Are horses native to North America?

Yes and no! Horses evolved in North America, spread across the land bridge into Asia and then - for reasons we don't know - became extinct on this continent until reintroduced by the Europeans.

Were there black cowboys?

Because this has come up a few times in my hearing lately.

Yes, there absolutely were. In fact, the estimate is that one in four cowboys was, in fact, African-American. So, how did that happen?

There were a few ways, but the major one was that during the Civil War, a lot of whites went to fight...and left their slaves to tend the cattle. The slaves developed the skills and then once they were free took jobs as skilled hands.

And they found that the cowboys didn't care. White, black, Hispanic, Native American - as long as you could do the job. It only lasted for the era of mass cattle drives and the black cowboys have been mostly erased from history, pushed out of rodeos (although many black riders compete now, they were excluded for a while) and forgotten. But if you're writing westerns or weird west - remember, there were plenty of black faces under those hats.

Why are horse racing's top awards called the "Eclipse" awards?

After a horse, of course. In 1764, there was a solar eclipse on April Fool's Day - and that's when "Eclipse" was recorded as being born.

He raced for only 17 months and was retired - because he was so good he was ruining the betting industry.

He fetched 75 sterling as a yearling...and was bought by a farmer who, instead of gelding him, bet that he could be tamed by intensive training. He was untouchably fast - and a terror to handle. At the time, racehorses were run older than they are now - he made his debut at the age of 5 and won every race he was in...ignoring his jockeys the entire time (Not like they actually knew better).

He made $6 million from racing purses and stud fees, breeding over 300 mares. In fact, it's possible the horse box was invented for Eclipse (at that time, the stallion went to the mare). Over 90 percent of English Thoroughbreds trace to him.

In addition to the awards, Eclipse gave his name to a prestigious race, a racing magazine, the main building of the Royal Veterinary College and a slew of ships. (Not to mention the fact that "Eclipse" is still a common horse name, and not just amongst racehorses).

We don't know how Eclipse would have stacked up against, say, Secretariat or any other modern racehorse because they didn't have the best timing gear back then, but he was definitely insanely fast.

Why do modern jousters use draft horses?

Because, to be honest, we've mostly lost the "great horse" or "destrier."

Draft horses are often the only animals that can handle the weight of 100 pounds of armor plus maybe 150-200 pounds of jouster plus the weight of the barding. They are also mostly (but not always) easy to desensitize to crowd noise, rattling armor, etc.

Ring jousters and some jousters who "fake" it at RenFaires often use lighter horses.

How much did a knight's armor weigh?

A full suit of plate armor weighed about 60 pounds - which meant that the horse had to carry that weight, plus the knight, plus the horse's own armor. No wonder a knight's horse was on the big side. Tournament armor was even heavier, often reaching 100 pounds - but jousting horses were specially conditioned to carry it and seldom did so for long.

Why do rodeo cowboys win buckles?

There are two kinds of prizes often given out at rodeos. One is prize saddles - which is obvious. Saddles are expensive, and western saddles fit a decent variety of horses.

But why buckles? I've wondered this myself - modern cowboys and cowgirls often like bling on their belts, and traditional buckles are supposed to reflect history and personality. Native Americans also made spectacular belt buckles. So, why?

In fact, cowboys to start with avoided fancy belt buckles and preferred suspenders, which were less likely to be caught on the saddle horn, a steer's horn or whatever.

Some research shows two possible origins for the rodeo buckle.

The first is that a lot of the early rodeo cowboys were also involved in boxing, so the rodeo buckle may be associated with prize belts. This appears to be anecdotal, but...it's an interesting thought.

More likely, though, is that it can all be blamed on...Hollywood.

In the 1920s, the movies started to show large, blingy belt buckles on cowboys. Remember that movies were silent at this point. Belt buckles with a cowboy's ranch affiliation on it were a good visual cue to help tell characters apart (hat colors were also used, and this is the origin of "White Hat" for good guy).

Real cowboys then started wearing the Hollywood belt buckles and they became part of rodeo tradition - and some of the ones given out as prizes at the highest end rodeos are solid gold.

What is a road blanket?

Something you don't hear about very much. Road blankets were loose blankets that covered the horse's body and neck and were designed to go over harness. They were used when horses had to wait an extended amount of time outside or when doing slow work in cold/wet weather. The reins would actually go under the blanket so that the leather was protected.

What is a stallion shield? (NSFW)

This one's a wee bit NSFW, sorry.

In the 19th century, masturbation was considered, you know, bad. Immoral. And they actually applied this to their horses.

Left to himself, a typical adult stallion may masturbate as much as 14 to 15 times a day. They are harem breeders and need a high sex drive to keep up with their mares. (Geldings will also masturbate,  albeit not as much).

They believed that this lowered a stallion's sperm count and made him less inclined to cover the mares. So, a stallion shield was a device that was strapped onto the poor horse in his stall to prevent him from, you know... They even had special ones designed for yearlings and two-year-olds, which kind of gives a lie to the "lowering sperm count" idea and tells us what it was really about: That Victorians were just that hung up about sex.

