the biennale of chianciano
Italy
2009
The Taltos Hobby-Horse
Oil/ Acrylic by Melinda McCarthy 2009
The word "Shaman" itself actually is Siberian in origin and its practice has and still does exist across central Asia and even into parts of Eastern Europe.
Hungarians called their Shamans "Táltos" (pron. Taltosh) and their rituals were closely linked to the horse, often using a staff with a horse head carved or woven from reed. It was said this staff would magically transform into a flying horse to take them into other realms.
The use of this horse stick has also been recorded in shamanistic practices in other parts of the world, and is interestingly quite similar to the idea of the hobby-horse.
Could it be that the tool used for transporting shamans into other realms is the origin for a toy that transports children into the realm of imagination?