: Mitch Wilkinson presents “The Genetics of Curly Coated Horses”
Papers on the long-distance trade and transport of horses – from New England to the sugar colonies, and in nineteenth-century U.S. military supply chains – were followed by Kat Boniface’s impassioned plea for productive interdisciplinary research and communication between equine scientists and historians. Another session addressed horses and social prestige, war, and morality in nineteenth-century America: the relationship between horses and status based on archaeological research at Montpelier, the procurement of horses in Kentucky during the Civil War, and how the urban middle-class applied the rhetoric of morality and efficiency to horse-drawn streetcar drivers and their horses.
Top right: Kat Boniface presents “Dead Ponies: History, Genetics, and Sci-Comm,” otherwise known as her “Dead Pony Manifesto”
Bottom: The panelists for “The Horse in 19th-Century America” (left to right): Christian Krueger, Elizabeth McCague, and Jennifer Marks
In addition, speakers addressed the consequences of equine embodiment in the context of war: the types and concentration of horses in England after the Norman Conquest, the impact of equine disease in the Civil War, the mule-soldier relationship in World War I, and the use of condemned U.S. army horses as military dog food. Other papers highlighted the significance of horses in Arabic language poetry and ethics, and the commemoration of the horse body both in the ancient Greek and Roman world and in contemporary trophies of horse hooves re-purposed to serve a role in the home.
Right: Carolyn Willekes presents “Embodying the Racehorse: Equines, Hippodromes, and Aristocratic Identity in the Greek World”
The conference closed with a paper on a little-known project of the W. K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Center at CPP to cross Shetland ponies with Arabians for the “Araland” cross, a history both unique and local. Attendees had breakfast that morning with Mary Jane Parkinson, longtime co-editor of Arabian Horse World and author of The Romance of the Kellogg Ranch, which was available for purchase. The day concluded with a tour of the Arabian Horse Center, which emphasized the student learning environment and beautiful batch of yearlings.
EHC board member Katie Richardson of the CPP University Library with Mary Jane Parkinson 
Staff of the W.K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Center with Mary Janice Parkinson (left to right): Cindy Reich, Lauren Corona, and John Lambert
Those with an extra day viewed selected texts from the collection of racing enthusiast Edward Lasker at the Huntington Library, which included a rare first edition of Markham’s Cavelrice, bound in horse hide and horse hair.
Right: Gervase Markham, Cavelarice or The English horse-man, 1607
The conference provided wonderful opportunities for cross-disciplinary conversation and exchange across fields such as archaeology, history, genetics, and linguistics. The book table gathered together recent titles in equine topics, and generous sponsors provided a fantastic spread of raffle prizes. Our non-conference attendees found an active social media presence with Facebook Livefeed video clips and live-tweeting of talks when approved by the speaker (see #EqHist2019).
If you have stories to share about your experience of #EqHist2019 to share with us for a NiCHE (@NiCHE_Canada) thread in Twitter or a blog post, let us know!
Sandra Swart serenaded by Mariachi los Broncos de Pomona (directed by Jessie Vallejo) at CPP’s Innovation Brew Works
The EHC would like to thank our 2019 Conference sponsors:
- Cal Poly Pomona University Library (W.K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Library)
- Cal Poly Pomona College of Agriculture, Food, and Environmental Science (W.K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Center)
- Ursula K. Heise (chair, UCLA Dept of English)
- UCLA Center for 17th & 18th Century Studies (Director, Helen Deutsch)
- UCLA History Department (Chair, Carla Pestaña)
- Moon Dance Ranch, Riverside, CA
The EHC’s purpose is to foster equine history research and its dissemination, and promote collaboration between equine historians in all disciplines. This includes, but is not limited to, scholars in disciplines other than history, like agriculture, archaeology, art history, and literature, and researchers in non-academic settings, such as public historians and independent scholars.
Join us online at Facebook, Twitter (@Equine_History), Instagram (@equinehistorycollective), and equinehistory.org.
Support an equine historian. Buy a tshirt: https://equinehistory.org/2018/09/08/shirts-on-demand/
#EqHist2020 will be hosted at SUNY Old Westbury, NY. Stay tuned for the announcement of dates, and a CFP in the early spring!
EHC at Western States Expo
A great start to this fabulous week of equine history!
Pictures from EHC 2018
The Equine History Collective and W.K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Library look forward to welcoming attendees to the second annual Equine History Conference at Cal Poly Pomona in just over a month! Last year’s conference was a lot of fun, featuring not only fantastic papers and conversation, but also Cal Poly Pomona’s very own student mariachi ensemble, Mariachi Los Broncos. We’ve put together this album from least year, showing some of the speakers and activities: https://photos.app.goo.gl/6SVPnGbquaEwVVyF8.
As a reminder, registration for EHC 2019 ends October 30; if you want to pre-order a shirt or tote, please let us know by October 24 to ensure delivery at the conference! We’ll soon be previewing the paper abstracts for this year’s conference, so stay tuned!