A Horse, Of Course, Is a Beautiful Thing

“The essential joy of being with horses is that it brings us in contact with the rare elements of grace, beauty, spirit, and freedom.”

Thus opens Sharon Ralls Lemon in The Ultimate Horse Book. As for all good horse-obsessed young girls, this was an essential childhood reference material of mine. Thanks to this and other favorites in my small equine library, in addition to years of riding lessons and Pony Club (admitting this now is still only slightly embarrassing), my knowledge of horse care, anatomy, and obscure breeds is, to this day, weirdly extensive.

Though I have since hung up my metaphorical and literal Pony Club boots, I have kept my love for horses and even still ride from time to time (a hobby I’m trying, mostly unsuccessfully, to get back into). Horses have also been a favorite subject of mine to photograph. Though it is often more difficult to capture and maintain the attention of a horse than, say, a pet dog or cat, this is usually not essential to taking a good or interesting photo. That is because standing, walking, galloping, frolicking, dozing, horses are just magnificent to behold. For photographic evidence, look no further than the following – a few favorites that I’ve taken over the years of horses at work, rest, and play.

Horses at work

With the 2020 Longines Global Champions Tour – the world’s premier show jumping competition – kicking off earlier this month, there seems no better way to start things off and showcase the heart and sheer power that these animals posses than with this selection of photos from the 2017 Longines Paris Eiffel Jumping. The event is held every year within shouting distance of the Eiffel Tower at the Champ de Mars, a quick walk from where I was living in Paris at the time. Even with a view of the Tower from my living room window, somehow the sight of it never got old for me, its magic never wore off. Ring-side, watching the world’s finest equine athletes dance across the arena with the icon of Paris towering in the background, I felt in that moment that there couldn’t be a more special place in the world.

The kind of sinewed talent on display at Olympic-level riding is undoubtedly impressive to witness. But the beauty of a horse in motion is apparent in countless other ways and expressed through varied approaches to riding, from fox hunting and eventing to western pleasure and carriage driving.

Down on the farm

As may be apparent from a close reading of the earlier admission of my Pony Club days, I grew up with, around, on [insert whatever other suitable prepositions] horses. My mom started taking riding lessons when she was nine and from her first horse in college, has owned an assortment of horses and ponies since. I thus was more born into the world of horses than discovered or chose it for myself. Fortunately, it was an inheritance that I found pleasurable, even if I never was quite as dedicated to it as my mother has always been. While my millennial, urban lifestyle does not presently afford me the opportunity to have my own horse (and only the occasional $90 an hour lesson), I still get to come home to it when I visit my parents’ farm in northern Alabama. There’s nothing quite like stepping into a barn and being greeted with soft whickers and perked ears, smells of earthy hay and sawdust, sunbeams of swirling dust, to make one feel nostalgic.

In the wilds

In my travels, I have had the rare encounter with the “wild” equine beauty. On the Puerto Rican island of Vieques, herds of free-ranging horses roam the island in search of prime grazing and handouts from well-meaning but overly enthusiastic tourists. Meanwhile, on the far less tropical island of Iceland, vast fields of green play backdrop to positively wild looking bands of otherwise tame Icelandic horses. Their rugged, woolly appearance conceals the fact that these pint-sized but sturdy horses are prized by Icelanders for their pure bloodline, lively yet gentle temperament, and – most surprisingly – the possession of a fifth gait somewhere between a running walk and a trot, the somewhat ridiculous-looking tölt (most other breeds only have three to four gaits).

Much like the universal impulse to shout “cow!” anytime an animal of the bovid variety appears outside one’s car window, I can’t help but remark “horse!” or “horsies!”, like some triumphant three-year old, every time I drive by one, perfectly unremarkable, in a field. And like the Eiffel Tour, a horse is hardly a novel thing for me, yet it still possesses a special beauty and holds a warm place in my heart. Perhaps it has to do with the nostalgia that horses evoke for me, or the awe that I feel in the presence of their spirit, their elemental wildness. Whatever it is, it certainly doesn’t hurt that, as Pulitzer prize winning novelist Alice Walker observes, “horses make a landscape look beautiful.” I, of course, couldn’t agree more.