Horsemen Through the Ages
Written and researched by Margaret Odrowaz-Sypniewska, B.F.A.

Horses Before Christ:
• The first horse was the terrier-sized, forest wandering, Eophippus, that became extinct 50 million years ago.

• The Lascaux caves in France have some of the first artwork depicting horses.

• Early man hunted horses for food.

• In 2000 B.C. horses were tamed by the nomads of the steppes.

• Greek pottery features horses as early as the 18th century B.C.

• Assyrian kings are depicted riding horses, on reliefs, from around 645 B.C.

• The earliest horse remains in Egypt were thought to have dated from 1700 B.C.

• Horse-drawn chariots were invented about 2500 B.C. in Mesopotamia.

• An early form of polo was played in the 6th century B.C.

• Athenian vases (c. 500 B.C.) display an Arabian-type horses.

• Egyptian tomb paintings show horses with Arabian features, especially in the tombs of Akhenaton (c. 1365-1347 B.C.)and Horemheb (c. 1332-1305 B.C.)
• In Celtic Britain and Gaul, the horse goddess Epona was associated with water, fertility, and death.

  Horses From Early A.D.:

• The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse were: death, war, pestilence, and famine. They marked the last days of mankind.

• The Chinese invented the sturrup in 5th century A.D.
• Good horsemanship was highly regarded with Arab society.

• Horses were introduced to the Americas by the Spanish and they reached the Plains Indians around 1600.

• Most horses are fully mature at age six.

• A horse starts to grow old when he is about 15 years of age.

• St Martin of Tours is the patron saint of horsemen, and is often depicted on his horse.

• Henry VIII of England was the first royal patron of horse racing, as we know it today. He founded the Royal Paddocks at Hampton Court. Henry had a thousand horses of Barb-influenced bloodlines that he brought from Spain and Italy. He also had Fell ponies, which were native to Great Britain; and the Galloway of northern England. He bred the horse called the Irish hobby horse, who was the ancestor of the Connemara.

• The Scottish Galloway horse is now extinct and the Clydesdale is thought to be related to the Galloway blood lines. The Galloway was still found in the Scottish borders, until the early 19th century.

• The Goonhilly was a pack pony in Cornwall, England. The motorized vehicle of the twentieth century stopped the breeding of the Goonhilly and they are now considered extinct.

• The Clydesdale originated in Clyde Valley in the county of Lanarkshire, Scotland.

• Queen Elizabeth I started riding at age three (3).

• Ancient cultures thought that riding naked was good for childbearing.

• Persian armies used the Nisean horse.

• Possession of horses was a status symbol to the Persians, and only early aristocracy could own a horse.

• The Belgian was the black horse of the Middle Ages that carried armored knights.

• Coors beer featured Belgians in their commercials.

• Andalusians were the favorite mounts of William the Conqueror and El Cid.

• The Andalusians were originally used as warhorses.

• El Cid's horse was called Babieca ("stupid") most likely because he was not easy to train. However Nabieca carried his master for thirty years.

• Babieca lived for two and a half years after his master's death and remained unridden until he died in 1101, at age 40.

  Mythology and Horses:

• The warriors of Fionn were thought to have used Clydesdales.

• Odin rode the Icelandic horse of the Njal's Saga. Odin's charge was called Sleipnir.

• In the 1950's, Andulusian-staghorn charms were used to ward off the "evil eye." A staghorn was attached to a cord made of the braided tail of a black mare.

• Pieces of turquoise were used as good luck charms to keep horses from tiring and protected their riders from falling.

• Black stallions were used to find vampires. A virgin youth rode through cemetaries thought to harbor the bodies of vampires. If the horse stopped at a certain grave, it was thought that he identified a blood-sucking creature of the night. The grave was opened the body exhumed and the corpse was pierced with stakes, and then burned.

• The practice of using black stallions as vampire hunters was outlawed in Yugoslavia. This practice was used in the script of at least one modern Romanian vampire film.

• Skulls of horses were set upon house gables to offer protection and bring good fortune.

• Unicorns, thought thought to be mythical, were related to horses.

