H- Horse Art

How many cultures in our world owe their livelihood to horses?  Probably a good portion of them.  Horses are seen in the art of almost all cultures in our world.  They are a big part of our history and helped humankind colonize this little blue globe.
 



In a recent trip to a Mexican restaurant here in Colorado Springs, I noticed a plethora of horse paraphernalia.  Wall paintings, sculptures and hangings.  It's always fun to find horses in places you aren't expecting.

Now there are some cultures where horse culture was what their lives revolved around.  They were nomadic and their horses were their riches.  They supplied transport, clothing, housing (hides) and food.  Arabs and Native Americans are the first cultures that pop up in my mind though I don't think these particular cultures ate the horses.  I'd love to see if there are books on this subject since it's an area in which I'm not too knowledgeable.  A quick search on Amazon presented this book Song for the Horse Nation: Horses in Native American Culture

In many cultures horses were a status symbol.  Those in the military that rode a horse were of higher rank, the same went for household that had more horses in their keep.  Horses were also a main mode of transportation for many cultures and just like our cars today, make, model and accessories were important attributes to their "rides".

I found this little Mariachi band of horse sculptures to be very cute, though stylized in an almost cartoon fashion.  Could you imagine a horse in real life with such short legs?  How would they walk!!??

 

The whole set was at the front of the Mexican restaurant and I'm sure the hostess thought I was crazy snapping shots of these little figurines but they were just too cute!  I'll have to do some more research on horses in art, this Blogging A to Z thing is making me think of horse related subjects that I know little about.  Hmmm.