THE INTERNATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE HORSE


The Legacy of the Horse

Chapter One

A Chronological History of Humans and Their Relationship With the Horse


Table of Contents

58 MILLION B.C. - 450 A.D.

THE FIRST HORSES - ATTILA THE HUN

  • THE FIRST HORSES
  • EARLY CIVILIZATION, 30,000 B.C.
  • THE DOMESTICATION OF THE HORSE
  • THE WHEEL
  • THE RELUCTANT RIDER, 1,350 B.C.
  • THE CLASSICAL WORLD, 700 B.C.
  • THE HORSES OF HOMER, 750 B.C.
  • XENOPHON: THE FATHER OF CLASSICAL EQUITATION
  • ALEXANDER AND BUCEPHALUS, 356-323 B.C.
  • THE ROMAN EMPIRE
  • THE ORIENTAL HORSE

     

    The Domestication of the Horse

    The Horse: Prehistoric Prey

    Man established a relationship with the horse some 50,000 years ago. While Cro-Magnon man admired the beauty of the horse, he primarily considered it a source of food. Lacking the means of effectively pursuing the horse or killing it from a distance, the prehistoric hunter had to seek other ways to kill his prey. Evidence of this is found at Salutre in France, where there is a site with the bones of some 10,000 horses which were run over a cliff by Cro-Magnon hunters.

    Pack Animal for a People on the Move

    Some authorities maintain that these early Cro-Magnon farmers were forced to become nomadic. Perhaps other people drove them off their farm lands and they were forced to move from place to place. In this period, it is likely that the docile horses were used to carry goods when the camp was moved. The pack horse was now a worker - a source of help to man - not just a meal on the hoof.

    The Horse of the Steppes

    The second probable phase of man's domestication of the horse is only slightly more satisfactory in terms of the horse's well-being. Around 4000 B.C. farmers evidently kept horses for meat, and possibly milked the mares. Excavations of refuse remains show that the horse became progressively more important in the economy of these primitive farmers.

    Horseback Riders First Appear in the Ukrainian Steppes - 4,000 B.C.

    While it had long been accepted that humans harnessed horses prior to riding them, new archeological research in Eurasia now appears to push the date for the first horseback riding back to approximately 4,000 B.C. Excavations from Dereivka in the Ukrainian steppes have unearthed horse teeth from this period which show distinct signs of bit wear. This would mean that man became mounted shortly after domestication - some 3,000 years prior to significant horseback riding in the "civilized" Near East. As these people had no written language, were nomadic, and utilized materials which have not survived, little more is known of their early riding efforts. It would be more than 3,000 years before their legacy, the mounted Sythian cavalry, would make their presence felt in the "civilized" world around 670 B.C.

    For more information on recent archeological equestrian research, visit The Institute for Ancient Equestrian Studies.

    Early Attempts at Riding

    It was probably during herding that the necessity arose to jump on one horse's back to follow others. An agile man on a small horse needed no saddle, but some kind of control was essential. This may at first have been no more than a rope around the jaw, or some sort of hackamore. But antler cheekpieces, which served as toggles to soft mouthpieces (of rope, rawhide, or sinew), have been found at sites of the earliest domesticated horse on the steppes north of the Black Sea. Until recently, it was considered that in this region the horse was long used only for casual and primitive riding. Evidence now suggests that these people may have been much more accomplished horsemen, and that their equestrian abilities might have led to their emergence as nomadic herdsmen far earlier than originally thought.


    The Wheel

    Early Man has the Cart Before the Horse in the Near East

    Oxen had already been yoked to the pole of a plow, probably early in the forth millennium B.C., in the Near East. Towards the end of the millennium they are yoked to sledges, the latter being eventually mounted on rollers, then on wheels. Vehicles with disk wheels appear near the beginning of the third millennium B.C. and are depicted as drawn also by equids - either onagers or asses hybrids. The four-wheeled war wagon depicted on the "Standard" from Ur, in southern Mesopotamia, of about 2,500 B.C., is pulled by a yoke team of four equids with nose-ring control. The composite disk wheels are made up of two crescent-shaped pieces of wood held together by slats, and very likely by a rawhide tire, shrunk on wet, of which some material evidence has been found. Apparent hub and axle ends and linch-pins seem to point to wheels that already revolved on affixed axles. By the time numerous horses were brought in from the barbarian north to the civilization of the Near East, a light chariot with spoke wheels had been developed for war and hunting. Yoked to it, the horse rapidly superseded other equids in harness for these purposes - although not for the less glamorous types of draft.

