Hiero the Tyrant and Other Treatises (Penguin Classics) by Xenophon Page B

Xenophon must surely have been hugely impressed.
    Most Greek horses were utilitarian workhorses, doubling up in peace and war (the same Greek word,
hippeus
, did service for both ‘cavalryman’ and ‘horseman’). The closest a Greek came to riding a horse for pleasure was when he went hunting – but he rode only to, not during, the hunt, which took place on foot (see the next treatise,
On Hunting
). The author of this treatise therefore, like Agesilaus (
Agesilaus
9.6), was interested chiefly in what went towards making a good war-horse – and a good cavalryman. At the same time, the horse’s peacetime functions are not neglected, not least because ceremonial parades of horses and riders were an integral part of certain religious processions, for example that which distinguished the Panathenaia festival at Athens. This annual festival was celebrated with especial magnificence every four years, when the Panathenaic Games including horse-races were also staged. In the Parthenon frieze there could be seen (but only just – they are far more easily visible in their current place of display) a uniquely elevated depiction of the sort of ideal horse and rider that the author of
On Horsemanship
had it in mind to produce.

ON HORSEMANSHIP

CHAPTER 3
    It may be, however, that you are buying a horse that has already been [1] ridden. I will jot down all the information a buyer needs to avoid being swindled when buying such a horse. 1
    In the first place, it is important to note the horse’s age. Any horse that has lost its milk teeth is an unpromising prospect and by the same token will be hard for you to dispose of.
    Having ascertained that the horse still has its youth, the next point [2] to note is its behaviour when taking the bit in its mouth and theheadstall around its ears. The best way for the buyer to do this is to watch the bridle being put on and removed.
    [3] Next, he must pay attention to the horse’s behaviour in accepting a rider on its back, because many horses hate letting anything come near them when they know perfectly well that the inevitable consequence for them is hard work.
    [4] He must also check on the horse’s willingness, once mounted, to leave the vicinity of other horses, and make sure that when it is ridden past a group of stationary horses it does not head off towards them. Also, some horses have been so badly trained that they tend to bolt for the paths that lead home instead of keeping to their course.
    [5] The exercise known as the ‘chain’ 2 will show whether or not a horse is equally responsive to the bit on both sides of its mouth, but an even better way of detecting this is to change the direction of your ride, because it is often the case that a horse will not try to head for home unless the weak side of its mouth and the path for home coincide.
    Further essential pieces of information are whether the horse can quickly be pulled up to a halt from a gallop, and whether there is any difficulty in getting it to turn.
    [6] It is worth testing whether alerting the horse with a blow makes any difference to its willingness to obey a command. Although a slave or an armed force which is incapable of taking orders is useless, a disobedient horse is worse than useless: it often even has the same effect as a traitor.
    [7] Now, I have been assuming that the horse is being bought for use in war, and it should therefore be put through all the tests that actual warfare will put it through. In other words, it should be made to jump across ditches and over walls, and leap up and down banks, and it should also be tested by being ridden uphill and downhill and along the faces of slopes. 3 All these tests will prove whether or not it has a
    [8] strong character and a sound body. However, a horse that does not perform very well at these trials need not be rejected, because it is often not incapacity but lack of experience of these hazards that makes it fail. Once it has gained the training, conditioning and