The Mechanical Carousel

Back in the 1100's, as Spanish crusaders journeyed across the land we now know as Turkey, they observed the locals playing a game on horseback that resembled a "little war".  They brought this game back to Spain, calling it a carosella. From Spain the game spread throughout Europe, evolving as it went from medieval jousting to its less-combative descendant, tilting at rings. 

In France, the game became the object of tournaments among royals and nobility, full of pageantry and fan-fare with horses draped in luxurious fabrics and adorned in bejeweled harnesses.  The object was to ride your horse or chariot at full tilt with lance in hand and spear an opponent or, in later years, a small ring tied with brightly colored ribbons from a tree limb or pole.  Riders who did well were greatly celebrated and bestowed with riches and glory.  So, noble families went to great lengths to have their sons trained in the game.  

Eventually, an enterprising Frenchman devised an efficient way to aid young noblemen in the art of le carrousel as it had come to be known in France.  He suspended carved horses and chariots from chains hung from spokes that radiated from atop a central, rotating pole.  The young trainees sat astride the carved beasts and tilted at rings with each revolution of the machine, thus improving their game without tiring or harming a real horse.

This was the beginning of the modern mechanical carousel.  You can still find a few simple carousels of this type in France today, mostly in the children’s areas of public parks.

By the late 1700s, it was all the rage among wealthy French families to have a carousel of their own.  The devices were no longer used as a training tool for jousting but existed purely to entertain.  The carved horses and chariots became more and more elaborate. Other animals as well as fantastical creatures were added to the rotating menagerie. 

However, these early carousels had to be lightweight so that they could be moved by man, mule, or horsepower.  It wasn’t until the invention of the steam engine that carousels came to be what we know them as today with galloping horses that spin at speeds unheard of in the 18^th century. 

Photocredit: Sarah B. Towle © 2010.



The Equestrian Carrousel

Every Thursday I hop out of bed and head for my weekly horseback ride in the Bois de Boulogne.  In so doing, I partake of a centuries-old popular French past time, desending from kings and pageantry, armed battles and plumed musketeers.  In today’s class, my fellow cavaliers and I were asked to perform an equestrian carrousel, a mounted dance in which riders and horses execute precision movements in tandem, often in time with music.  Curious about the history of this tradition, my friends and I interviewed our instructor after our lesson, while sipping Moet & Chandon champagne... but I’ll get back to that in a minute!

The mounted spectacle, known in French as le carrousel, seems to have come from 16^th century Renaissance Italy, from the house of the Medici in Florence.  It first appeared at the French court in the early 1600’s to mark royal weddings or important state visits.  One famed equestrian ballet, choreographed by Louis XIII’s instructor, Antoine de Pluvinel, is still remembered and performed today.  Le Carrousel du Roi debuted in 1612 to celebrate the engagement of young Louis XIII to his future wife, Anne of Austria.

The carrousel typically took place in a royal square or courtyard where elaborately costumed riders from the king’s cavalry or private guard carried out choreographed routines symbolic of the moves horsemen used in battle.  Even today, in the resulting riding tradition called dressage, rider and mount approach then side step away from one another, ride in criss-crossing lines, move across the arena - as in the battlefield - nose to nose in a perfect line, and form shapes with an accuracy reflective of a well-trained mount and his even better-trained cavalier.  In the days of kings, these demonstrations often took place at night, with riders carrying torches.  They were almost always accompanied by the music of court composers, such as Lully.

The Place du Carrousel in front of the Louvre in Paris acquired its named when Louis XIV used it for an equestrian ballet in 1662. 

Today’s Garde Républicaine, a prestigious mounted division of the French police, traces its origins back to the musketeers of Alexandre Dumas fame, the private forces employed to protect the kings, and cardinals, of France. 

Garde Républicaine carrousel "La Maison Du Roi"
envoyé par LoveHorse95. - Découvrez les dernières tendances en vidéo.

Now about that champagne:  Another French tradition, at least at my riding club, states that whenever a rider takes a fall, he or she is obliged to bring champagne to the next class.  Hence, our morning lesson in French history accompanied by a lovely bubbly!