    Horse and Wagon: Speed and Power

    The horse first appeared as a domesticated draft animal between 3,000 and 2,000 B.C. in the Near East. The more extensive presence of archaeological evidence from areas of the Near East provided the first clear insight into the horse's domestication. It is known that the horse was not indigenous to this area but was probably imported from the north; that is, the steppes of southern Asia. The wheel had already been developed, and the ox and onager were used as draft animals. Because of its speed, the horse soon became the favorite draft animal. At first, horses were forced to wear ox yokes which tended to cut off their wind. Eventually breast straps and collars were developed especially for the draft horse.

    The Yoke, 800 B.C.

    In the ancient civilizations the horse was used primarily as a harness animal for almost 1,000 years, from the early second millennium B.C. to the early first millennium B.C. Equine draft was preceded by and modeled after a draft system developed for oxen, which was not particularly well-adapted to equine anatomy. Throughout antiquity horses continued to be harnessed in pairs, with each horse on either side of a pole and under a yoke. The yoke was secured by a strap around the throat that tended to press on the horse's windpipe. By the 15th century B.C. in Egypt, we find a means of better adapting the yoke to the anatomy of equids, in the form of a yoke saddle. This was a wishbone-shaped wooden object, lashed to the yoke by its "handle" and with its "legs" lying along the horse's shoulders and thus taking considerable pressure off the throat. The yoke saddles rested on pads and their ends were joined by crescent-shaped straps that went across the lower part of the horse's throat.

    Anatomy of an Ancient Wheel, 1,500 B.C.

    The hub of an ancient Egyptian wheel utilized very intricate joinery in its construction. The spokes were created in halves, and half of one spoke was made of the same piece of wood as half of the adjoining spoke. In this way the spokes became an integral part of the hub. In terms of design, relative to available materials, the Egyptian wheel is a remarkable technological achievement.

    Egyptian Wheelwrights Strive for a More Perfect Wheel

    A mural from the tomb of Hapu in Egypt, of 15th-century B.C. date, shows a chariot-maker's workshop. In the upper register, the felloe (the rim of the wheel supported by spokes)of a wheel is being planed. The Egyptian wheel was very light and derived its strength from its special design, as described above. Several different woods were used in the making of chariots, some of them, such as elm, imported from as far away as northern Syria, from which ships brought a variety of woods for chariot-making and other joinery.

    Early Snaffle Bits

    All-metal bits were first implemented in the Near East around 1,500 B.C. The greatly increased use of the light chariot in warfare called for stronger and more effective control of the teams. Two types of snaffle bits appear almost simultaneously - the plain bar snaffle and the jointed bit. (The snaffle is basically a bit that acts through pressure on the corners of the horse's mouth.) Both variants usually had studs on the inner surfaces of the cheekpieces in order to enforce directional control when one rein was pulled. (Certain types of "bit burrs" are still in use today.) Note that on all ancient bits - with the exception of the Scythian ones - the ends of the mouthpieces pass through the cheek pieces, a type very rare today, and found only in "double ring snaffles" and the so-called "sliding-mouth bits."

    Plaques From King Tut's Tomb, 1,350 B.C.

    Inside the burial chamber of the Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamen, a gold fan was found lying propped against the wall of a shrine. Traces of the original feather quills still remained in the base, and an inscription on the handle stated that these were "ostrich feathers obtained by his majesty when hunting in the desert east of Heliopolis." These two plaques reproduce the scenes on the front and back of the fan and depict the original hunt 3,300 years ago. In one, Tutankhamen aims his arrow at a pair of ostriches running ahead of his chariot. In the other, the young king returns with two attendants carrying the prize.

    Luristan Harness Ring, 1,000 - 700 B.C.

    This ancient Luristan (Iran) ring may once have been a part of a chariot horse's harness. Royalty and the ruling class were fond of decorating their horses and chariots with intricate bronze, gold or ivory. The horses sometimes wore plumes on the poll pieces on their heads. The harness ring is topped with the head of a moufflon (a wild sheep of Sardinia and Corsica) with a long snout. Its slender horns arch into the mouths of two lions clinging to the sides of the ring.

    Harnessing the Horses Power

    Kikkuli, 1,350 B.C.

    Kikkuli Butters Up the King's Horses

    The first recorded systematic plan for the training and caring of horses was devised about 1,350 B.C. by a man named Kikkuli. A scribe recorded his ideas on clay tablets in a script known as cuneiform. Kikkuli was a Mittanian by birth but trained chariot horses for the Hittite King Supiluliumas. While some of Kikkuli's ideas, such as anointing a horse with butter, may seem bizarre today, his methods are largely sound, deserving recognition and serious attention.

