ANCIENT METHODS OF MOUNTING 43 



lock, " while these hairs," he avers, " though of 

 good length, do not prevent the horse from seeing, 

 they brush away from his eyes whatever annoys 

 them. Therefore we may suppose that the gods 

 gave such hairs to the horse instead of the long 

 ears which they have given to asses and mules 

 to be a protection to the eyes." 



A question sometimes set when the subject of 

 early horsemanship is under discussion is : How 

 used the ancients to mount, seeing that they 

 placed at best only cloths on their horses' backs, 

 and that they had not stirrups ? 



Historical records contain information upon 

 the point, and we read that in the centuries 

 before Christ horses were mounted apparently in 

 three ways by the rider's vaulting without 

 assistance on to the back ; by his vaulting or 

 mounting with the aid of a pole ; by his making 

 the horse crouch. 



There was a fourth way, but for an obvious 

 reason it was less often resorted to. This was 

 by making a slave bend his back, or kneel on all 

 fours, and by then stepping upon him using him 

 as a mounting-block, in short. The last-named 

 method was common in Persia, where Sapor, 

 when he had conquered the Emperor Valerian, 

 forced him thus to debase himself to show his 

 complete subjection. 