• The Unicorn was a white horse with a single spiral horn growing from its forehead.

• Unicorn horns were prized for their supposed ability to detect poison.

• If a Unicorn dipped his horn into the water, the water was rendered pure.

• The winged horse Pegasus was ridden by the Greek mythological hero Bellerophon.

• Pegasus was said to have sprung for the head of Medusa.
• The centaur was half-man, half-horse. It was a wild and savage creature.

• The centaur called Chiron was the wisest of his kind. He tutored many Greek heroes. Chiron died when Heracles accidently shot him with a poisoned arrow.

• Paso Fino were breed from the horses brought to the New World by Christopher Columbus. They mated with Barks, Andalusians, and Spanish Jennets that Columbus brought on his second voyage.

• Demeter, the Greek goddess of wome, marraige, marriage and agriculture is depicted with the head of a black mare, and the priestesses of her temple were referred to as "foals."

• Phillip of Macedon imported 20,000 Scythian mares and his son, Alexander, claimed a tribute of 50,000 Persian horses.

• Alexander the Greats horse was named Bucephalus ("Ox Head"). Bucephalus was a Tessalonian breed with a black coat and white star on his forehead. He was bought by Alexander's father in 342 B.C. for the equivalent of $15,000. He was so unruly he could not be mounted. Alexander was age 12 and was determined to ride him. Alexander had him face into the sun and then leapt upon his back. Jis groom could ride him for only brief distnces.

  Alexander rode Bucephalus the last time in 347 B.C. By this time, his horse was 30 years old and he died from battle wounds. These wounds were sustained at the Hydaspes River when Alexander defeated the Indian King Porus.

  Bucephalus was buried with full military honors and the city of Bucephalia was founded, by Alexander, at his burial site.

• The Greek poet Oppian (c. 211 A.D.) said the Pindo, also known as the Thessalonian was most noted for its beauty. Becephalus was a Thessalonian.

• Today Pindos are used as mountain pack animals, in light farm work, and in forestry. Pindo mares are used for breeding mules.

• The Skyrian horse from Skyria Island, resembles horses depicted on ancient Grecian statuary and friezes.

• Thesaly and Epirus were the horse breeding areas of Greece.

• Paso Finos are known for their four-beat gait. There are more than 200,000 Paso Finos in Central and South America today.

• The Prophet Muhammad's horse was called Ouskob ("the Torrent").

• Genghis Khan (1167-1227) rode a Mongolian pony.

• The goddess Isis, of Ancient Egypt, used the horseshoe as a talisman against bewitchment. The horseshoe was hung with its "feet" upward.

• The Asiatic wild horse (Przewalski's horse) was rediscovered by Nikolai Mikhailovitch Przewalski, a Colonel in the Imperial Army of Russia. The horse was running wild on the Gobi Desert, in 1879. One foal and one filly of this bred were presented to Czar Nicholas II, of Russia.

• Adolf Hitler collected Japanese paintings featuring Japanese Zen ponies. These painting were all by an unknown artist who was said to have been born at the hour and year of the horse.

• Japanese Samurai horses were large-headed, flat-necked, short-legged, and shag-furred.

• To the Japanese horses were symbols of warfare.
• Japanese Breeds. The Misaki - first appeared in 1697 and was bred by the Takanabi Clan. Other type of Japanese horses were called Tokara, Miyako, Noma, Kiso, Hokkaido Washu, and Tasha.

• The Appaloosa was refined by Native American Indians. They were bred by the Nez Perce in Oregon and Washington. This breed goes back to 20,000 B.C.

  Cowboys and Their Horses:

• The original cowboy was a Native American who looked after cattle for the Spanish misrionaries in Mexico.

• Cowboys found geldings more reliable than mares.

• The Quarter Horse was the most popular breed with American cowboys.

• Pony Express began in 1860 and a letter cost $5.00 to carry from St. Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California.
• Appaloosa and dappled Pintos were horses cowboys liked for their good looks.

• The Quarter Horse is a mixture of Arab, Bark, English Thoroughbred, and the now extinct Galloway ancestors. Thus the name. It was from four different breds.

