Piero della Francesca

My husband gave me a great book for Christmas - Horses and Horsemanship Through the Ages, by Luigi Gianoli. The author says that the Renaissance brought fundamental changes in horsemanship to Europe.

Piero della Francesca is known as an important Italian Renaissance painter. From his c. 1466 fresco cycle "The Legend of the True Cross", which includes this painting:




The Queen of Sheba in adoration of the Wood and the Meeting of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, Gianoli has selected this detail:

The striking white horse must belong to the Queen of Sheba. And the black horse to the left is certainly communicating something to someone.

But the thing I find most charming is how the artist depicted the horse who is looking out at us over the white horse's saddle. I imagine this tells us something about della Francesca as a horseman as well as an artist.


 NB: Wikipedia notes of Piero della Francesca, "As testified by Giorgio Vasari in his Lives of the Artists, to contemporaries he was also known as a mathematician and geometer."

Note: The book is: Horses and Horsemanship Through the Ages, by Luigi Gianoli, translated by Iris Brooks. First published in Italian as Il Cavallo e l'Uomo, 1967 by Longanesi and C. First published in the United States by Crown Publishers, Inc. 1969.

The deer

A few nights ago, my husband and I were coming home from a party. We saw that a number of cars had pulled over, so we did too.

There was a deer lying in the middle of the road, badly hurt. No one knew what to do.

My husband got out of the car and went over to the deer. He rested his had on her briefly to be sure she wouldn't panic. She raised her head and looked around. Then she let him pull her over to the side of the road, while someone else called the police.

Although no one could have alleviated her suffering, he made her safe from further injury. He will always be a hero to me.

When Molly Goes Walking

When Molly goes walking, and I am walking beside her holding her lead rope, there's almost always a point at which I am positive there is someone walking behind us. I keep listening, trying to hear their steps, and I eventually have to turn around and look. There's never anyone there. It's her hind feet that I'm hearing, the second and fourth beats in the 1-2-3-4 rhythm of her walk.

When Molly goes walking through the field, I sometimes think about what to do if a bear comes charging out of the woods at us. You may have heard the story of the woman leading some children on a trail ride in the Rockies. She and her horse charged a bear and managed to scare it off, and - so the story goes - she bought the horse. That is not going to happen with us. I am completely confident that Molly will get herself out of there right away. My job will be to make sure I don't get left behind. So I imagine sitting deeply, with my hips almost disconnected so that my legs can counter balance me. First she'll spin very quickly, so it will be important to let my seat go along with her and just let my shoulders catch up. Then we'll take off. I've seen her gallop but never ridden at that gait. Keeping your seat at the canter, which is similar to a gallop, means using a slight scooping action, and not leaning forward which is my usual fault. Galloping will be really hard for me. Worse comes to worst, I can fall forward and wrap my arms around her neck. Heaven only knows what direction we'll be headed in.

When Molly and I go walking with me mounted, I'm always amazed at how much motion there is. Her back ripples as each leg moves. Horseback riding is said to be good physical therapy for people who have trouble with their own legs. I keep trying to feel the four beats of the walk, but I often can't. So I just let my seat go along with her back. There is a trick to letting your seat move but keeping your shoulders steady. I love it when I can do it.

It has been great to ride more often, and sense my body catching up to the instruction that I've had over the years, while I ponder the theory and the reality of equine movement.