Читать книгу The Majesty of the Horse: An Illustrated History - Tamsin Pickeral - Страница 24

HEIGHT

Up to 16 h.h.

APPEARANCE

Beautiful, well-conformed horses that can exhibit quite some variation in size and type due to breeding for color. In general, they have attractive heads set to a well-arched and set neck, with defined withers, muscular backs of medium length, and muscular hindquarters.

COLOR

Spotted.

APTITUDE

Riding, light draft, showing, dressage, jumping, competitive horse sports

ALTHOUGH THE ACTUAL HISTORY of the beautiful Knabstrup horse is relatively short and dates back only to 1812, the spotted horses of Europe have ancestors that go back to prehistoric times. There can be little doubt that these horses, so highly prized for their coat coloring, were the distant relatives of the modern Knabstrup and other spotted breeds. Spotted horses are included in the paintings in the French cave of Pêche Merle, which date to approximately 25,000 years ago and are among the earliest extant depictions of horses. Although there is no proof that these spots were a representation of the actual horses and not the painter’s addition, perhaps for spiritual reasons, it is widely accepted that the spotted coat coloring, like the dun coat, has extremely primitive origins and probably developed as a form of camouflage.

Artifacts from Austria and Italy reveal decorative details of spotted horses dating to around 800 B.C.E., while there is a great deal of evidence for spotted horses heralding from Central Asia at a much earlier date, with the much sought-after horses of Ferghana often exhibiting this prized coat. By around 800 C.E., monks in Scotland were keeping and breeding spotted horses, and by the turn of the first millennium they had arrived in Denmark, as indicated by the Viking fresco at Skibby Church not far from Knabstrupper Hovedgaard. In the fresco, a procession of fine spotted horses carries three young princes, reflecting the very early association of these magnificently marked animals with nobility. Many centuries later they would be highly prized by the elite classes for their extravagant looks.

A spotted stallion appears on a fragment from a thirteenth-century tapestry in the Baldishol Church in Oslo, Norway, ridden by an eleventh- or twelfth-century knight; an equally majestic spotted horse ridden by one of the horsemen of the four seals is depicted in the Spanish Silos Apocalypse manuscript. By this time, spotted horses were popular across Europe, from Spain to Constantinople. Though it is rarely seen in the modern Iberian breeds, Spanish horses in particular exhibited the coat coloring, and they were in great demand in Austria, where they were highly regarded for use in the Spanish Riding School in Vienna, opened in 1572.

In 1562, King Frederik II of Denmark established the Royal Frederiksborg Stud to breed magnificent horses befitting a king, ones suitable for use in displays and ceremonies as well as in the cavalry. The Frederiksborg breed was one of the great successes of the stud, but it was also here that the Knabstrup started to take shape. The stud housed a number of Spanish horses in which the spotted coat coloring was prevalent, and later additional Spanish blood was introduced during the Napoleonic Wars when Spanish soldiers were stationed in Denmark and brought their horses with them. In 1683, the stud purchased a majestic black stallion called Superbe from the Spanish monastery and breeding facility at Jerez de la Frontera, again primarily to improve the Frederiksborg horse, but it was through Superbe’s line that the foundation for the Knabstrup was laid.

In 1812, a direct descendant of Superbe was bred to a spotted mare called Flaebehoppen (the Snivel Mare) who came to Denmark from Spain during the Napoleonic Wars. The mare was bought by Judge Lunn, owner of the Knabstrupgaard Manor in Holbaek, and once proved her worth by allegedly pulling a cart about 18.5 miles (30 km) in 105 minutes to transport Lunn’s son to the doctor in an emergency. The other horse that was in harness with her is said to have died, but Flaebehoppen was apparently back at work the following day. Whether or not the story is true is a matter of some debate, but it is clear that the mare was a horse of great endurance and speed. The foal she had from the Superbe line in 1813 was called Flaebestallion, and he became one of the foundation stallions for the Knabstrup breed. All of Flaebe’s foals were born with a distinctive spotted coat pattern, including her son Mikkel, who was famed for his racetrack record—he was apparently made to pull a farm cart carrying his owner to the track before he raced under saddle.

The Knabstrup is an extraordinarily versatile breed and was originally used in harness on small farms for pulling coaches, riding, and racing, as well as being used as a cavalry animal and later in the circus. They were used by Danish officers during the war in 1848–1850 but were not ideal cavalry mounts, as their eye-catching color made them easy targets. The breed then suffered in 1891 when twenty-two of the breeding Knabstrups at the Lunn’s stud were killed in a fire.

With the creation of the modern circus in the eighteenth century by the Englishman Philip Astley, the Knabstrup found a new role. Its smooth gait and tendency to have a broad, flat back made it an excellent horse for use in the circus, particularly for vaulting, and in this capacity Knabstrups traveled widely across Europe and even to Australia and America during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They are highly intelligent horses, which added to their aptitude for life in the circus and helped endear them to the modern rider.

Today the Knabstrup is a high-quality, beautiful horse. It is strong through the frame, and compact, and should be nicely put together with strong, clean limbs and hard feet. Unusually for horse breeds, the Knabstrup can be found in all sizes because of systematic breeding for color over other considerations such as size. This method of breeding has not always served the breed well, however, and did lead to a loss of quality in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; during this time, the breed suffered a deterioration in conformation and athleticism, though this has now been fully rectified. Today the horses are all-rounders and highly regarded athletes, equally suitable for pleasure and competitive riding.