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Books > Sport & Leisure > Natural history, country life & pets > Domestic animals & pets > Horses & ponies
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Spike
(Paperback)
Alyssa Knee
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R166
Discovery Miles 1 660
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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In this study of the relationship between men and their horses in
seventeenth- and eighteenth-century England, Monica Mattfeld
explores the experience of horsemanship and how it defined one's
gendered and political positions within society. Men of the period
used horses to transform themselves, via the image of the centaur,
into something other-something powerful, awe-inspiring, and
mythical. Focusing on the manuals, memoirs, satires, images, and
ephemera produced by some of the period's most influential
equestrians, Mattfeld examines how the concepts and practices of
horse husbandry evolved in relation to social, cultural, and
political life. She looks closely at the role of horses in the
world of Thomas Hobbes and William Cavendish; the changes in human
social behavior and horse handling ushered in by elite riding
houses such as Angelo's Academy and Mr. Carter's; and the public
perception of equestrian endeavors, from performances at places
such as Astley's Amphitheatre to the satire of Henry William
Bunbury. Throughout, Mattfeld shows how horses aided the
performance of idealized masculinity among communities of riders,
in turn influencing how men were perceived in regard to status,
reputation, and gender. Drawing on human-animal studies, gender
studies, and historical studies, Becoming Centaur offers a new
account of masculinity that reaches beyond anthropocentrism to
consider the role of animals in shaping man.
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