The 2024 Olympic Games in Paris cause me to reflect on the earliest Olympic Games. These beautiful marble friezes are on the south and west sides of the Parthenon, built in the 5th century BC Athens, Greece. Presumably, these images portray the quality of equitation at that time. The holes on some of the horses’ […]
Horse history
Morals, Domestication, and Horse-Keeping
Like the elephant in the living room, an ever-present but unspoken subject affects every horse-person: where is the boundary between right and wrong in our relationship with horses? About five thousand years ago, mankind embarked upon a journey that continues to the present: the domestication of horses. By domestication, I mean a contract between two […]
The New Age of Equitation – The Woman’s Touch
For at least five thousand years, the equine world revolved around herding, hunting, farming, freight, and war, and was considered a man’s domain. The secrets of training and riding these powerful animals were carefully passed from man to man long before the Greek general Xenophon wrote his book on the handling and care of warhorses […]
A Bit of History
Does your horse toss his head, lean on the bit, rear, gape his mouth, go above or below the bit, refuse to perform, bolt, rear, buck, refuse to be bridled, or switch from sweet on the ground to a monster once you are mounted? Have you resorted to stronger bits, flash nosebands, martingales, spurs, and […]