Ever since the invention of balloons, the aerial showmen have been hard put to it to vary the menu offered to a public which soon became blasé and apathetic at the sight of a simple balloon ascent. Soon aeronauts took to parachuting and some occasionally to animal ascents, in order to relieve the monotony. The first “animal ascender “ was the Frenchman Pierre Tetu-Brissy who in 1798 went up on horseback, the horse being tethered safely onto a platform in place of the usual balloon car or basket. But the most original performer was undoubtedly the Frenchman Margat who, as seen here, ascended astride his beautiful white stat “coco” on 5th June 1817 from the Tivoli Gardens in Paris. This engraving is a highly stylised view of the event and one of the most engaging of balloon prints. No word has come down to us of how the poor creature took this aerial adventure, but it is doubtful if he ever knew he was airborne or would have cared if he had known. Later in the century, when Monsieur and Madame Poitevin took to equestrian ascents in France they were forbidden to repeat the performance in England on the grounds that it was cruel to the horses. This sort of entertainment, however, was infinitely preferable to the earlier and more popular “sport” of throwing dogs and cats out of balloon baskets and watching them descent on miniature parachutes.