Horses Author:Jane Burton It is interesting to consider just how different might have been the course of history had it not been for the horse. Until the coming of mechanisation the horse was an indispensable slave, hauling wagon-loads of goods and cairrages full of people, dragging ploughs and carts on farms, carrying merchants about their businesses and transporting pe... more »ople of all trades and professions about their everyday lives. But of even greater influence on the course of history was the use of horses in battle, from the fleet chariots of ancient armies to the great war horses of the Middle Ages and the perfectly drilled cavalry regiments that were deployed in battle until what seems only yesterday, historically speaking. Success in almost every field of human endeavour was once dependent on the horse and no other animal has been so closely associated with man's development or been so instrumental in bringing about the rise and fall of civilizations.
Today, it might be argued that the horse is no longer of such value to us, and yet, every year, more and more yuong people learn to ride for the sheer pleasure of it and yearn to have their own ponies, while many millions of people enjoy the spectator sports of horseracing, show jumping and eventing. Perhaps after so many centuries of association with the horse we still feel the need to acquire the skills of horsemanship and preserve them against the day when we may depend on them once again!
Whatever the reason, the horse is appreciated today as it probably never was before, during all the previous centuries, when it was simply taken for granted. And it is surely right that we should recognise the great debt that we owe to the horse. To that end, this book has been compiled: to establish the horse's place in the history of nations and show it for the beautiful animal it is, and the great and noble friend of man that it has always been.« less