Spirited: Australia's Horse Story is strapping homage

The first horses - at least seven - came here in 1788 on the First Fleet, bought in Cape Town en route. But conditions in the colony were harsh on the imported animals as well as the new human settlers, and by 1791 only one stallion, one mare and two colts survived.

For several decades, horses remained scarce and expensive, but by the 1830s, settlers were importing mixed-breed horses from India and the Cape and thoroughbreds, arabians and clydesdales from England.

Ever since, horses have played an important role in Australian history - and now there are millions of them. From transportation to racing to warfare to farming to policing, they were a a central part of many aspects of life. Bushrangers rode them to escape from the police, who rode them in pursuit. Horses were used to deliver bread and milk in the cities and helped plough fields and muster livestock in the country. Even after the widespread use of the motor engine lessened many people's dependence on them, horses remained central to Australian culture - celebrated in song and story, poetry and film - and in many people's affections.

The relationship between humans and horses in all its many forms is celebrated in Spirited: Australia's Horse Story. This exhibition, three years in planning and preparation, opens at the National Museum of Australia on September 11.

There are more than 500 items in the show, and while some are on loan - including a 1990s Golden Slipper hat from racehorse trainer Gai Waterhouse - most of them are drawn from the 5500 horse-related pieces in the National Museum of Australia's collection, including a large number from the Horse Era Museum which operated in Canberra from 1966 to 1970. Many of the items have seldom, if ever, been on display.

Among many, many objects, there's the Corona typewriter on which Elyne Mitchell typed the 1958 children's classic The Silver Brumby, tools from a 1920s saddlery shop, and a landau carriage shipped from New York in 1889 by William Pitt Faithfull for his eldest daughter, Florence at Springfield station, near Goulburn. At that time, the station had about 170 horses for hauling loads, working chaff cutters and pumps, pulling vehicles and competing in the show ring and on the race track.

Exhibition co-curator Martha Sear says the idea for the exhibition came about when museum employees realised just how strong the institution's horse-related collection was.

"It's history from the point of view of another animal - the horse," she says.

Until well after World War II, she says, every aspect of Australian life had an equine underpinning and even now, horses are important to many - on farms and also in sport and recreation.

To celebrate the many ways in which horses have been important to Australian life required a lot of work. The museum's collection had to be combed and pieces selected for exhibition - and then, in many cases, a significant amount of conservation work had to be done. A milk wagon, for example, that was acquired on eBay as part of the exhibition project, arrived in pieces and had to be painstakingly assembled, its peeling paint steamed and put back in place, flake by flake. But it was not repainted - they wanted to keep it as it was.

"This was about conservation, not restoration," she says. And furthermore, all but one of the curators who worked on the exhibition had been "horse made" since they were young children - owning and riding horses, belonging to pony clubs.

"I was the one curator who didn't have that connection," Sear says.

Not that she disliked horses or was completely unfamiliar with them - "I grew up just south of Sydney and there were a lot of horses around" - but for her, working on Spirited was "a journey of discovery. I wasn't as familiar with the Australian horse story as my colleagues." She says was moved to find out just how powerful the connection between people and horses can be.

"They're more than just a pet, they're a companion and a friend, with whom people have shared important moments and secrets. It's really profound."

Sear also came to understand just how important the horse was in shaping Australia's history.

Kirsten Wehner, head curator of People and the Environment and the exhibition's co-head curator with Sear, came into the project with a long personal connection to horses. She grew up on Mount Stromlo where her father worked as a astronomical engineer.

"I learnt to ride when I was about five," she says. "Quite simply, I was a pony-obsessed child ... I was a riding-school brat."

In her 20s she began competing in events such as dressage and now has her own horse, a thoroughbred named Mr McEnroe, after American tennis player John McEnroe, a star of the 1970s and '80s. "He's temperamental, like the tennis player."

So it's no surprise that Wehner was keen to work on the exhibition, "horses being a large part of my life and a large part of almost everybody's life for most of Australian history, up until the 1950s and '60s".

She was interested in exploring this long historical reliance on horses, and particularly in how people related to the animals, as well as looking closer at the the museum's large collection - dating back to the 1980s - and the items borrowed specifically for the exhibition.

"There's such a variety of different kinds of objects. There are icons like the 1866 and 1867 Melbourne Cups - beautiful and over the top - all the way through to a diseased horse leg from the Institute of Anatomy's collection."

Sculptor Harrie Fasher has been involved with the exhibition since late last year. She built the steel mannequins of horses used in the exhibition - constructed to the specific measurements of real horses so the saddles, harnesses and other equipment they model would fit correctly - as well as the centrepiece, Silent Conversation, featuring a human and a horse figure and illustrating the central theme of the exhibition: the relationship between the two species.

Fasher - who hails from the Hawsbury River region - is definitely a horse person. "I grew up riding - mum's a country girl," she says. "I took up riding professionally when I was 19." She competed in three-day eventing but in 2004 she had a major life change after a fall. "I lost two horses - one in the fall, one to colic - and was in bed for six months."

She gave up riding and took up studies at the National Art School in Sydney. She initially planned to study painting but went on to focus on sculpture. And horses became her signature work.

Now, still living in the country, she has taken up riding again, doing cattle work on a property as well as working as a sculptor.

Looking around Spirited, she says, "I think it's fascinating that all these objects exist and that you've got them all." Two that stand out for her are a tiny saddle made for a very small child and - especially - an antique rocking horse. "That's my favourite. I've never seen an art deco-style rocking horse. It moves across the floor."

Ever the horse person, she admits, "I was dying to give it a try but the curatorial team wouldn't let me. They'd have had my guts for garters!"

But even if the rocking horse is off-limits, the museum staff want this to be an interactive exhibition. There will be a children's trail and a family activity area - a visitor will be able, for example, to measure his or her own height in hands and see how they compare with famous Australian horses. There's also an extended equine encounter going beyond the exhibition into the museum to discover treasures like the heart of legendary racehorse Phar Lap, and a website with information, videos, and a place where visitors can post their own horse stories.

Sear says, "We're very keen for people to tell us their stories. We've started the conversation and when people visit they can share their horse stories with us."

Spirited: Australia's Horse Story is at the National Museum of Australia from September 11 to March 9, 2015. Admission $15 adults, $12 concessions, $7.50 Friends members, free for children 16 and under. Website: nma.gov.au/horses