    "Care and Feeding of the Chariot Horse"

    These are the works of Kikkuli, master horseman from the land of the Mittanni:

    ":When the groom takes the horses to pasture, he harnesses them and makes them pace three leagues* and gallop two furlongs. On the way back they are to run three furlongs. He unharnesses them, rubs them down, and waters them, then leads them into the stable and gives them each a handful of chopped green grass, mixed together. When they have eaten all up, they are to be picketed.

    Then at evening he leads them out of the stable, harnesses them, and drives them at the pace one league and makes them run two furlongs. On return he unharnesses them, rubs them down and waters them. He leads them into the stable and gives them three handfuls of green chaff. When they have eaten this he muzzles them."

    *Kikkuli's term may be translated as "pace" or "trot." In either case he means a moderate gait. A Hittite league equal three miles.

    A Recipe for Equine Strength

    "Day 2 - Pace one league, run two furlongs (furlong = 1/8 mile). Feed two handfuls grass, one of clover, four handfuls barley. Graze all night.

    Day 3 - Pace 2 ½ leagues, run two furlongs out. Run three furlongs, pace half a league home. Green grass at midday, followed by watering. Pace one league in evening. Feed grass and straw at night.

    Day 4 - Pace two leagues, in morning, one at night. No water all day. Grass at night.

    Day 5 - Pace two leagues, run twenty furlongs out and thirty furlongs home. Put rugs on. After sweating, give one pail of salted water and one pail of malt-water. Take to river and wash down. Swim horses. Take to stable and give further pail of malted water and pail of salted water. Wash and swim again. Feed at night one bushel boiled barley with chaff.

    Day 6 - Wash five times in morning, graze in afternoon and wash once. Repeat for four days.

    Day 11 - Anoint all over with butter.

    Day 12 - Keep in stable all day. Feed only grain and cut grass. Repeat 10 days.

    Day 23 - Wash in warm water. Feed grass. Repeat for seven days.

    Day 31 - Same for three days but anoint with butter.

    Day 34 - Picketed outside stable all day without feed or water. Race three furlongs in evening. Repeat three days.

    Day 38 - Swim morning, then pace two leagues. No feed or water all day. Evening, pace nine furlongs. Night feed grass and straw. Repeat nine days".

    Fully Conditioned Horse

    &quotDay 48 - Stand up all day. One handful of grass mid-day. Evening, pace half a league. Water and grass at night.

    Day 49 - Pace half a league. Swim.

    Day 50 - Pace three leagues, run two furlongs. Grass at night. Repeat nine days.

    Day 60 - Pace nine furlongs, run (?) furlongs. Grass at night.

    Day 61 - Pace seventeen furlongs, morning. Pace seventeen furlongs, run two furlongs, evening.

    Day 62 - Pace seventeen furlongs, run two furlongs. Wash, swim three times. Feed bushel boiled barley with chaff. Grass at night.

    Day 63 - Pace four leagues, run two furlongs. Repeat nine days. Bathe in hot water on fifth evening.

    Day 73 - Two handfuls of barley after morning work, with chaff. Pace half league run two furlongs, evening.

    Day 74 - Pace half a league, morning. Pace seventeen furlongs, evening, run three furlongs.

    Day 75. Pace seventeen furlongs, run three furlongs. Wash, swim five times, feed grass after every other swim. Boiled grain with chaff at night."


    The Reluctant Rider, 1,350 B.C.

    Driving came before riding in the civilized lands of the Near East, where recorded history began. There were large chariot forces which required schooled, disciplined, and highly conditioned horses at a time when riding was still pursued only in a casual fashion. Disciplined cavalry mounts, trained to function with their riders in formation, came only after 1,000 B.C. The state of riding before 1,000 B.C. is depicted by this scantily clad, unarmed rider (groom or messenger) in a camp scene. He is still riding the donkey seat that was used 600 years before in conjunction with nose-ring control. It would be another 600 years before the rider of antiquity sat upon a horse like a true horseman.

    Horse and Rider: No Mean Feat

    The fact that the early horse was a relatively small animal, probably not exceeding 12 hands in height, has long been put forth as a reason for the late development of horseback riding in the Near East. The fact that, even today, horses of this size are used as effective mounts, leads one to question the logic of this assumption. The reason for man's preference for driving over horseback riding in the Near East still remains somewhat of a mystery. In one early letter to King Zimri-Lim (1782-1759 B.C.) of the city of Mari, it was advised that the preservation of his dignity required that he should ride in a chariot, or even on a mule, but not on horseback. Could it have been, as suggested by noted horse historian Mary Littauer, that horse sweat was considered so repugnant that horseback riding was shunned by the elite?