• The Quarter Horse is a mixture of Arab, Bark, English Thoroughbred, and the now extinct Galloway ancestors. Thus the name. It was from four different breds.

• Trigger's (1937) real name was "Golden Cloud" and he was a palomino of great intelligence. He was worth $2,500.00, when he was alive.

• Roy Rodgers and Trigger made one hundred pictures for Republic, but Roy only made $75.00 a week.

• Trigger died in 1965, at age 33 years of age.

• Palomino is the color of the horse, not the breed.

• Trigger, Jr. was a palomino Tennessee Walking horse. He was owned by cowboy Roy Rodgers.

• Gene Autry, the other singing cowboy, had a Tennessee walking horse named Champion.

• Lone Ranger's Silver was an American horse or Pale Horse bred.

• Tonto, the companion of the Lone Ranger had horse named Scout.

  Royal Steads:

• Richard II, King of England, had a Barb (Roan Barbary)

• George IV, Prince of Wales, is shown riding an Arabian horse in the Painting by Theodore Gericault.

• Napoleon of France had a Pale Horse called Marengo.

• Marengo was a white Arabian stallion who was one of 130 horses owned by Napoleon I, and was thought to be his favorite.

• Marengo was wounded eight times and carried Napoleon at the Battle of Austerlitz (1805), Jena (1806), Wagram (1809), and finally at Waterloo.

• After Marengo was captured at Waterloo, he was taken to England by Lord Petre, and was purchased by General J.J. Angerstein of the Grenadier Guards. Marengo then stood, at stud, at the New Barnes stud near Ely. By this time Marengo was 27 years old, so he did not sire many horses before his death at age 38.

• The Polish Stud farms of Janow Podlaski and Michalow raise Arabian stock.

• The Quarter Horse is a mixture of Arab, Bark, English Thoroughbred, and the now extinct Galloway ancestors. Thus the name. It was from four different breds.

• Trigger's (1937) real name was "Golden Cloud" and he was a palomino of great intelligence. He was worth $2,500.00, when he was alive.

• Roy Rodgers and Trigger made one hundred pictures for Republic, but Roy only made $75.00 a week.

• Trigger died in 1965, at age 33 years of age.

• Palomino is the color of the horse, not the breed.

  Hernan Cortez, Conquistador of Mexico, had a Spanish Barb called Morzillo ("black with a reddish luster.").

• The Camargue was a Gypsy horse from the Rhone delta in France.

• Charles II bred Andalusians, Berbers, and Barks with the Karst horse and produced the Lipizzans.

• General George S. Patton loved Lipizzan stallions.

• Austrian monk, Gregor Mendal (1822-1884) used his own Mendelain Law to discover genetic breeding practices. He figured out which color Dame and Sires might produce other colors.

• Archibald Roosevelt, son of Theodore Roosevelt, former president of the U.S.A. owned a calico Icelandic. The horse was brought to the second floor of the White Horse when his young master was sick. The boy had asked to see his horse and he was said to have recovered from his sickness because of his horse's visit.

• Adolphus Busch a German immigrant married Lily Anheuser. Adolphus took over his father-in-law's brewery business in St. Louis, Missouri. The Clydesdale was then used as their symbol in their advertisements, in later generations.
  *****

  SOURCES:

  Amirsadeghi, Hossein. Arabians. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1999.

  Edwards, Elwyn Harley. The Encyclopedia of the Horse. New York: DK Publishing, Inc., 1994.

  Hausman, Gerald and Loretta. The Mythology of Horses: Horse Legends and Lore Through the Ages. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2003.

  Kidd, Jane. The International Encyclopedia of Horses and Ponies. New York: Howell Book House, 1995.

  Philip, Neil. Mythology. An Eyewitness Book. New York: Dorling Kindersley Books, 1999.

  Ross, Stewart. Fact of Fiction: Cowboys. Brookfield, Conn.: Copper Beech Books, 1995.

  Saunders, Nicholas J. Animal Spirits. Alexandria, VA.: Time-Life Books (Living Wisdom Series), 1995.

  Stotter, Mike. Mi. New York: Kingfisher, 1997.

  
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