The Antique Horse :: Collecting equestrian history

A rather strange veterinary or medical instrument – I would love to learn more about it. Made of steel it has a sharp almost petal shaped blade.

The handle is turned out of boxwood or fruitwood – this has a split on one side. A previous owner or the maker was evidently a better metal worker than woodworker, and the crack has been filled in with metal. The tool has a long square section steel neck. Curiously, where this neck joins the blade the metal has been shaped as a foot.

I do not know who used this tool or for what purpose. I bought it in a mixed lot at auction with some spurs, it was described as a “horse pick”, whatever that means. (As an aside, I do like mixed lots at auction, they’re a great way of accumulating completely random objects. At one time it seemed every sale I went to would have at least one box that contained something that I wanted, a variety of old tourist souvenirs and a gas mask. Sadly, the supply of gas masks in rural England seems to have dried up…)

Back to the tool – I wondered if it it was a fleam (for bloodletting purposes), or a firing iron. The foot makes me wonder if it is a chiropodists tool – if anyone approached my feet with anything that vicious looking I think I’d be running for the hills…

Antique medical tool

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Old stable and veterinary equipment can be quite fascinating.
This is a Rutter’s twitch – it is made of two wooden bars, there are ridges carved around the circumference of each bar. The two pieces of wood are held together at one end by iron loops.

This tool was used to quieten horses when they didn’t want to cooperate with a procedure. One of the wooden bars would be placed on each side of the animal’s upper lip / muzzle & the bars would be strapped together at their free ends, squeezing the lip. Theoretically the use of a twitch promotes the production of endorphins in the horse’s body, making it calmer . Personally I am rather doubtful about this theory and suspect that twitches worked more by providing the alternative distraction of pain.

Despite this rather dubious use the Rutter’s twitch is an interesting item. In common with many 19th Century tools it is beautifully made from an attractive wood (probably oak) , the metal parts are handforged.
However, I think I’ll be sticking to modern sedatives when I need them.

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Horse bits have been occupying my thoughts for a few reasons this week.
I was in Oxford so took the opportunity to visit the Ashmolean Museum.

Pretty well the first exhibits I saw were horse bit related. There was a piece of an Assyrian stone relief carving showing a bridled horse with curved bit cheekpieces.
The relief was dated between 704 & 681BC and came from the palace of Sennachereb in Ninevah, Iraq.

Next to it was a rather clever transparent horse head displaying bronze bridle fittings and a bit from Luristan.
The Luristan pieces did not photograph so well through the glass, but it was interesting to see the position of the various harness ornaments and the bell hanging under the throat. The bit has the characteristic Luristan cheekpieces cast as creatures, in this case horses. I was lucky enough to buy a Luristan bit a couple of years ago – there are images at www.sportingcollection.com/bits/bit328/bit328.html
Compared to many ancient bits the Luristan example is pretty benign, it has a straight bar mouthpiece (admittedly it’s pretty narrow, and there are sometimes studs on the insides of the cheekpieces, but by ancient standards it is quite humane).

There was an example of a bit with “echini” or hedgehog mouthpiece, its cabinet was too dark to photograph it, but this is the sketch I made to remember it – this example came from Deve Huyuk in northern Syria and dates from 480-380 BC. I have read that such bits were used with a loose rein, certainly that seems to have been the ideal described by Xenophon – I have some doubts though, I suspect at the time human welfare was quite a low priority, never mind equine.
I have a similar bit in my collection :

The last gallery had parts of the private collection of John Tradescant, including Henry VIII’s stirrups, Charles II’s spurs and some 16th century “Barbary” spurs which looked very like modern Arab prick spurs – more on those another day.
On my return from Oxford I picked up a veterinary journal where I read an interview with Prof.Bob Cook . He referred to the bit as a piece of Bronze Age technology, which rang true after my day at the museum. Prof Cook also made some good points about the use of bits and our unquestioning acceptance of them. He has developed a bitless bridle, I know nothing about it except that it isn’t a bosal or a hackamore, but there is more information at www.bitlessbridle.com .

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This blog entry is about lawn boots. Partly because they are interesting but largely because they contain no letter “D”.

