It is difficult to imagine human helpers more versatile than horses. They can carry people and goods, help plow the land and harvest, give meat and milk, skin and wool. Man began to do without horses only in the last half century, having exchanged four-legged friends for cars that do not need either oats or the owner's affection.
The horse is a relatively young biological species, and this animal has lived with a person quite recently. However, horses have played a vital role in the development of mankind. People came up with more and more new roles and responsibilities for them, and the horses coped with them perfectly.
The role of the horse in people's lives is emphasized by its cultural mentions. Horses were characters in paintings and literary works. Many horse names have become household names, as have much more generalized terms like "workhorse" or "healthy bitug". There are dozens of proverbs and sayings about horses. And still, if you are interested, you can always learn something not too widely known about horses.
1. Where and when horses first became pets is unknown. Of course, none of the scientists would dare to answer such directness. Modern research using the achievements of paleontology, the study of DNA and thousands of fossil remains of ancestors and prototypes of horses does not prove anything. Analogs of modern horses, most likely, lived in America and migrated to Eurasia across the isthmus, which now separates the Bering Strait. But the opposite is also possible - the huskies have moved from Eurasia to America, why are horses worse? Or such a statement: “Horses were domesticated either 5 or 6 thousand years ago. It happened somewhere between the Dniester and Altai ”. If you look at the map, then “between the Dniester and Altai” lies half of the continent with a variety of climatic and natural zones. That is, according to science, a horse could be domesticated with equal probability in the mountains, steppes, deserts, semi-deserts, mixed forests and taiga. But scientific research is simply unnecessary for such a claim.
2. The very first surviving work on horses, their raising and caring for them - "Treatise of Kikkuli". It is named after the author and was found at the beginning of the 20th century on the territory of modern Turkey. The text on the clay tablets is written in Hittite script, that is, it can be dated back to 1800 - 1200 BC. e. Judging by the text, Kikkuli was an experienced horse breeder. He describes not only the actual training of horses, but also their diet, massage, composition of blankets and other aspects of grooming. The Hittites appreciated the treatise - it was included in the royal library. Australian horsewoman Anne Nyland tested the Kikkuli horse training method and proved effective for chariot horses.
3. Horses are acorn addicts. Horses love the taste of acorns so much that they can't stop eating them. And tannins and other substances contained in acorns have a detrimental effect on the horse's liver, and the horse dies rather quickly. In the wild, wild horses and oaks usually do not live nearby, but tragedies happen in national parks. In 2013, in England, in New Forest National Park, dozens of free-grazing ponies died. The cause of death was a large “harvest” of acorns. In normal years, the wild pigs living in the national park ate acorns and prevented the ponies from reaching them. But in 2013 there were so many acorns that, unfortunately, they were “enough” for the share of small horses.
4. The Roman emperor Nero was “green”. No, he did not fight against carbon dioxide and did not protect rare species of animals. “Nero” was part of the “green” fan group. These fans were rooting for horse races on a huge hippodrome called “Circus Maximus”, and their group affiliation was indicated by the color of their clothes. Gradually, the participants, for whom the "colored" fans were rooting, began to put on their own clothes of the corresponding colors. At first, the groups competed with each other in the fortress of gulp and fists, and then began to turn into a certain force that politicians could use in their interests.
5. Horse harness has long been very imperfect. For example, even in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, they did not know the collar. The use of a yoke instead of a collar reduced the “thrust-to-weight ratio” of the horse fourfold. And such an elementary, seemingly, piece of harness, like stirrups (feet rest against them), appeared around the 5th century AD. The fact that the earliest evidence of the presence of stirrups dates from the 6th century AD. e., sharply undermines the position of "traditional" historians in discussions with supporters of alternative versions. Without stirrups, anyone who has tried this dangerous ride will attest, it is very difficult to just stay in the saddle. There is no question of jumping, fights and even elementary holding of the formation. Therefore, all the stories about the armada of many thousands of heavy cavalry seem to be fiction. The argument that stirrups were so common that no one mentions them doesn't work either. In ancient Rome, when building roads, it was necessary to put tall stones at the side of the road at certain distances - without such a support, the rider simply could not climb into the saddle. There would be stirrups - these stones would not be needed.
6. Destrie, course, hakne, palefroy and other names that can be found in books about the Middle Ages are not names for horse breeds. These are the names of horse types based on constitution. Experienced breeders quickly determined for what purpose the foal would be best suited when it grew up. Destrie was fattened and trained under the saddle of a knight in battle, the course was somewhat analogous to the current infantry fighting vehicles - on them the fighters got to the battlefield, and there they were transferred to the destination. Hakne are peasant horses, low-powered, but unpretentious. Palefroy are hardy horses for long journeys. Real selection with breeding of horse breeds began around the industrial revolution, when powerful horses were needed for industry, and their size, unpretentiousness and smoothness of movement ceased to play a decisive role.
