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"Before Charles and Di's Royal Wedding, the carriage horses were fed dyes so the horse manure would match the wedding's pastel color scheme and look fine on television."
in Apocalypse Postponed, Umberto Eco
For more visit Kate and William's wedding successful horses :
That color composition of our highness meadow muffins is also mentioned in the generous
Little Book of Horse Poop by Becki Bell :
"The carriage horses employed for the wedding of Prince Charles & Lady Diana were fed pastel colored dyes so their manure would match the wedding's color scheme."
who adds :
"Horse poop is also inspirational. Just ask Ezra Pound, Friedrich Nietzsche, Billie Holiday and Hank Williams, who all had surprisingly profound things to say about horse poop—some of which were even poetic (though most weren't). "Humanity ..." says Ezra Pound, "is the waste and the manure and the soil, and from it grows the tree of the arts." Ah, lovely. "You got to have smelt a lot of mule manure before you can sing like a hillbilly," counters Hank Williams. Well, everyone has their own ideas about beauty.
Need some extra cash? That pile of manure in your backyard could be converted into a pile of gold (or maybe just a pile of pennies). If your horse is a champion, try auctioning off his poop on eBay. Why not? Shear L'Eau's poop sold for $1,392 on eBay (he won individual gold and team silver medals at the 2004 Olympics in Athens). Of course, that particular pile of gold medal poop went to charity, not into someone's pocket. If you want some cash for yourself—or to help pay your equine friend's expenses—try composting your manure pile and selling it to gardeners, who treasure the stuff for its use as fertilizer and deer-repellant (that's right, deer don't like the stuff any more than you do).
All of this bears remembering, as you trudge out into the muddy pasture, pitchfork in hand, to perform that most lowly and necessary task that all of us who are lucky enough to live with horses must. Horse poop is more than just the stuff that comes from the back side of your best friend. It's history, poetry and profit. It's fun. "
and crazy enough :
And in order to turn those royal natural colors back into paint,
"
From Girolamo Ruscelli, The secretes of the reuerende Maister Alexis of Piemoun … London: By Iohn Kingstone for Nicolas Inglande, dwellinge in Poules churchyard, 1558. Transcribed and modernized by Marybeth Lavrakas, 2005.
A very goodly secret to dye or color wood, of what[ever] color a man will, which some Joiners do use that make tables and other things of divers colors, and do so esteem it among themselves to be of such excellency, that one brother will not teach it to another.
Take early in the morning new and fresh horse dung made that night [1],
and take of the moistest you can get, with the straw or litter and all, and lay upon some little sticks laid across one over another, and set some vessel underneath for to receive that [which] shall fall drop or fall from the said dung. And if you cannot have enough in one morning, do the like two or three times, or as often as you will.
Then when you have well drained out the water of the dung you shall put into every pot of the said water roche alum [2] the bigness of a bean,
and as much gum Arabic. [3]
Then steep what[ever] color you will in it, using divers vessels if you will have divers colors, and put in what pieces of wood you will, holding them at the fire or in the sun. And at each time pluck out some pieces and lay them apart, leaving the other in, for the longer you let them lie in the water, the more will the color adhere. And in this manner you shall have a great quantity of divers colors, the one clearer, the other darker, and may use it to your commodity, to what use you list, for they shall be colored both within and without, so that they will never lose their color neither by water or any other thing.
(pages 87-88)
//
[1]. Although stale urine was often used in the past when dyeing fabrics, this is the first time I've encountered dung in a dye recipe. According to Griffen Dyeworks, dung generally contains phosphates, carbonates, sulfates, chlorides, silicates, potassium, sodium, ammonium and fatty acids with a general 4.6 to 8.4 pH. I don't know yet what components of horse manure gave a positive contribution to dyeing wood.
[2]. Also "rock" alum, a particular type of alum that presumably came in pebble form rather than finely ground. Alum (Potassium aluminum sulfate) is a commonly used mordant that helps natural dyes bind to the fiber being dyed.
[3]. A plant resin used as a thickening agent.
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