From the recent spate of equine deaths on racetracks to protests
demanding the removal of mounted Confederate soldier statues to the
success and appeal of War Horse, there is no question that horses
still play a role in our lives--though fewer and fewer of us actually
interact with them. In Precarious Partners, Kari Weil takes readers
back to a time in France when horses were an inescapable part of daily
life. This was a time when horse ownership became an attainable dream
not just for soldiers but also for middle-class children; when natural
historians argued about animal intelligence; when the prevalence of
horse beatings led to the first animal protection laws; and when the
combined magnificence and abuse of these animals inspired artists,
writers, and riders alike.
Weil traces the evolving partnerships established between French
citizens and their horses through this era. She considers the newly
designed "races" of workhorses who carried men from the battlefield to
the hippodrome, lugged heavy loads through the boulevards, or paraded
women riders, amazones, in the parks or circus halls--as well as those
unfortunate horses who found their fate on a dinner plate. Moving
between literature, painting, natural philosophy, popular cartoons,
sports manuals, and tracts of public hygiene, Precarious Partners
traces the changing social, political, and emotional relations with
these charismatic creatures who straddled conceptions of pet and
livestock in nineteenth-century France.