Note the missing key

This isn’t an intellectual exercise, I’m no Georges Perec (he wrote “La Disparation”, a novel without the letter “e”) – an entire work omitting a given letter is beyond me (note the “d” in beyond). It is simply that one of my kittens removed the relevant key from my laptop & it now requires a special poking action to use it.

Back to lawn boots… these are leather boots that would be strapped onto a pony’s (or horse’s, or donkey’s) hooves.

Why were they used? Well, if you have ever stamped down divots on a polo field (or accidentally let a horse stray onto a golf course – which has never happened to me, really…), you will know what hooves can do to a lawn.
Before motorised vehicles were common, horse (or pony, or donkey) drawn lawnmowers and grass rollers were used on any large expanses of grass. Obviously, there’s no point in carefully mowing and rolling a lawn if at the same time it is being churned up by hooves.

They are made of thick leather and have a strap that would fasten around the pastern, and a lower strap that fastened behind the heel. The soles are generally leather, they are sometimes sewn on & sometimes riveted. The soles often have small studs – wet grass can be pretty slippery. I have seen a set with large studs on the sole, I was told that they were “ice shoes”, but I am not sure how accurate that description was.

Most that turn up are probably Victorian. They do show up in old gardener’s catalogues (Ruth Brennan uses the title “Lawn Boots for Donkeys” in her 1991 paper on nurserymen’s catalogues. Ultimately I think they are a fascinating bit of equestrian history & an ingenious piece of problem solving.

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I have just found a box of old harness decorations. They come in many forms : simple solid badges, some interlocking monograms or ciphers and some depicting parts of crests or coats of arms.

This decoration features a bloodhound. The French motto translates as “Search & you will find”, rather a nice pun.

They were not solely decorative. If we think back to a time when several guests, each with their own carriage & up to four sets of harness, might have visited a country house – the potential for confusion between sets of harness would have been enormous. So, these decorations served as rather elegant identification tags.

“Templa Quam Dilecta” translates as “How beautiful are your temples”, it is a pun on the family name Temple and is associated with Stowe School and Archbishop Temple’s School

They could be made of brass or a white metal, some were hollow & lead-filled, some silver plated. Generally they had pins on their reverse sides which would be inserted into the leather.

A muzzled dog – rather a strange emblem

There are more at http://www.sportingcollection.com/lorinery/ciphers/harnessornaments.html

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I bought these stirrups in London, they fascinate me. They are made of brass, which was once gilded. Only a little gilding remains, most has been enthusiastically polished away, there are residues of brass polish in just about every crevice of the stirrups. I really should clean them, but there are a lot of crevices.

I’m assuming that they are military and British because their decoration is very similar to that on a few pairs of officer’s dress spurs that I have had. I think that the casting shows oak leaves, acorns and olive branches. Or maybe laurel. Oak is supposed to symbolise strength and olive peace. Other military traditions also used oak and olive, so the stirrups may not be British – there are many people who know infinitely more than I do about these things, so I am open to correction.

They are very heavy, more than 2 pounds / 950g each – I think they could only have been for ceremonial or parade use, they would have been quite impractical in the field. I believe they would have been used by a high ranking officer, but have not been able to find out what rank

The most remarkable thing about them is that they have a release mechanism, much like a Wheeler’s safety stirrup. Somehow I never associated armies on parade with safety stirrups…. I suppose no one’s above getting dragged.
There are a few more images at www.sportingcollection.com/stirrups/stirrup168/stirrup168.html

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Have you ever seen another collar like this ?
That isn’t a rhetorical question. I would really like to know.

I bought this collar in a box at a junk sale, with an English hunting whip that I actually wanted & some Royal Wedding saucers that I didn’t. No cups, just about 100 saucers badly painted with Charles & Di – I donated those to the local Scouts who used them on a shooting range at the village fete.

Anyway, the collar fascinates me – it is quite well made, and too large to have been produced as a tourist souvenir. The bulk of the leather on the back appears as if it may have been crudely de-scaled – is it reptile or oddly finished ostrich?

