The Textile Museum Collection, Washington, D.C., 2021.17.51, Brick Freedman Collection. Photography by Breton Littlehales

'Riders of the Wind: Horse and Equestrian Textiles'

Across millennia, on the open steppes of Eurasia, horses were fundamental in sustaining life. It was the only acceptable mode of transportation. People lived on their horses, cared for them immensely, and bestowed great importance on them. The need to protect the horse and its rider, absorb the horse’s sweat, and provide both stability to the rider and protection to the horse’s barrel, forced people to create many textiles. These textiles evolved to have decorative and spiritual meaning alongside the rising importance of the horse as a very valuable asset. People decorated these textiles lavishly to parade their horses while protecting them, and the textiles associated with horses became as elaborate as royal costumes and religious textiles. In this presentation, the equestrian textiles in The Textile Museum’s collection will be the starting point in the discussion of what forms these textiles took, how they were embellished, and what they might have meant to the peoples of Asia from the West to the East.

Sumru Belger Krody is Senior Curator at The Textile Museum Collection

The George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum