Adorning the Horse: Power, Prestige and the Poetry of Movement

A flicker of mane in the wind. The rhythm of hooves against packed earth. The sudden lift of speed across open ground. Few animals have shaped the human history and imagination as profoundly as the horse. In 2026, as the Lunar New Year welcomes the Year of the Horse, The George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum turns its attention to the textiles that have long magnified the animal’s beauty and symbolic force. Adorning the Horse: Equestrian Textiles for Power and Prestige (21 February – 20 June 2026) brings together 60 exceptional works spanning 1,300 years, from Türkiye to Japan.

Dragon robe, China, c. 1875-1900. The Textile Museum Collection 1973.30.2. Gift of Brigadier General Regan Fuller. Courtesy of The George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum.

Domesticated around 5,000 years ago, the horse transformed human history. It enabled the swift movement of people, goods and ideas, reshaped warfare and governance, and became a potent symbol of wealth and authority. Certain breeds were synonymous with status, and that prestige was reinforced through cloth. As co-curator Lee Talbot observes, richly coloured and costly textiles made the power of the rider unmistakably visible.

Horse forehead talisman, Tibet, c. 1850-1900. The Textile Museum Collection 2021.17.26. Brick Freedman Collection. Courtesy of The George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum.

The exhibition also celebrates a landmark 2021 gift from Allen R. and Judy Brick Freedman: 100 equestrian textiles donated to The Textile Museum Collection, alongside an endowment supporting the continued study of this specialised field. Thanks to their generosity, the museum is now home to one of the most significant collections of global equestrian textiles in the world.

Horse cover, Central Asia, 5th-7th century. The Textile Museum Collection 2021.17.100. Brick Freedman Collection. Courtesy of The George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum.

Across the exhibition, the technical and cultural range is striking. The oldest textile on display is a Central Asian horse cover dating from the fifth to seventh centuries, embroidered in silk with confronted horses flanking a flowering tree. Beaded roundels depict boars, peacocks and fantastical human-headed birds. These Indo-Iranian motifs once travelled widely between Eastern Iran and Western China, tracing the same networks of exchange that horses themselves helped to forge.

Horse trapping; Japan, northern; 1868-1912. The Textile Museum Collection 2021.17.8. Brick Freedman Collection. Courtesy of The George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum.

Saddle cover, Iran, 1800-1825. The Textile Museum Collection 2021.17.60. Brick Freedman Collection. Courtesy of The George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum.

Elsewhere, a 19th-century Iranian saddle cover presents six serene female portraits inspired by minakari enamelware. A late Mughal caparison in red silk velvet glows with suns and moons embroidered in gold-wrapped thread. In Japan, a vivid shiri gake (rump cover), edged in red and hung with brass bells, would have shimmered and chimed during festivals and shrine visits. From Bukhara to Tibet, Afghanistan to Azerbaijan, these textiles show how design, material and mastery converged in honour of the horse.

Saddle cover; Türkiye, Anatolia; 1880-1900. The Textile Museum Collection 2021.17.95. Brick Freedman Collection. Courtesy of The George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum.

The exhibition opens with a free Year of the Horse Festival on 21 February, accompanied by films exploring global equine cultures, and a virtual roundtable hosted by the Cotsen Textile Traces Study Center, examining the history of human-horse interaction as expressed in textiles.

For Selvedge readers, this is a reminder that textiles have always moved across borders, across backs, and across centuries. In the Year of the Horse, we are invited to see cloth not simply as adornment, but as ceremony, identity and an exchange alive with the energy of the ride.

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Further Information:

Adorning the Horse: Equestrian Textiles for Power and Prestige is on show from February 21–June 20, 2026  at the George Washington University Museum and Textile Museum

Virtual Roundtable Event: Global Equine Cultures

@gwmuseum

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Image Credits:

Lead:

All further images as credited in photo captions.