The top of the collar is quite tall, the front panel is embroidered and decorated with mirrors

The rest of the collar is decorated with tufts of brightly coloured wool. Maybe it’s Indian – remember the Diana Vreeland quote about pink being the navy blue of India? There is a thick coloured braid on each side of the collar. There are more images at www.sportingcollection.com/misc/collar/collar.html .
If you have any theories about it I would love to hear them

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While trying to sort out the chaos that always seems to precede Christmas I found a picture that I bought a while ago.
Frankly, it’s awful. I cannot think of a single good motive for buying it – as I recall I arrived rather late at the auction where it was on sale. I didn’t view it properly, but on hearing the auctioneer announcing a watercolour of Samuel Chifney, my ears pricked up & I looked at it on the other side of the room. It didn’t look too bad, from a distance. And it was cheap.

Part of the awful painting – two other jockeys suffer similar maltreatment in the same frame – the moral of this story is – Don’t bid on something you haven’t viewed

I can only think that at the time I was fascinated by Chifney’s story. Today we probably only associate him with the rather dubious anti-rearing bit, but he had an interesting life…

Samuel Chifney (1753-1807) was a successful jockey in the 18th century. He may be remembered for many things : he rode for the Prince of Wales, he appears in the painting of Baronet by George Stubbs , he patented several bit designs, and in 1795 he wrote a book “Genius Genuine”.
This wonderfully titled publication is in part a manual for a new system of racehorse husbandry. Chifney seems rather enlightened and advocates many changes to the traditional practices of the time, such as “Sweating horses” (excercising for six miles in blankets, and on returning to the stable adding more rugs to encourage the horse to break out in fresh sweat) .
A large part of the book is devoted to self vindication following the scandal that blighted his career. We may like to think that race fixing is a modern phenomenon, however, it is probably as old as racing itself. Chifney was accused of deliberately losing a race on the Prince of Wales horse “Escape” in October 1791. He contends that the horse was effectively “doped” by a rival in the royal stables (Mr Warwick Lake). We will probably never know whether Chifney’s account is accurate, or whether he did give in to pressure, financial or from his patron. It does seem that the matter affected the rest of his career and, according to Chifney Senior, that of his son .

I took a trip to the British Library to read “Genius Genuine”, and would recommend it – if only for the fabulous language…
“If the Jockey Club will be pleased to give me two hundred guineas I will make them a bridle as I believe never was, and I believe can never be excelled for their light weights to hold their horses from running away, and to run to order in, as above mentioned, as near as I thus can teach; and it is much best for all horses to run in such; and ladies in particular should have such to ride and drive in, as they not only excel in holding horses from running away, but make horses step safer, ride pleasanter and carriage handsomer”


A Chifney Buxton – there are more Chifney bits at www.sportingcollection.com/bits/bits.html

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Victorian riding whip with compass

I have to confess, I am “directionally challenged”, I can lose my way frighteningly easily. When out on long hacks alone I have been known to resort to dropping the reins & letting the horse navigate its own way back to the yard. This technique worked well until one afternoon when a fully loaded hay lorry passed my spectacularly greedy mare, and she set off in hot pursuit – a case of meals on wheels?

So, how useful is this? A whip or crop with a compass – the compass still works, which isn’t bad considering that the silver mount is hallmarked Sheffield 1889, making it 120 years old.

The grip is made of staghorn or antler, and there is a second silver collar at its lower edge. The shaft or stock is probably whalebone, but much more rigid than in many sidesaddle whips. It is covered in braided linen which has been lacquered.

The lash at the end is definitely a replacement, a sort of tassel of leather. I will probably have it replaced with a leather keeper or silk lash.

There are more details at www.sportingcollection.com/whips/w624/w624.html

Victorian riding whip with compass

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collection of hunting flasks
While photographing some saddle flasks for my website my thoughts turned to the stuff we put in them.

Now, I can see the need for sustenance & possibly a bit of Dutch courage when out hunting – hence traditional combinations like port & brandy or a Whisky Mac. Innovation isn’t always a good thing – I have seen (and regrettably tasted) – framboise & port, this is never going to be a classic, and peach schnapps? well….
Double ended hunt flask