Norwegian farm animals | Vacuuming the horse
A 1930 photograph, an Electrolux vacuum cleaner, and changing standards in Norwegian stables.
When one of Norway’s leading photographers, Anders Beer Wilse, took this photograph in 1930, he may have thought that he had just captured the future. Or maybe he was commissioned by Electrolux, the vacuum cleaner company, to promote one of the many uses of its products. As far as we know, the use of the vacuum cleaner in horse grooming did not quite catch on.
The photograph comes without much information beyond the year it was taken. It is noted, however, that the horse on the left was born in 1917 at Bogstad — possibly Bogstad Gård, often referred to in English as Bogstad Manor — north-west of the Oslo city centre.
The photograph is a window into a different time. We can deduce that the stable had electricity. The stalls are clean and dry — but hard and narrow — and would not comply with the requirements of today. The Norwegian regulations on the welfare of horses of 2005 state the following:
‘A tie stall must be long and wide enough for the horse to lie flat on its side without having to use the stable aisle. The partition must be long enough to prevent the horses from kicking each other. In a tie stall, the horse must be tethered. The tether must cause as little inconvenience as possible to the horse and be designed so that the horse cannot easily become trapped or injured, and so that it can lie down and get up without obstruction. The horse must be easy to release. It is not permitted to keep more than one horse in a tie stall. A mare with a foal must not be kept in a tie stall.’