    The Mesoptamian Nose Ring, 2,000 B.C.

    The use of the nose-ring on the horse in Mesopotamia was probably due to its effectiveness as a control device on oxen and onagers.

    A rider held a rein from a nose ring in one hand and a whip in the other. Directional control would have been by leg, stick, voice signal, or by a shift in the rider's balance. The nose ring fell from use in the Near East in the early second millennium B.C.

    The Soft Bit, 400-300 B.C.

    The first "bridle" appeared in what is now eastern Europe and southern Russia. These bridles and antler or bone cheekpieces, and the mouthpieces were of rope, sinew, or rawhide. Then as now, the other parts of the bridle served the purpose of holding the bit in the proper position in the horse's mouth. The cheekpieces from the early bridle are all that remain today. The soft mouthpieces must have decomposed long ago. The cheekpieces positioned the sinew mouthpiece properly on the "bars" of the horse's mouth, the toothless portion of the horse's gum. This type of bit was perhaps the most gentle on the horse.

    The Mysterious Grandeur ofthe Etruscan Horsemen, 1,000-509 B.C.

    The Etruscans were an unidentified people who occupied northern and central Italy during the first millennium B.C. Their Roman conquerors (who claimed a Trojan origin via Aeneas) destroyed their written documents, but a rich artistic record remains. A famous tomb painting shows a young man bringing up a chariot horse to be harnessed.

    With the horse's increasing military importance, and popularity with the aristocracy in recreational activities like polo and hunting, the horse became a prevalent art motif. This new Chinese breed is frequently depicted in their art with fine head, long sweeping neck, muscular hind quarters and arched back.

    The Scythians, 800 B.C.

    Mastering the Art of War on Horseback

    Emerging from a collection of scattered southern Russian steppe tribes, the Scythians unified as a group of nomadic horsemen with common customs and interests about 800 B.C. They appeared for the first time in history during the 7th century B.C., when they made an invasion into the Near East, riding as far south as Palestine. They occupied part of northern Iran for some 40 years. The Scythians were primarily archers, skilled at using the powerful composite bow from horse back. One of the techniques they mastered was that of shooting backwards over their horses' croups as they turned away from the enemy. The Scythians nomadic way of life also enabled them to burn and destroy all their property before giving it up to the greatest invading army of the time, that of Darius, the Persian. All this was made possible by the mobility provided by vast herds of horses. Scythian horses also are the first recorded geldings. Horses in the Near East in antiquity (and largely today) were not castrated. The Sythians' wealth was counted in horses. A belief in the continuation of material life after death caused the wealthy to take quantities of horses (in one case 400) with them into the grave.

    Scythian Gold, 500-400 B.C.

    The importance of the horse to the Scythians is evidenced by the many artifacts with a horse motif recovered from their burial mounds. Through kindred tribesmen in the Altas Mountains, the Scythians had access to an important source of gold. From it they fashioned jewelry, arms, decorations, and food and wine vessels, all of which were barbaric in style. They commissioned Greek goldsmiths to make them more beautifully refined objects.

    Fearless Warriors

    A carving on a gold comb from the Solokha tomb illustrates the Greek goldsmith's work commissioned by the Scythians. Although it represents a fight between Scythians, the one not yet unhorsed wears a Greek helmet. The trousers, so different from the scanty or flowing garments of the civilized world of that time, are typically Scythian and designed for the rider. We may thank the horse for this item of man's dress.

    The Horse in China

    Horse drawn war chariots, first used in Asia, were introduced to China during the Shang Dynasty (about 1,450 to 1,050 B.C.). Repeated invasion and devastating plunder by the Hiung-nu or Huns led to the development of a Chinese light cavalry, which provided a more effective defense against the invaders.

    The Great Wall was completed in 209 B.C. and extended 1,500 miles from Kansu to the Yellow Sea. Originally designed to protect the Chinese from the barbarians of the northern steppes, the wall better served as a boundary between cultured China and Mongolia. Continued clashes with the Huns prompted China to adopt and refine their enemy's riding technique based on the use of a saddle, and the bow and arrow. During the Han Dynasty a more unified and coordinated war effort proved successful in stopping the destruction and pillage. In addition to superior tactics, improvements were made in selective breeding. Expeditions were sent to Southeast Asia to trade for stallions of the Tarpon or Persian type, in an attempt to upgrade the Mongolian pony in use since 300 B.C.


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