Exhibition room ‘The equestrian prince’

 

This exhibition room in the Ansbach Residence focuses on a topic that has almost been forgotten in the age of the car: the horse, and the part it played at the margravial court. Horses were indispensable at Baroque princely courts: for riding and pulling carriages, as well as for hunting and military campaigns. In the stables of the Ansbach Residence, which were built in 1727, there was room for 122 animals. The Ansbach margraves also had an ambitious stud farm in Triesdorf.

The importance of the horses was also reflected in the state armouries and tack rooms. In the year 1786 the Margravial-Brandenburg privy chancery clerk and local historian Johann Bernhard Fischer described them as follows: ‘The armoury and the tack room are worth seeing. […]on display in the tack room are the most exquisite, velvety saddles and saddle cloths with elaborate gold and silver embroidery, riding equipment, sleigh harness and much more besides.’ The exhibits also included stuffed animals that had been particularly important as the princes’ favourite riding horses or animals with unusual colouring.

While the valuable riding equipment does not seem to have withstood the test of time, three rare stuffed horses of great historical and cultural interest have been preserved in the inventory of the Bavarian Palace Administration. Various stories about these animals have been handed down. J.B. Fischer wrote in 1786 about a horse exhibited in the Residence that had fallen together with Margrave Georg Friedrich in the Battle of Schmidmühlen in 1703. The alleged bullet hole can still be seen in the breast of the brown horse. Further writings from the 19th century describe the ‘hero’s death’ of several animals. Whether these are the horses concerned remains a matter of conjecture.

The three stuffed horses, which were not on display for many years, are presented in this small, but excellent permanent exhibition that forms part of the regular palace tour.