Horses
This morning on our travels in France we went to the Brittany town of Baye, where we were invited to see the blessing of the horses.
In this tradition the horses are led up the road of the town, firstly to the well where a little water is poured over them and then to to the church where the priest sprinkles them with water. Our host explained that many of the local riding schools brought their horses, many of the horses had their hair braided with flowers too.
There was a statues of Saint Cornély and Saint Éloi placed by the flower petals outside the church, this was taken into the church afterwards. Saint Éloi is the patron saint of horses and those who work with them. On this statue their is a small anvil to represent the farriers.
The legend of the shoeing of the horse
There is also a legend that Saint Éloire solved the problem of a horse reluctant to be shod. He thought it was possessed by demons, so he cut off the horse's foreleg and, while the horse stood on the remaining three legs and watched, he re-shod the hoof on the amputated leg, before miraculously re-attaching the leg to the horse.
Source Wikipedia
Afterwards the horses gathered on the shaded lawn outside the church and had a lovely snack of hay.
There were also some small festivities involving wine and some local delicacies afterwards, it was a wonderful atmosphere.
The horses braided hair caught my interest, especially the ones who had hydrangeas and other pretty flowers plaited into their braids. I think Rapunzel's horse would have hair like this!
