5 September 2023, San Diego, California, USA
Do you ever feel irrationally protective over certain subjects? Like, something as mundane as your favorite hobby or sport? Perhaps a film? Or an obscure historical figure? Maybe the celebrity you possess the most quizzo1 knowledge on?
For me, my nonsensical, protective, obsession is: horses.
Yes, ‘horses’ is quite broad. If you type ‘horses’ into the big bad Google-AI-machine you will be served with over 4 billion results in less than 1 second (super impressive, what did we do before the internet?). Said results will range from the Przewalski’s Horse2 to Ralph Lauren ads triangulating to earn your digital coordinates and dollars via phrases like ‘equestrian’ or ‘polo’.
I suppose my immediate protectiveness over the category of horse is felt because people today swipe from the horse world with the goal of spritzing their necks with the eau de perfume they hope wafts, heavily, of class. I do agree, there is something about horses, they are the original it girls, similar to those on the cover of this month’s Vogue, but my horse pals get completely mugged3 off after humans use them as the whipped cream in their lifestyle campaign or an adrenaline hit on the Pinterest board. While the emulation of horse-ness does illustrate how humans continue to be mystified by the caballo4 and bond between rider and horse, most (not all) of the horse centric shiny-oiled-leather-spotless-trouser energy we encounter in the world is quite the devoid of the realities of or reverence for horses and horse sports but rather keen to embody all that horses appear to be to the general public: elegant, old, cool, storied, sophisticated, beautiful, and (dare I say) stealth wealth5.
To throw my cards on the table, horses are to human history as morse code is to the telephone. One was required to catalyze the other.
Need more than a hollow sentence on Substack? Understandable, see below:
Over the past 55 million years the horse evolved from a petite, multi-toed creature, close to Eohippus, into the large, single-toed animal of we are familiar with today
Studies have shown that humans began domesticating horses around 4000 BCE, in Southern Russia and Kazakhstan, by 3000 BCE practice of their domestication is believed to have spread to other continents
The first domesticated horses were likely kept primarily as a source of food, rather than for work or for riding
In 1532, 168 Spanish soldiers, 62 on horseback, faced off against 80,000 Inca on foot in western South America and captured the emperor, Atahualpa
During World War I, horses were critical to combat as they moved more effectively across trenches and in deep mud than mechanized vehicles. Horses were used for reconnaissance missions, to send and receive messages and carry medical and military supplies. When poison gasses were used during the war, both soldiers and horses wore gas masks. Horses' noses were covered but their eyes were not, since they could tolerate the poisons better than humans.
In 1900, approximately 130,000 horses worked in Manhattan, this is more than ten times the number of yellow cabs on the streets of New York City today.
And we are only warming up. Now that I have your attention, shall we continue?
Over 1 million years ago horses and other Equus species utilized the Bering Strait6 to migrate from what we would refer to as North America today to Eurasia. During these pre-civilization times humans were evolving and horses were doing the same, they traveled and bred and adapted and were critical to the growth and settling of nearly all early human civilizations. If we FFWD a huge amount of years to Homo Sapiens and the earth arranged as we would recognize it today let us consider that pre-engine powered tools, horses, and their distantly related quadruped7 cousins, were responsible for farming, building, travel and war en masse. To this day, car manufacturers still posit and market to us in terms of ‘horse power’. Heck when it came to westward expansion and message delivery the USA recruited its best talent, at the time, for the ambitious postal experiment in the 1860s that was the Pony Express. For the majority of history, horses were critical to the fabric of human life and civilization, and, as with most widely used or mission critical products or resources, humans eventually capitalized on the horse.
In the mid 20th century, between the dawn of WWII (1939) and the founding of McDonald’s (1955), horses became obsolete to the daily running of society. Rather than let horses and their place in society fade away humans rebranded them as Special.
Hollywood harnessed the character of the horses and archetypes such as the cowboy, underdog equine athlete (@Seabiscuit), or horse girl (@NationalVelvet8) to steal our hearts and $$. We made horses literary heroes or legends as well as calling cards of global brands (Have you ever seen a horse wear a collared shirt?). Luxury brands feature horses in marketing campaigns, like gilded warriors from Above come down to let us know we need a small leather handbag to be special like them.
You: Perhaps thinking, ‘Sure, I saw War Horse, even shed a tear. Horses are not a daily part of my life, why keep reading?’
