EARLY HISTORY OF HORSEMANSHIP 221 



the best modern examples ; a bit, mild to the horse amenable 

 to its guidance, which can govern the headstrong steed by its 

 severity ; the spur, and a knowledge of its best uses. 



We find a strong and secure seat without the intervention 

 of stirrups, and a grace of bearing that makes us question the 

 advantages of any such aids to the horseman. 



THE ROMANS THE SADDLE 



Although it was not until long after the formation of a body 

 of horsemen by Romulus that the Equites were recognised as 

 a distinct order in the State, the mounted men, under various 

 titles, were always held in honour. 



Adams says that it is uncertain when the Equestrian order 

 was established, but he thinks that it was before the expulsion 

 of the kings. ' After this all those who served on horseback 

 were not properly called Equites or knights, but such only as 

 were chosen into the equestrian order.' l 



The Romans learned the art of horsemanship from the 

 Greeks, and we find the Latin writers ascribing to their teachers 

 the credit of subjugating the horse and of inventing the bridle 

 and the chariot. 



We may doubt whether the Romans were ever better or 

 bolder riders than the Greeks, but they appear to have carried 

 the art of schooling horses to a high degree of perfection. 

 Modern writers assert, though I have been unable to find their 

 authorities in the classics, that a place for exercising horses, 

 called gestatio, was set apart. In villas it was generally con- 

 tiguous to the garden, and laid out in the form of a circus. 2 

 In bad weather, we are told, the porticoes were used for the 

 manege. Pliny (Epistles, I. 3 ; II. 1 7 ; and V. 6) mentions the 

 gestatio, but does not inform us for what purpose it was in- 

 tended. The derivation of the word might suggest that it was 

 given to a place for riding; but it also, no doubt, was used to 



1 Adams' Roman Antiquities, p. 26. 2 Ibid. p. 441. 