7. The Icelandic Parliament is considered the oldest representative body in European countries - its first composition was elected in 930. The descendants of the Vikings elected each other, only the richest of whom were able to transport from Scandinavia not only provisions and household utensils, but also horses. In order to preserve this situation, the Althingi banned the import of horses in 982. The law is still valid, and in Iceland, where possible, herds of microhorses are worn, the highest of which grow to 130 cm at the withers.
8. Despite the often declared admiration for the abilities of horses and stories about the special relationship between the horse and the rider or the horse and the owner, a good - in the understanding of a horse - attitude towards it among "civilized" people is a rare exception. For horses trained in dressage, an “iron” is inserted into the mouth, a system of metal parts that presses on the palate, lips, teeth and tongue, forcing them to perform certain actions. Racehorses are exhausted with training and stuffed with doping (there seems to be a fight with him, but this fight is more against competitors than for animal health). Even for those horses that amateurs ride, an hour's ride is a serious burden. The fate of army horses is understandable - they died in hundreds of thousands even in relatively small wars. But even in peacetime, horses were scoffed at with a passion worthy of better use. In the period of fashion for the color "in apples" these same apples were created with the help of burns - repeated - with acid. Horses had their nostrils cut - there was a fashion for a special shape of nostrils, and racehorses were believed to be able to breathe more air this way. The shape of the ears was improved by cutting them off, and age was hidden by cleaving the teeth with a special chisel. And the pastoral picture of the relationship between man and horse is explained by the incredible patience of the latter. If the horse signals pain, then this pain is unbearable for him, almost fatal.
9. The opinion is very popular that the Arabian horse breed is the most noble and ancient. But, for example, horses are not mentioned at all in the Quran. The Arabs living in the Arabian Peninsula did not have horses. Even the Arab mercenaries of King Xerxes rode camels. But with the accession of Islam and its cult of the horse, animals that came to the Arabian Peninsula from Central and Western Asia were significantly improved and deservedly gained worldwide fame. The Europeans also contributed their share to it. During the 18th - 19th centuries, the Arabs in Europe were considered the ideal, and their blood was mixed into all possible breeds. A side effect - a decrease in height to 150 cm - was noticed rather late.
10. What we used to call “bullfighting” is just one of the varieties of the competition between a bull and a man, Spanish bullfight. And there is also a Portuguese bullfight. In Portugal, a bullfighter works with a bull, sitting on a horse in a special saddle - "a la jineta". The role of the horse in the Portuguese bullfight is exceptionally great - the Portuguese bullfighter has no right to attack first. Therefore, his horse must prance and dance in such a way as to provoke the bull. And that's not all! The bullfighter can injure the bull solely in self-defense. The ideal of a duel is to wrap the bull so that it falls. After the end of the fight, the bull is either slaughtered in front of the queue of restaurateurs eager to serve sensational meat in their establishments, or, in the case of a special fortress, sent to the tribe.
11. The current American rodeo shows are usually positioned as a revival of the good old skill of dressing wild horses - mustangs. However, this is not at all the case. Real mustang dressage was available to very few people who not only had the strength to tame a horse, but also knew how to find an approach to the animal. What is now passed off as dressage is profanity and deception. All this eerie stallion throwing in the arena has nothing to do with the character of the animal. It's just that the horse, some time before the performance, is strongly pulled with a rope in what makes it different from the mare. And just before going out, they also pull this rope strongly. Everything else is the animal's reaction to the monstrous pain from the rush of blood to the numb parts of the body.
12. In the world of racehorses, the human theory of six handshakes looks like a mockery: you think, all people know each other after six handshakes! All these theoretically universally familiar participants in the handshakes in the days of the English races are rooting for horses, descended from only three stallions born in the middle of the 18th century: Heroda (1758), Eclipse (1764) and Matcham (1648).
13. Horses have made a huge contribution to the entertainment industry. The first carousels were riders' simulators. They were seated on wooden horses, placed on a round platform, and trained to hit the target with a spear on the go. The first carousels were, of course, the horses. The first circus, created in the mid-18th century in England by father and son Astleys, was based on horse performances. All other circus performers were used only to give the horses a break. The 24-frame principle of filming appeared due to the fact that in 1872 the governor of the American state of California Leland Stanford decided to make sure that when galloping, all of the horse's legs sometimes lift off the ground at the same time. His friend Edward Muybridge placed 24 cameras in length, tying their shutters to threads stretched across the road. The galloping horse tore the thread - the camera worked. This is how the first film appeared. Fans of the Lumière brothers can not argue - the hero of the first French film was a pony. However, the movement of the horse lacked effect, so for the first demonstration of their invention, the Lumiere brothers chose the film “The Arrival of the Train”.
14. The section of the Atlantic Ocean between 30 and 35 parallels north latitude is sometimes referred to by sailors as “equine latitudes”. In these latitudes, stable anticyclones are frequent in summer - huge expanses of calm. Sailing ships sailing from Europe to America risked getting stuck in these latitudes for several weeks. If this happened, water shortages became critical. In this case, the horses that were transported to the New World were thrown overboard - horses die very quickly without water. Even a legend was born that the population of these animals began to renew in the then horseless America with such abandoned horses that managed to reach the coast.
