Throwing in pop culture and current sports references, Carolyn Willekes seems pretty hip to the kids that flow through her exhibit at Spruce Meadows. But she really is a hippologist.
“I think there are about five of us in the world,” she said with a laugh. “There’s not a lot of hippologists kicking around.”
With a PhD in ancient history and archeology, Willekes uses her expert knowledge of horses to bring history alive for classrooms of students touring Spruce Meadows this week. She ties in tales of prehistoric battles and medieval jousting with modern society and how they correlate.
“Every horse sport we have on the planet — from show jumping to some of the rodeo events, to dressage and polo — every one of these sports was originally created so we could take a prey animal to war.
“So we create this trust, create this bond, create this level of communication with the rider, to take these two totally different species — predator and prey — and persuade this animal that carrying us into battle is a good idea.”
The War Horse to Sport Horse exhibit is visceral, with life-size sculptures of horses ringing the room to detail the evolution of the species. The first stops on Willekes’ tour are prehistoric times and then Roman battles, where she encourages the kids to imagine they are soldiers invading her grasslands. “I’m, like, oh, man, here are those Romans again.”
When a student asks what would happen if a Roman soldier lifted his shield in battle, Willekes answers in a way that 10- and 11-year-olds can relate.
“He would regret his life decision very, very quickly. If he lifts his shield, he’ll be like a porcupine pretty quickly.”
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She explains about knights and their suits of armour with a pop culture reference. “It’s basically the original Iron Man without the flying abilities.”
In talking about jousting, Willekes explains it was the biggest sport in medieval Europe, bigger even than today’s National Hockey League. “Sir Lancelot was like our Sidney Crosby.”
Tori Evans, 11, was intrigued.
“Jousting, I thought, was pretty cool, and I’d like to maybe try that on a horse one day,” said the Grade 5 Sacred Heart Academy student.
“I thought it was pretty cool to learn about what’s inside of the body of horses and how important they were to all the people because they helped them to learn new sports. To show all the humans what they could do — and they carried a lot of weight, so that was pretty impressive.”
At the end of the presentation, which Willekes has voluntarily done for nine years, she brings it home for the school groups. She tells them that the next time they see a horse, they need to thank it.
“The horse changed everything. Without them, we wouldn’t have cars, trains, planes, even minivans. We only have all that because of what the horse did for us. They sacrificed themselves so we could be here.”
