Hair Of The Horse

I noticed these four strands of horse hair the other day when I had my long lens on and returned today to capture them. What caught my eye is that there are two grey, one brown and one strawberry blonde. All four horses that live in the Donkey Field are represented.

I started togging and then three of the horses appeared. Jazzy dog shoots stares of jealousy because she knows I love them. I rarely use f32 but tried that as I wanted to get a recognisable but out-of-focus horse behind my close-up of the hair.

Got me thinking about the uses of horse hair. My first thought was the bow of the violin that I failed miserably to play as a teenager. Then I thought of the ancient leather sofa in the shed at The Homestead which is spewing horse hair stuffing from its seams. And what about hair shirts?

Thomas à Becket was wearing one as a penance underneath all his other clothes when he was hacked to death. Horse hair makes for a very scratchy shirt and in his case it was home to itchy fleas as well. When the bugs were exposed to the cold air, “the hairshirt boiled over with them like water in a simmering cauldron.”

When I was researching I found some gorgeous upholstery fabrics woven from horse hair that were designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, very hard-wearing and beautifully smooth. Angelina Jolie totes an Akris ecru horsehair handbag.