CHAP. Il] 



HISTORY OF THE HORSE 



King. But after repeated appeals he was allowed 

 to try, the penalty for failure being forfeiture of 

 a large sum of money. Alexander had noticed 

 that the horse (like so many modern so-called 

 vicious horses) was so frightened that he even 

 shied at his own shadow, and was not vicious. 

 The youth turned the horse facing the sun, so 

 that he could not see his own shadow, and 

 after caressing the horse for several minutes 

 drew himself upon his back, and after several 

 minutes of patience was able to make the 

 horse walk and finally trot in front of his 

 amazed audience. Plutarch tells us that King 

 Philip was so overcome by his son's wonderful 

 horsemanship that he wept, and stood up and 

 said that his whole kingdom was not too much 

 for such a lad. This horse was given to 

 Alexander, and was called Bucephalus. Alex- 

 ander could do anything with the horse, but 

 his groom could not. The horse carried the 

 great warrior through countless battles, and 

 eventually was killed in action. 



From inscriptions on vases lately discovered 

 in the ancient tombs of the Scythians, who lived 

 on the steppes of Southern Russia, it is evident 

 that in those days (400-300 B.C.) both men and 

 women rode astride on saddle cloths, without 

 saddles or stirrups. The horses were small 

 (about 14 hands) and well made. Spurs were 

 not used. A single rein bridle was used, with 

 a bit something like a bridoon. 



12. About fifty years later, Thucydides tells 

 us that the horses in war became lame through 

 not being shod. At this period, and until the 

 Christian era, horses were represented on coins. 

 It is clear that professional horse trainers and 

 horse doctors existed three or four centuries b.c. 

 Xenophon gives us a great deal of valuable 

 information throughout his works ; much good 

 could be gained by the modern horseman if he 

 were to read Xenophon's words on the horse. 

 Tozer reminds us that Xenophon understood the 

 horse, and was certainly not an advocate of 

 shortening the horse's tail and of cutting off its 

 mane. This great Grecian horseman explains 

 the uses of these appendages. Docking horses 

 was probably not heard of in his time. Up to 

 that date proper saddles and stirrups were not 

 used ; riders mounted from either side by 

 springing on to the horse's back. 



13. Xenophon instructed young Greek horse- 

 men in riding about 400 B.C. The Romans pos- 

 sessed a fair number of cavalry, mounted on 

 beautiful horses, in 280 B.C. when they fought the 

 Persians. At this time the horrible practice of 

 offering live horses for sacrifice to the gods was 

 not uncommon. We cannot obtain much in- 

 formation about the horse during the three 

 hundred and fifty years following the death of 

 Xenophon, which took place in 359 B.C., though 

 Virgil furnishes some details concerning the 

 animal. About 250 B.C. the famous Buddhist 



Emperor of India, Asoka, founded probably the 

 first animal hospital in the world. He was a 

 great humanitarian, and gave vast sums of 

 money towards bettering the treatment of horses 

 and other animals. His hospital was free. A 

 writer not long ago compared the work of Asoka 

 to the humane work of to-day, and concluded 

 by remarking that, when one considered the 

 cruelty that the modern horse show (and some 

 dog shows, too) is in great part responsible for, 

 the progress made in the last 2,000 years has 

 not been notable. 



14. It is clear that the Greeks used spurs ; 

 these spurs had no rowels, but possessed a sharp 

 spike. Xenophon and Horace both remind us 

 of the importance of a horse's possessing good 

 hoofs. The Romans at the time of Caesar did 

 not use shoes, but covered the feet with a leather 

 sock which had a metal base. In the British 

 Museum is a statue of Caligula on horseback 

 (about A.D. 37) which shows him sitting bare- 

 back with a correct seat, like the best of hunting 

 seats to-day. {See P. 58.) 



In 55 B.C., when Julius Caesar invaded Britain 

 for the first time, cavalry were becoming more 

 common. Caesar was also met in battle by a 

 great number of mounted knights, showing that 

 horses were ridden for war purposes in Britain 

 at this period. At the time of the invasion by 

 Julius Caesar, history tells us that the English 

 breed of horse must have been extremely power- 

 ful and active, and that many were taken back 

 to the Roman Empire, where they were highly 

 valued. At that period the English breeds were 

 crossed with the horses brought in by the 

 Romans from Italy, Gaul and Spain. 



15. Just prior to the commencement of the 

 Christian era we read of white and of black 

 horses in chariots, with long and curly manes 

 and tails ; the black horses were probably of 

 Spanish or Gaulish blood. Caesar, a few years 

 B.C., and Tacitus, about a.d. 50, both refer to 

 the race of Iceni, who practised chariot racing 

 and lived in the central parts of England. The 

 first riding race on record in England probably 

 took place about 200 years after this. 



Afterwards English mares were crossed with 

 Arabian stallions. It is doubtful whether the 

 modern thoroughbred comes from the Darley 

 Arabian or the Godolphin Arabian. Queen 

 Boadicea, who led the Iceni against the Romans, 

 was a clever horsewoman and was devoted to 

 her horses. Pliny is supposed to have written 

 a book on the horse, but this book is said to 

 have been destroyed in the eruption of Vesuvius, 

 A.D. 79, when the city of Pompeii was buried. 



16. In the first century a.d. Calpurnius and 

 Columella mention the horse. In the third 

 century a.d. Oppian and Nemesian speak of the 

 horse, and in the following century Apsyrtus, 

 Pelagonius and Palladicea give us information 

 of interest. 