LL Rebuttal: Do you wear shirts, or anything, with horse logos? Have you worked for a tech or services company named after a mythical horse-like creature ie. pegasus? Do you enjoy music by Ginuwine? Have you ever uttered the word ‘unicorn’ in business chat? Do you, or have you, ever used the expression ‘I’m so hungry I could eat a horse’? Are you in possession of history trivia useful for a cocktail party that includes a historic horse fact9? Do you follow at least one It-Girl on social who is a closet equestrian? If you’ve answered yes to any of the above, this one is for you, baby!
Your logical next query: But why are we digging into horse and equestrian history, art and culture on
this month?LL Reply: Context is important. Always. Sir Isaac Newton certainly understood the weight of the C word. Without context I might misread, or completely boff, a situation, encounter, meeting, question etc. Without context the French Revolution is a confusing, bloody and macabre skeleton in France’s closet. Cause meet Effect.
Right. So for context, we here at
are committed to traveling time by learning everything there is to know about a topic/time/place/person/artwork and we chew these subjects off week by week. I started this newsletter because my soul seems to belong to another time, and I often escape from 2023 by consuming historical content. After about 30 years of this behavior, the content I need for escape is drying up. I decided to create my own.For another layer of context, I am a bonafide #horsegirl. At a wee age I rode my first horse and have been hooked since. My first love was a chestnut quarter horse named Chester who had a heart on his forehead, wore hunter green and broke my heart when he departed this world. I have barrel raced, show jumped, flew through cross country courses, enjoyed many-a trail ride, whooped at the race track, cried while watching Spirit Stallion of the Cimmaron, and while all of the above were penned in the past tense, nothing has changed today, I still cry while watching Spirit, Mary’s Tack and Feed is my favorite store, and I mourn Chester each day - the only new detail is that I am now a polo player.
As a woman deeply in love with all things equestrian and with loads of horses and horse people in my life, horse history has always been important and intriguing.
Et voilà
’s, Month of the Horse.Month of the Horse will break September into two parts. The first, Racing, and second, Polo. Each half will consist of 3 articles: Vintage Finds, Antiquated Traditions we Must Resuscitate, and Meet the Expert. We have drawn you a map below.
Racing
Vintage Finds: 19th Century Opera Glasses
Antiquated Traditions we Must Resuscitate: Dressing for the Occassion
Meet the Expert It’s always surprise
Polo
Vintage Finds: Subscribe to find out
Antiquated Traditions we Must Resuscitate: The Cocktail Party
Meet the Expert
Note! We will be releasing about 2 newsletters per week. To receive them, subscribe for free or become a Patron below. Remember, Patrons receive an invite into our Patrons only slack channel for dialog, digital community, access to Vintage Finds deets and catalogs & more.
Each newsletter this September will will weave a more detailed picture of horses and equine sporting history. Albeit a small picture, told from my perspective and bolstered with facts and experience, but a small picture nonetheless.
As you read along, and I hope you will, I encourage you to do your own research to add to this picture we are weaving. Spend 3 minutes Googling something that catches your eye or sticks with you - perhaps the exercise will bring you down another interesting avenue and get you off your Insta Explore page. Use this time to explore, and let us know what you uncover.
Until Friday - Cheers,
Lo. Lynch
At my alma mater, Villanova University, we used to attend Quizzo on Monday nights (was it Monday?) at the Main Line Pubs. I never won the music trivia but I usually pulled out an inane history fact for some buzzer beater points. Excellent evenings, typically awful drinks.
Przewalski’s Horse is considered the only true wild horse left in the world and would have been extinct without the breeding efforts of scientists and conservationists in the 20th century. Originally they are from the steppes of central Asia and would have been found in places like Mongolia and Russia. There is a great article from National Geographic on the Przewalski Horse here.
I have been watching Love Island UK - it’s official would someone please revoke my Hulu subscription? Asking for a friend.
Spanish for horse
This phrase is kind of yuck, I know, but that is the point I am trying to make here
While it was frozen - we will dig in further on a future 21st & 18th Week
An animal that has 4 feet
1944 film starring Mickey Rooney and Elizabeth Taylor. As a child I was obsessed with this film with my younger sister, we wore the VHS out and probably tried to name our first horse The Pie. Major watchlist recommend.
Catherine the Great? If you know you know, and if you know you know its false but still good party chat
Fun reads and interesting links to prep you for September:
American Museum of Natural History: https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/horse/fast-facts
Horses & Human History from The British Museum: https://www.britishmuseum.org/blog/horses-and-human-history
Watch & learn about polo via the U.S. Polo Association: https://www.uspolo.org/
My favorite Thoroughbred stud, Coolmore: https://coolmore.com/