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National Treasure: Nationalistic Representations of the Finnhorse in Trotting Championships

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Equestrian Cultures in Global and Local Contexts

Abstract

Every year a trotting race, Kuninkuusravit, occurs in Finland proclaiming its new “king” and “queen” Finnhorse. The fastest stallion and mare, based on three races of varying distance over one weekend, result in this honor. Kuninkuusravit is the biggest annual racing event in Finland. It is important to the trotting and gambling industry, and Finnhorse breeding. It also has recreational, social, cultural, and nationalistic meanings. Since the nineteenth century, romanticism and nationalism intertwine to tell a story of cultural values exemplified through interactions with this breed of horse. The Finnhorse was an integral part of the war efforts in World War II and building of a welfare state in agriculture, rebuilding, and forestry. Finland found a way to resurrect a work horse into a national racing icon, allowing for the merger of agrarian roots and global economic conditions. In 2007, the Finnhorse was named the National horse of Finland and it was given Flag Day on September 6. The 2011 Kuninkuusravit, or the national trotting championships, allows for an examination of the Finnhorse as an icon of Finnish culture over time, which now occupies a new cultural space.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Literally meaning The Royalty Race.

  2. 2.

    Finland was a part of Sweden until 1809 when Russia conquered it and made it the Grand Duchy of Russia. Finnish nationalism started to arise in the nineteenth century, in part as a reaction against the dominance of the Swedish language in Finland’s cultural and political life, but it grew stronger as Russification intensified with demands of Russian as the main administrative language and the incorporation of the Finnish army to the Russian army (Solsten and Meditz 1988).

  3. 3.

    The Finnish Literature Society (Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura or SKS) is a research institute, cultural organization, and publishing house founded in 1831 to study and promote Finnish language and folk culture. Its Folklore Archives collect oral tradition, personal narratives, and memories. To learn more about the Finnish Literature Society see http://neba.finlit.fi/english/society/index.htm.

  4. 4.

    References to the archive material are made in the following way: SKS stands for Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura (Finnish Literature Society), KRA stands for Kansanrunousarkisto (Folklore Archives), HT stands for Hevostarinakeruu (collection of horse narratives), numbers 835–850 stand for the of the pages in the collection and 2003 is the year in which the narratives were collected.

  5. 5.

    Here HS refers to the collection of narratives and interviews called Hevoset sodassa (Horses at war), number 3 stands for the volume of the collection, PN is the initials of the person interviewed, and 1975 is the year in which the narratives were collected.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland

    Riitta-Marja Leinonen

  2. University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, Green Bay, WI, USA

    Karen Dalke

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  1. Riitta-Marja Leinonen
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  2. Karen Dalke
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Correspondence to Riitta-Marja Leinonen .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, Federal University of Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil

    Miriam Adelman

  2. CQUni Appleton Institute , Wayville, South Australia, Australia

    Kirrilly Thompson

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Leinonen, RM., Dalke, K. (2017). National Treasure: Nationalistic Representations of the Finnhorse in Trotting Championships. In: Adelman, M., Thompson, K. (eds) Equestrian Cultures in Global and Local Contexts. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55886-8_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55886-8_6

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