15. The famous conquistador Fernando Cortez in 1524 set off from the territory of present-day Mexico to explore new lands, approximately to the area of modern Honduras. Already on the way back, one of the horses of his detachment injured his leg. Cortez left him with the local leader, promising to return for the animals. The Indians feared horses even more than white people, so El Morsillo - that was the nickname of the unlucky horse - was treated with great reverence. He was fed exclusively fried meat and exotic fruits. Such a diet, of course, quickly sent El Morsillo to a horse paradise. The frightened Indians made a life-size replica of the horse and tried in every possible way to please her. In 1617, the monks, who arrived in America to carry the Word of God, smashed the idol, and after that they barely managed to get away from the Indians angry at sacrilege. And the remains of a horse were kept in Indian temples in the 18th century.
16. Horses have their own flu, which has the same symptoms as human flu - animals get fever and develop weakness, horses suffer from coughs, runny nose and sneezing. In 1872 - 1873 an economic crisis broke out in the United States due to the equine flu. The flu affected three-quarters of all horses, and all transport in the country was paralyzed. At the same time, the mortality rate, even according to the maximum estimates, was at most 10%. And then most of this number was made up of horses, which, according to the Russian proverb, died from work. The weakened animals could not work at full strength and died right in the harness.
17. One of the favorites of Catherine II and a possible assassin of Peter III, Alexei Orlov, is known not only for his participation in the change of the monarch, victory in the Battle of Chesme and the abduction of Princess Tarakanova. Orlov was also a passionate horse breeder. On his estate near Voronezh, he bred the Oryol trotter and Russian horse breeds. The founder of the trotter breed, Smetanka, was bought for a whopping 60,000 rubles. It makes no sense to compare the price of Smetanka with ordinary horses, whose expensive representatives were selling for several tens of rubles. Here is an illustrative figure: in the year the stallion was purchased, the entire state horse breeding industry in Russia received 25,000 rubles. At the same time, the state horses did not sit without hay and oats, the cavalry was the key to the success of the army, and Russia fought almost continuously. And on this whole economy of thousands of heads, the service staff and the bosses spent 2.5 times less per year than the cost of an elite stallion. However, the costs for Smetanka were fully justified. He fell rather quickly - either simply from the climate, or smashed his head on a drinking bowl (the overlooked coachman seemed to hang himself at once). However, from the stallion, 4 male and 1 female foals remained. And from this meager material Orlov managed to deduce a successful numerous breed.
18. The famous Russian “troika” is a relatively recent invention. Both in Europe and in Russia, the cart was either carried by one horse, or the teams were paired. The “troika” gained popularity in the first half of the 19th century. Such a harness makes very high demands on the qualities of the horses and on the skill of the coachman.The essence of the "troika" is that the lateral, lashing horses should, as it were, carry, support the root, allowing it to develop great speed. In this case, the root horse gallops at a trot, and the tied horse - at a gallop. "Troika" made such a strong impression on foreigners that representatives of the Soviet government gave them several times during visits to foreign countries. Another representative of a foreign state left Russia in a troika, and his crew traveled 130 miles a day - an unprecedented speed for Russia in 1812. It is about Napoleon Bonaparte, whom only the "troika" helped to dash away from the pursuit of the Cossacks.
19. The Second World War is usually called "the war of motors" - they say, not like in the First World War, when more and more horses cost. The military themselves in the 1930s believed that cavalry and the use of horses in hostilities, if not obsolete, were very close to this. But then came the Second World War, and it turned out that without horses in modern war, nowhere. In the Soviet Union alone, 3 million horses fought. A comparable number of horses were in the Wehrmacht, but to this number must be added the cavalry of numerous Hitler's allies. And still there were not enough horses and cavalry! With all the mechanization of the German army, 90% of the thrust in it was carried out by horses. And the German generals considered the disbandment of cavalry divisions to be one of the key mistakes.
20. Many horses died in the war, but almost more damage was inflicted on Soviet horse breeding in the 1950s. Under the leadership of N. Khrushchev, so many reforms were carried out simultaneously that sometimes they overlapped and gave a synergistic effect. As you know, in those years the army was actively and thoughtlessly reduced, and corn was planted just as actively and thoughtlessly. The army became sharply not needed not only hundreds of thousands of officers, but also cavalry - Nikita Sergeevich got missiles. Accordingly, not only people, but also horses were demobilized from the army. They could be attached partly to breeding plants, partly to agriculture - the experience of reforms at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries showed that even then there was work for horses in the countryside. But horses, as you know, need to be fed with oats. It is impossible to drastically increase the sown area for oats - even all the copses have already been planted with corn. And the horses were literally put under the knife. Yes, they got so carried away that even the inhabitants of some breeding farms fell under the hot hand of the reformers - some factories were closed.
