A Gypsy Cob

Biting off more than I can chew, the decision to buy a working horse sets a new project in motion... with many accompanying strands of nervousness and fear.

Foals on a cold day

I only had to walk a mile or two to see the horses, but the uphill shift in altitude and terrain meant the difference between sullen sleet and the crisp and building silence of snow. That’s how I found them gathered around a silage ring and pulling at their forage with steady, careful pulls like the sound of ripping fabric.

I have Ulrich Raulf’s book to blame for this latest excursion. Farewell to the Horse examines the deep complexity of man’s relationship with horses over many thousands of years – and it also places a disturbing focus on just how abruptly this connection has been shattered over the last century. We didn’t simply discard horses – we bricked them out of modernity in ways which seem to guarantee that they would never be back. If nothing else, it’s surprising to consider the sheer enormity of infrastructure required to maintain horses in great numbers as they were called for in places like Paris and New York. It took entire landscapes to grow food for the horses we needed, and intricate systems of stables and equine sewerage to keep our cities from drowning in gouts of heavy-scented piss. As a society, we’re never going back to those days - but even though dependence has passed, the relationship doesn’t need to fail altogether.