Thursday is Art Day – It’s August the 1st – Happy Birthday to our beloved horses.

Thursday is Art Day – It’s August the 1st – Happy Birthday to our beloved horses.

Little girl feeding horses in a stable – Theodore Gericault, 1791-1824

In Australia August 1st is celebrated as the Horse’s Birthday. The date is chosen as the birth date of all horses in the southern hemisphere as it falls at the beginning of the foaling season. This allows all foals born in that season to be considered the same age for competition and racing purposes so more about determining an official age than nostalgia. But we horse lovers still remain sentimental. As the chorus of an early morning Happy Birthday dies away I wonder why we all love horses? There are even some of us who cannot bare to exist without horses.

The morning ride – Frederick Whiting

All I know is once you have horses in your blood even a complete transfusion will not get the ‘horse crazy’ corpuscles out of your system. It’s almost genetic, jumping generations often appearing at a young age, confusing parents who declare: “I’ve no idea where this horse crazy obsession comes from! No one in the family were ever involved with horses. Maybe she’ll grow out of it, it’s probably a phase she’s going through!”

Morning beach exercise – Frederick Whiting

There are girls who drift away from horses (the – that’s a phase ones) but most of us don’t. A life of yearning for horses can be misery for many while others are fortunate to live everyday riding, stroking, breeding, brushing, gazing at, feeding, training, while the especially lucky ones get to clean their horses stables. Talented others, sculpt, paint, write and even sing about horses. If you where anything like me, you would have walked miles to visit a horse to simply pick it some grass.

The fabulous Ted Egan wrote, for his adorable song, ‘Young girls and horses: ‘The greatest emotions in life is the love of a girl for a horse –‘’. There’s no truer statement.

A summers ride – Frederick Whiting

For Thursday Art Day we celebrate the Horse’s Birthday with several captivating artworks. One I personally adore by Theodore Gericault, 1791-1824 is a pencil and grey wash titled: “Little girl feeding horses in a stable.”
I couldn’t resist adding five marvellous Fredrick Whiting 1873/4-1962 artworks. You get a real sense the children’s enjoyment of being together, out in the fresh air. The same goes for the jockey’s there’s an appearance of camaraderie between the three riders. I love them. The children remind me of my own childhood riding around Melbourne with my friends during the late 1960’s. I should write a story about our antics –

Girl on horseback leading another Horse – Frederick Whiting

~Horse Mad~
Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday we’ve baked you a cake
we laugh at our parents who scratch their heads in debate.
There’s no explanation we love horses and that’s that
our DNA dictates we travel miles just to pat.
They try and cajole but our minds will not sway
just accept it’s a given, Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday.
~ Carmel Rowley