A new book sheds a wonderful light on the unique relationship that people have with their horses.
Equine Journeys: The British Horse World was put together by Persian writer Hossein Amirsadeghi, who spent a year travelling across Britain meeting and photographing a huge variety of people whose lives revolve around the care and enjoyment of these magnificent beasts.
From vets and stable lasses to top-class trainers and Olympic medallists – the latter categories including include the likes of Nicky Henderson, King and John Whitaker – a massive range of society is covered. There are also, of course, all manner of different horses, from lithe-limbed racing beasts to immensely powerful shire horses.
We’ve collected here some of our favourites from among the 340 pictures from this beautiful collection.
Equine Journeys: The British Horse World by Hossein Amirsadeghi is published by TransGlobe with Thames & Hudson, priced at £35.
Monty Roberts leads a troubled Arabian mare to the proverbial water during one of his demonstrations of horse-wizardry
Grizelda Cowan (seventy-five) with her granddaughter Emma Hooley (thirteen) enjoying a blustery afternoon ride along the beach at Rudder’s Point near the village of Lower Largo in Fife, Scotland
Despite its massive size, the Shire is a thing of beauty to many horse lovers
Cable Bay, Highclere’s prize stallion, displaying his personality in the grounds
Polo ponies work out during daily practice on the Cowdray Estate, Ambersham
Dartmoor ponies range freely without human interference
Only the English, one might say, mix royal pageantry, Shetland ponies and donkeys together in one continuous, eccentric display of old and new
Lady St John of Bletso grooming Dani, an English warmblood gelding
A Dutch-bred gelding named Kalypso Du Buisson Z, welcomes a tiny intruder: a new chick on parade
Yearlings in a field
How a horse-mad Englishman pioneered the modern circus
Roll up, roll up! The tricks, flicks and show-stopping stunts of the modern circus owe their existence to the vision
Lucinda Green on the bond that has bound Man to horse
If you treat a horse with love, respect and consistency, it will do great things for you. Former eventer Lucinda
The Queen’s rocking-horse maker: ‘Many clients commission replicas of favourite horses’
Tessa Waugh meets Marc Stevenson of Stevenson Brothers rocking horses.
The greatest horse rides ever, as chronicled in a ‘unique treasury of horse and human wisdom’
Jon Hare takes a look at an exhaustive new book chronicling some of the greatest rides ever taken on horseback.
Dressage: How ‘horse dancing’ evolved from ancient, deadly beginnings to modern Olympic glory
There can be no short cuts to success in dressage. The Ancient Greeks’ sympathetic methods of training horses, which were