Equine Journeys: The British Horse World

Following the international success of his book The Arabian Horse in its multiple editions and languages, Hossein Amirsadeghi’s Equine Journeys: The British Horse World casts an unprecedented eye on the complex universe of Britain’s horses, focusing on people, places and organisations instrumental in breeding, racing, keeping and showing in the UK – one of the world’s foremost equine environments. From Scottish hill farmers breeding Highland and Shetland ponies, to the luxurious world of British thoroughbred breeders; from neighbourhood stables to studs that foster some of the world’s greatest horses (creating multi-billion-pound businesses in the process and supporting the global racing calendar), this book shows how equine business is defining the longstanding relationship between horse and human today.

Through lively texts and glorious colour pictures, Equine Journeys explores the fundamentals that underpin the economics, politics and sporting components of some of the UK’s greatest breeding and racing studs. Up-close-and-personal profiles provide unequalled access to owners, breeders, trainers, jockeys, stable lads and lasses, and polo fanatics. Enriched by its wealth of exclusively commissioned photographs, Equine Journeys features compelling images reflecting both the fantasy surrounding the realm of the British horse, and the reality of breeding and racing in the twenty-first century. The specially commissioned historical essay by leading expert Christopher Joll elaborates on the history of the horse and its place in British life, culture and society.

Amirsadeghi’s own essay looks inside the fiercely competitive contemporary breeding and racing scene at all levels, providing a survey of current trends and key players while shining a light on the exotic and the extraordinary in the realm of hunting and eventing, racehorses and ponies, Welsh cobs and Clydesdales, gypsy cobs and Shires, polo clubs, and the London and Counties equine social scene. Equine Journeys also explores the landscape and sociology of horses, horse sense and horsemanship in Britain at a time when the horse has lost its millennia-long economic and strategic importance, becoming instead a companion to humans, a source of natural beauty and the inspiration for sport.