Horse Map of the World

Ladies and Gentlemen: The Horse! [Bottom]

This lovely and colorful equine world map was printed on linen in Northern Ireland, probably sometime in the 1960s or 1970s. The image is lifted largely from an earlier map, first created in 1934 by Joseph Sims. It shows a border of twenty-four different horses (Sim’s map showed 28).

Their origins are reflected by their respective numbers within the map, which also includes annotations bout local customs and historic uses. The recreational and martial uses of the mount are represented near the bottom, with flanking text that commends the horse.

“Where in this wide world can man find nobility without pride, friendship without envy, or beauty without vanity? Here, where grace is laced with muscle and strength by gentleness confined. Ser serves without servility: he has fought without enmity. There is nothing so powerful, nothing less violent; there is nothing so quick, nothing more patient. England’s past has been borne on his back. All our history is his industry, we are his heirs, he our inheritance. Ladies and Gentleman: The Horse!”

Source: Rumsey 11404.000