i 4 THE HORSE IN HISTORY 



of chariots and horse trappings that have been 

 found in Egypt we can form an accurate im- 

 pression of the appearance that was presented 

 by the original old chariots, and form also an 

 idea of the way they were put together, while 

 the plaiting with straps of gold and silver recalls 

 at once the floor of the Egyptian chariot with its 

 plaited leather mesh work — probably the fore- 

 runner of leather springs. 



Though Odysseus and Diomede are known to 

 have mounted their Thracian horses, we have it 

 on irrefutable evidence that at this period chariots 

 were still generally used, so that most likely 

 horses were ridden but seldom. 



Indeed the Homeric poems provide us with 

 probably as much authentic information as to the 

 methods of managing and breeding horses that 

 were in vogue in Greece, in Thrace, and in Asia 

 Minor in the very early years before Christ, as 

 any half-dozen other volumes put together that 

 purport to deal with the ways and customs of a 

 period of which, when all is said, little enough is 

 known. 



Naturally the Thracians had in those days 

 some of the best horses that could be procured, 

 while those they drove in their war chariots are 

 said to have been quite unrivalled. That they 



