English playwright and poet, William Shakespeare, knew a bit about people with an equine obsession. In “The Merchant of Venice” his character, Portia, vents her frustration about a certain gentleman saying “Ay, that’s a colt indeed, for he doth nothing but talk of his horse”. And then she heaps further insult on the poor chap by adding “and he makes it a great appropriation to his own good parts that he can shoe himself. I am much afeard my lady his mother played false with a smith”. Most unkind…..to both the gentleman in question and to the honourable members of the farriery profession……
As the Rolex FEI World Cup™ Jumping series moves to Verona in Italy this weekend and then on to Stuttgart in Germany next week the competitors and their entourages will be expecting a rather more considerate reaction to their arrival.
They can certainly expect a big welcome in the historic Italian town which this year celebrates its 109th Fieracavalli, or horse festival, over the next few days. And Verona has a unique connection with Shakespeare as it is here that his famous plays “The Two Gentlemen of Verona” and the much-quoted “Romeo and Juliet” are based. The tragic tale of the “star cross’d lovers” whose untimely deaths healed the long feud between the Montague and Capulet families draws romantics from all around the world who visit the balcony claiming connection with the fictional lovers. Who cares whether there is any legitimacy in that claim when love is in the air…..
Verona, with its 260,000 inhabitants, has a wealth of Roman sights to visit, and the amphitheatre, known as the Arena, is top of the list. Completed around 30AD it is the third-largest in Italy after the Colosseum in Rome and the arena at Capua. It measures 139 metres long and 110 metres wide and seated 25,000 spectators in its 44 tiers of marble seats. The “ludi”, the shows and gladiator games staged within its walls, attracted spectators from far beyond the city, and the current two-storey facade is actually the internal support for the tiers. Only a little of the original outer wall of white and pink limestone from Valpolicella remains but the interior is remarkably intact and continues in use today for public events, theatre and operatic performances during the summer months.
Portia may have been mocking her horseman, but Shakespeare clearly had great respect and affinity for the noble creatures whose courage, loyalty, strength and agility has seen their role, although changed, endure to this day in the heart of equestrian sport.. “A horse, a horse! My kingdom for a horse!” roars the King in Richard III, while the relationship between man and steed is raised to even more glorious heights in Henry V. “When I bestride him, I soar. I am a hawk, he trots the air, the earth sings when he touches it, the basest horn of this hoof is more musical than the pipe of Hermes” - sure it’s nearly enough to make Cumano blush…..
You might think that Stuttgart, capital of the state of Baden-Wurttemberg in the south of the country and Germany’s sixth-largest city with a population of just over a half-million people at its core and over 2.5 million in its region, would have little connection with our four-legged friends - but you would be wrong.
The coat of arms of Stuttgart shows a black, rearing horse on a yellow or gold background because the name “Stuttgart” is a modified version of “Stutengarten” which roughly translates as “stud garden” or stud farm - so there!
Founded around 950AD by Duke Liudoff of Swabia, a son of Holy Roman Emperor Otto The Great, it was a horse-breeding centre especially established to supply his father’s cavalry. Stuttgart became the residence of the Counts of Wurttemberg around 1300 and in 1496 the counts were promoted to dukes. During Napoleon Bonaparte’s break-up of the Holy Roman Empire the dukes received the title of kings, and Stuttgart became a royal residence.
Today it is located in the heart of Germany’s largest wine-growing region and it attracts visitors to its gardens, parks, fine squares, splendid palaces and buildings, but possibly one of the biggest crowd-pullers is the Mercedes-Benz Museum which covers 17,000 square metres and displays 160 vehicles both old and new. Stuttgart’s connection with the motor trade is sometimes believed to extend even further, as the logos for both Ferrari and Porsche bear a remarkable resemblance to the rearing black stallion in the city’s crest……and that brings us back to Mr. Shakespeare again. Because riders in the next two legs of the 2007/2008 Rolex FEI World Cup™ Jumping series will be hoping that their equine partners can put in a sparkling performance that will move them into contention for this season’s title which will be decided next April in Gothenburg, Sweden. They might quote Imogen in “Cymbeline” who said so succinctly - “O” for a horse with wings!”
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