{"id":6223,"date":"2015-09-06T07:00:15","date_gmt":"2015-09-06T06:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/janetgover.com\/?p=6223"},"modified":"2015-09-06T07:00:15","modified_gmt":"2015-09-06T06:00:15","slug":"in-praise-of-horses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/history\/in-praise-of-horses\/","title":{"rendered":"In praise of horses"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"No<\/a>
No surprises that this is one of my favourite horse-related icons – the Cowboy. He pops up in the books I write too.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My mother used to say that the very first word I spoke wasn\u2019t Mummy or Daddy \u2013 it was horsey. I am entirely willing to believe her.<\/p>\n

Like most young girls, I loved horses. But in my case, it was a love affair I never grew out of.<\/p>\n

Circumstances over the years changed the nature of my relationship with horses, but I\u2019ve never lost that first great love, as evidenced by the fact that of all the books I\u2019ve written, only one does not include horses. For that one, I had to go to Antarctica.<\/p>\n

With all that in mind, it won\u2019t surprise you to know that on my recent trip to Melbourne, I spent a lovely afternoon exploring the National Gallery of Victoria\u2019s exhibition entitled \u2013 you guessed it – The Horse.<\/p>\n

The first thing that struck me as I walked through the gallery was the incredible depth and breadth of the work on display. From the ancient world to the modern, from the Far East, through Europe to the New World: everywhere people have lived\u2026 horses have lived too (including Antarctica).<\/p>\n

\"I<\/a>
I loved this painting of war horses relaxing on a beach – it’s by Lucy Kemp-Welch, who is also known for her illustrations for the 1915 edition of Black Beauty.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The horse has touched every facet of our lives \u2013 from the most basic use as a beast of burden, or a source of food and skins to religion and legend, warfare, art and fashion.<\/p>\n

\"In<\/a>
In this Indian text, the god Vishnu is seen as Kalki, his last incarnation, astride a horse as he ushers in an era of peace and order.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Horses of course, aren\u2019t the only creatures we have held so close. Sheep and cattle feed and clothe us. Dogs are our loyal companions as well as working for us. And cats \u2013 well, cats have their own universe which they condescend to allow us to share.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse – but the artist has put the wrong riders on the different coloured horses.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Our relationship with horses is all of these are more \u2013 and here\u2019s my thoughts on why\u2026<\/p>\n

Horses are smart – equal to or even more than dogs and cats. We like smart creatures.<\/p>\n

When you spend time with horses, they respond to you and they look at you with awareness. They will wait to see you and greet you with recognition and obvious pleasure. You don\u2019t get that kind of response from a goldfish.<\/p>\n

A horse is useful is many different ways.<\/p>\n

Horses are stronger than we are, but at the same time they are willing to form a partnership with us.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Greek hero Achilles had a chariot drawn by two magical horses born of the West Wind.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sitting on a horse makes us taller than everybody!<\/p>\n

The hairs on their muzzle tickle as they sniff out faces and their eyes are like chocolate.<\/p>\n

Horses have a sense of humour \u2013 they truly do. Not like pigs. Pigs have no humour at all.<\/p>\n

Horses are warm and comforting \u2013 and burying your nose into a warm horse\u2019s neck on a cold day feels just wonderful.<\/p>\n

Riding a horse makes us faster and stronger then we could ever be on our own. It makes us feel powerful.<\/p>\n

I could go on. And on. While there are many animals which give us some of these things \u2013 in my world, horses are the only ones that give us all this and more.<\/p>\n

And to top it all off \u2013 they are beautiful.<\/p>\n

\"This<\/a>
This took me back to one of my favourite childhood books – King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry – The story of the Godolphin Arabian.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The exhibition in Melbourne was a very pleasant few hours being reminded of my very first love. So \u2013 the next questions is \u2013 will there be horses in my next book?<\/p>\n

Very probably.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My mother used to say that the very first word I spoke wasn\u2019t Mummy or Daddy \u2013 it was horsey. I am entirely willing to believe her. Like most young girls, I…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,16,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","category-my-travels","category-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6223\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}