Dr Miriam Bibby (University of Glasgow)
Dr Miriam A Bibby is an academic and writer. She is an equine historian, which means she specialises in the history of the horse-human relationship. Her PhD topic was the Galloway Horse, or Galloway Nag, which she often refers to as “the most influential horse that few have ever heard about.” Miriam was formerly a tutor and course developer for the University of Manchester’s networked learning course in Egyptology, and while at Manchester gained her MPhil, the topic being the horse in ancient Egypt. She was curator of the Clan Armstrong Trust Museum in Langholm and has worked at Gilnockie Tower. She is an editor for the academic house Trivent Publishing, and co-editor-in-chief of their publication Cheiron: the International Journal of Equine and Equestrian History. She is Vice President of the Equine History Collective, an international group of equine history researchers, and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. Her work has been published in many journals and magazines
Miriam says -
"The Galloway Horse, or Galloway Nag, was a landrace of small, fast horses from Galloway known from the sixteenth century onwards. By the time William Youatt, veterinary surgeon and author of numerous books on animals, described them in 1831 as "a beautiful breed of little horses once found in the south of Scotland, on the shore of the Solway Firth," the Galloway was already heading towards extinction, if not functionally extinct. It had achieved an "almost legendary" reputation for speed, endurance, and frugality and its story became part of romantic myths about Scotland's rulers and reivers.
Those who know anything about the Galloway Horse today probably know of this romanticised version. Yet the real story of the Galloway is a highly political one, and is not lost in the mists of time. It reveals a great deal about the relationship between Scotland and England during the bitter years of the seventeenth century. The Galloway also has a strong connection to the world of modern horse racing.
Discover why English writers found the Galloway horse such a useful satirical reference and in which horse breeds Galloway genes live on today."