What are "horse balls"?

No, not the things stallions have that geldings do not. Not horse toys either.

In the old days, "horse balls" were basically horse pills - large pills that were forced down the sick horse's throat using a nasty looking device called a balling iron. Because horses are so big, then the doses they need are big too.

Most modern horse medicines come in smaller pills, pellets, or a powder or liquid designed to be mixed with foods, so the days of "balling" a horse are gone - but for the longest time it was the primary means of delivery.

What were lawn boots?

In the days before tractor mowers, large properties would use an equine - often a pony or donkey - to pull the lawn mower or grass roller. Unfortunately, horse hooves tend to make nice little divots on your well kept lawn (I remember being told never to ride across the soccer field...) So, they would put leather shoes on the pony to "soften" their hooves and prevent the damage.

Of course, these eventually evolved into modern hoof boots that are sometimes used instead of shoeing a horse.

(Or, of course, you can just let them mow it this way).

When were riding helmets invented?

Helmets were, of course, first invented as part of armor. The word "helmet" means "small helm" and meant a helmet that only covered part of the head. The modern hard hat for construction use was invented in 1919 for miners - before that, leather helmets were sometimes worn.

As hunting with hounds at speed became a more popular sport in the 19th century, the hunt cap became popular - this was a lightweight hard hat that lacked a chin strap and provided only a small amount of protection. Chin straps started to become popular in the early twentieth century.

The modern riding helmet, though, has its origins in racing. In 1941, accident insurance was introduced for jockeys - which meant head injuries started being tracked. The first payout went to the family of an 18-year-old apprentice, Joe Giangaspro, who died of a head injury after a race at Hialeah.

In the 1950s the Jockeys' Guild, which governed the insurance, put effort into developing a proper safety helmet for jockeys. (This is also when goggles became mandatory for jockeys). In 1956, the "Caliente" helmet was introduced in the US. Proper safety helmets spread from racing into other equestrian fields. In the 1990s, helmet laws began to spread through the western world - often helmets being mandatory for youth under 14 or when riding on the road. Many western and dressage riders, however, still refuse to wear helmets.

When was the first horse show held?

We honestly don't know. The first horse show in the United States was the Devon Horse Show on July 2, 1896.

But obviously there have been horse shows before then. Dublin Horse Show started in 1864, for example - but that's only when it became formalized.

Likely, people have been showing horses since not long after they were domesticated in the first place.

When was the first rodeo held?

I was just talking about rodeos in fantasy - and that led me to wonder when the first rodeo was held in America.

Santa Fe claims their rodeo was the first, in 1847, but it can't be verified. In California, "rodeos" were required every year from 1851, but these were not sporting events, but the original sense of the term - organized round ups where ranchers met up to sort out their cattle and brand the calves.

In fact, the term rodeo was not used for cowboy sports until the 1920s. The formalization of a rodeo into the five standard events (calf roping, bareback bronc riding, saddle bronc riding, bull riding and steer wrestling, with steer roping and team roping optional) did not take place until 1929. In fact, most early rodeos were so disorganized that riders often did not know what the events even were until they arrived on site - which meant their horses had to be good at everything, unlike the specialization of today. And even then, rodeos often contained other events (many still include barrel racing) such as trick roping, trick riding and sprint races.

There was one way in which early rodeos were more progressive though - women competed in all the events alongside the men. In 1929 a female bronc rider was killed and since then women have been essentially disallowed from competing in bronc riding and bull riding. At most modern rodeos, women compete only in barrel racing (and men do not compete in barrel racing, making for an oddly strict divide). The PRCA still does not allow women's events at sanctioned rodeos, other than barrel racing. Women got back into the act in 1948 when the Girls Rodeo Association was formed to allow them to compete in their own segregated events. (It's now the Women's Professional Rodeo Association).

And I got thoroughly distracted and will stop now. Here, have a barrel racer.

What were "pit ponies"?

Pit ponies were animals that were used to assist miners underground. Not all were ponies - draft horses were used in larger mines in continental Europe and the Appalachian miners, perhaps unsurprisingly, preferred mules.

True pit ponies are best documented in the UK, where they were in use from 1750 until 1999 (yes, 1999 - the very last pit pony was named "Robbie") with the highest number being in 1913, when there were 70,000 - mostly Shetland and small Welsh.

Some mines even bred the ponies underground - some of these ponies literally went their entire lives without seeing the sun. The ponies were well cared for, and generally retired to the surface in their late teens - although as they had spent their entire lives stalled underground, the poor things did not know how to be horses at all, and a lot of them were slaughtered. Also, they tended to get black lung and other respiratory problems.

Britain's last surviving pit pony, Pip, died in 2009 at a museum where he worked as a four hooved docent, demonstrating the harness he used to wear. (He has been replaced by a younger animal purchased for the job).

As far as I can tell there are no pit ponies left. But one could imagine in a fantasy world dwarves using them - and perhaps those ponies would be as adapted to underground life as their handlers.

Why is foot armor tapered?

Sabatons are foot armor worn by knights, and they look rather like this:

Image source: Project Gutenberg via Wikimedia commons.

As you can see they have quite the point - and bizarrely, historians are not sure why other than "fashion."

It's actually quite obvious to a horse person. Cowboy boots and many tall English boots also have points, although not as much as that. While wearing armor, the knight's ankle is supported but motion is restricted - the point helps get the foot into the stirrup and regain a lost stirrup. Paddock boots do not have the point - but you can move your foot much more in them (trust me).

So, no, the point is not fashion. It's sharpness is probably to provide an extra weapon in close combat.

What is a shavetail?

If you read military historicals, you might have come across the term "shavetail" for a green officer. So, where does it come from?

Cavalry.

It wasn't uncommon for a new cavalry officer not to be a great rider (I actually once watched the changing of the Horse Guard in London and, uh, they still weren't great riders. Tighten your girths, people). So, during training, they would put the new officer on a calm, older horse that would help teach him.

These horses were marked out by having their tails trimmed short or shaved. This allowed everyone else on the drill field to easily spot the rookies who might, you know, do something stupid, fall off, lose control of their horse, etc.

Obviously, they became known as "shavetails." (Tail shaving on mules, which I covered in another post, means something quite different).

Why do knights earn their spurs?

Fantasy novels often have a squire receiving spurs when he or she becomes a knight. However, the most common vision of the knighthood ceremony involves "dubbing" with a sword.

The spurs, however, were the actual symbol of knighthood. The spurs received in the ceremony were highly ornate and decorative (and probably worn only during tournaments due). A knight's spurs were gold, or at least gilt (his squire wore silver). Spurs were sometimes taken as trophies and if a knight was disgraced, his spurs would be deliberately broken. In some countries a knight who forgot to take his spurs off before entering a church (thus potentially damaging the floor) had to pay a fine to the church.

Modern cowboys often still wear highly ornate spurs at shows, although silver is a more common decoration than gilt. (In fact, some of these decorative spurs are short and have very blunt rowels, and are not really there to encourage the horse so much as to look good).

As a side note, some motorcycle clubs award decorative spurs to their members, continuing the tradition of earning one's spurs.

Straight (14th century) and roweled (15th century) medieval spurs located in the Somerset County Museum in Taunton. Image source Gaius Cornelius via Wikimedia Commons.

Why do some English riders "post" the trot?

The act of standing up and sitting down in the stirrups when trotting is sometimes called "rising" to the trot and sometimes "posting."

The first term makes perfect sense. The second? Uh, what, does the rider resemble a fence post when standing?

The answer is that rising up and down with the trot was invented by postillon riders. A postillon rider controls the horses pulling a carriage from the back of the lead horse - this was done so that the people in the carriage could have more privacy and not have their conversations overheard by the coachman. However, carriage horses were bred to have an elevated trot rather than the flat trot (or, better yet, extra gait) preferred for riding horses - and thus it was uncomfortable to sit. So, the postillon riders started rising to the trot to make their life easier. Because it was what a postillon did, it became "posting" the trot. (It has nothing to do with postmen - the other etymology sometimes given).

What was the most common cause of early death for cowboys in the old West?

Hint, not Indians. Or other cowboys. Although gunfights did happen, they were relatively rare.

Nope.

The most common cause of death was falling from a horse. Riding helmets had not been invented (and sadly, many modern cowboys refuse to wear them out of a sense of tradition), so head injuries were common. So was being dragged by the stirrup, although good boots could prevent that.

Dying by falling from a horse would also have been a common fate of mounted warriors - the most common training accident would have been a simple fall. A knight's helmet was designed to protect him from blows to the head, so might have helped reduce the number of brain injuries - or not. And, of course, horse trainers would have faced this as their greatest risk (and to an extent still do).

How Did Knights In Full Armor Get On Their Chargers?

Hint, no cranes were involved - the crane thing is a joke.

In fact, the idea that a knight in full plate had difficulty getting up, walking, or mounting is...you guessed it. A myth.

A "harness" of plate was heavy, yes, but it was also, if correctly fitted, perfectly easy to move around in. Pictures show that knights in armor could easily mount, from the ground (their horses were shorter, too), perhaps with somebody holding the stirrup. Replica suits have been made and in a properly fitted suit, yup, you can mount, dismount, run, or whatever you need to do. Riding armor, incidentally, leaves the insides of the legs unprotected so that the knight could still properly cue the horse.

Where the myth comes from is tournament armor, which was designed to take being hit by a lance and was also built to make it harder to fall off the horse. This armor did reduce a knight's mobility and unhorsed knights at tournaments often needed their squire to come help them get up. Tournament knights would mount from a block or get a leg up, just the same as with modern people who can't quite manage to mount from the ground.

So, no cranes. Indeed, no excessive difficulty at all.

Modern knights demonstrate the art of jousting at Hever Castle in Kent. Image source: Peter Trimming via Wikimedia Commons.