The editors, staff and publishers of Cheiron, the International Journal of Equine and Equestrian History, are pleased to announce the inaugural Cheiron conference, to be held from 9^th – 14^th September 2024. This will be a hybrid event, open to scholars of equine history at all career stages, and also to researchers in related fields. The theme is HORSES IN OUR HERITAGE, PAST AND FUTURE. The conference will be opened with a virtual plenary lecture by John Clark, “The Medieval Horse and its Equipment: In retrospect 1995–2024.”

Contributors are invited to submit proposals on any aspect of equine and equestrian heritage. Those contributors whose proposals are accepted will be invited to publish their work in Cheiron at a future date. There will also be the opportunity to make presentations permanently available to attendees of the conference via the Cheiron YouTube channel.

Proposals (an abstract of 80-100 words and a biography of 2-3 sentences) should be sent in the first instance to the editors of Cheiron, Miriam A Bibby (miriam.bibby@gmail.com) and Anastasija Ropa (anastasija.ropa@trivent-publishing.eu) by March 31, 2024. There will be two bursaries available to conference attendees of 250 each; to find out more, please contact Miriam A Bibby.

The in-person conference event will be held on September 12-13, 2024, at historic Jaunpils Castle in the Semigallia district of Latvia. The original castle dated to 1411, and was expanded and rebuilt in later centuries. Now a luxurious hotel with medieval style rooms and apartments, this unique location offers beautiful surroundings where conference attendees can relax, enjoy a special medieval banquet, and take part in a conference tour at the end of the event. The conference tour on September 14, 2024, will include a visit to the winter and summer baroque palaces of Empress Anna’s all-powerful favourite, Duke Biron, the Jelgava Palace and the Rundale Palace, with a guided visit to see feral horses on the Tower Island in front of the Jelgava Palace.

About Cheiron:  Cheiron: The International Journal of Equine and Equestrian History is a biannual journal facilitating a debate in equine and equestrian studies across chronological periods and disciplines. The journal welcomes contributions from many fields, including, but not limited to, archaeology, anthropology, social sciences, animal studies, art history, interspecies communication, and veterinary history. The journal is double-blind peer-reviewed and is published in February and September. Since its inception in 2021, Cheiron has achieved recognition across the academic world as a voice for equine history scholars and those with an interest in related areas. One of the missions of the journal is to encourage interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research that recognises the important contribution of equids to the human story.

Dates

Proposal submission deadline: March 31, 2024

Registration opens:  April 15, 2024

Registration closes:  July 26, 2024

Virtual conference: September 9-10, 2024

In-Person conference: September 12-13, 2024

Post-conference tour: September 14, 2024

The conference is sponsored by Trivent Medieval, the Latvian Academy of Sport Education and History on Horseback.