One odd thing that I've noticed when looking for sidesaddle pictures: the horses' tails are often docked (or else cut way short). I had no idea they did that and wonder why. I understand why for a cart horse (not that I agree with it), but, from what I've read in my old equestrian books from the 1800s, these horses lived in tie stalls until someone came to sit on them. With my first drawing I thought the tail was just in mid-swish, but now I see I was wrong. Seriously, check it out:
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| OK, this horse may not have lived in a tie stall. That's a British WWI nurse. From what I've read they would gallop onto the battlefields, administering aid before any wagons could get there to tend to the wounded. Still, wee tail! I came THIS close to drawing her instead. |
2 comments:
Maybe they did the tails as some sort of uniform thing (like how the boys at my school have hair length restrictions). Hmmm. Really liking the Princess Charlotte pencil.
Unfortunately taking off the tail (either by actually docking the bony part of the tail or cutting it very short) removes the horse's ability to swish flies. This makes very unhappy horses. I've known people to tie string to docked tails to try to make them swishable. :(
And thank you!
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