Nomadic Eurasian tribes maintained large herds of mares, stallions, geldings, and foals, which were allowed to pasture semiwild until needed. Horses are easily stolen by experienced horse people. Steppe nomads, like Plains Indians of North America, habitually raided horses even of friendly tribes as a kind of aggressive sport. (See chapter 20 For the theft of Alexander’s horse by nomads.) The stranded Amazons from Pontus, in Herodotus’s tale, were able to quickly ride horses from a herd they came across in northern Scythian territory. Each warrior on the steppes owned several horses and developed strong attachments to favorites. In nomad cultures, horses had individual names, even their own legends; owners were sometimes known by their horse’s name. Indeed, horse and nomad were inseparable companions even in eternity, since even the humblest steppe rider was buried with his or her horse.5
It has been noted that Scythian, Saka, Thracian, Sarmatian, Massag-etae, and other steppe cultures were strongly influenced by horse behavior, and the horses they developed were, in turn, influenced by nomad practices. For example, the power of mares in herds was obvious to the earliest horse people. Mares can be as strong and fast as stallions, and they can fight ferociously. An alpha female horse dominates the other members of the herd and physically disciplines the young male horses, while the stallions help defend the herd and await the mares’ sexual interest. Other equine-nomad parallels include seasonal migrations, seasonal mating, sexual activity and reproduction regulated by female
Acquiescence, styles of fighting and escaping danger, and sensitivity to minute shifts in body language of horse and rider.6
Vase paintings of Amazons show the women riding both male and female horses. According to Strabo, the Sarmatian men and women preferred to ride geldings. They “castrate their horses to make them easy to manage,” he wrote, “for although the horses are small they are exceedingly quick and difficult to control.” This practice is mentioned in northern Caucasian sagas about mythic Nart heroes of the steppes; they also knew how to break wild stallions by riding them into rivers with strong currents. On the other hand, Pliny tells us that the “Scythians favored mares for battle because they can urinate while galloping.” Pau-sanias wrote that the Sarmatians “breed herds of mares, which they ride to war, sacrifice, eat, and use the hooves to make armor.” It was also said that the Scythians employed “controlled incest” to “cross particularly fine mares with their stallion sons.” A modern historian of Scythia believes that images on Scythian artifacts “suggest that Scythians preferred to ride stallions.” But it is likely that the nomadic horsewomen known to the Greeks as Amazons rode both mares and stallions, and that they gelded some of their horses for selective breeding and to make the males more tractable, quiet, and sociable in herds.7
Training horses for the complex maneuvers of hunting large and small game and the rigors of mounted battle would have started when the horse was about two years old. The very naturalistic scene on the painted cup in figure 11.1 shows a barefoot Amazon wearing a spotted body stocking and a pointed Scythian hat, training a colt or filly. (Behind the tree on the Amazon’s left, under the cup handle, is her small white dog.) She is urging the young, wild-eyed horse to walk forward, but it is pulling back and bucking up a bit with its hind legs, resisting the pressure of the lead rope. Colts and fillies can develop deep rapport with riders, responding to spoken commands but especially to cues of touch, without reins—which explains how the Amazons could easily mount and control the horses they stole from the Scythians. It is interesting to compare the similarly skilled equestrian techniques of Libyan nomads of North Africa, described by Strabo and the Roman historian Arrian. Young children rode bareback on small swift horses with no reins, expertly guiding their horses with body shifts and little rods as they sped after and lassoed wild asses.8
FiG. II. I. Amazon training a horse (out of sight under handle, her small white dog). Black-figure skyphos (drinking cup), Durand Painter, Greek, ca. 510-500 BC, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Henry Lillie Pierce Fund, 99.524. Photograph © 2014 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Nomad horses on the steppes were ridden with felt blankets and perhaps a cushion-saddle, no stirrups or spurs, and simple bridles with very loose reins, or bareback with no reins, guided by the rider’s shifting weight and pressure from thighs, knees, and heels. Young girls and boys learned to balance, relax, and move with the horse, guiding it with voice and body movements, without reins. Riding bareback involves intimate communication and rhythm between horse and rider; horses can “read” heart rate, breathing, and body language. For example, a horse can sense the rider turning her head in a desired direction and anticipates confirmation by her subtle balance shift. The children also learned how to handle long spears and aim bow and arrows at a gallop. The Turkic word dzhigit or jigit in ballads and legends of Central Asia describes a daring rider warrior who has mastered the kinds of dangerous acrobatic moves that were perfected in antiquity—such as the notorious “Parthian shot” that so awed the Greeks and Romans. This feat
Involved turning backward on one’s horse while racing away and continuing to shoot arrows at pursuing enemies on both sides (see chapTer 5). The technique of riding forward while shooting backward with the wind appears in many ancient paintings and sculptures of Amazons (plate 5, Figs. 12.3, 16.1). The earliest artistic representation of a mounted Penthesilea is a Chalcidian vase (550 BC) showing her on a galloping horse with the reins slung around her waist as she twists around to shoot arrows at Achilles who pursues on foot. One arrow has already punctured his shield; she is about to let fly another.9
World History
