The Horse in Ancient Greece came about because of a question, and a rather picky one at that. Was the horse carved on a Neolithic spear-thrower jumping or rearing? The book I picked up said both, and gave no support for either position. My own eyes said "jumping" at first. After all, I own a horse for the express purpose of jumping obstacles. I know what a jumping horse looks like. Then, as I stared at the picture again, my brain suggested the possibility that maybe, just maybe, the horse was rearing.
The result of my indecision was the production of two oral presentations based on what artistic representation can tell us of horses. Two semesters later, I found myself asking Professor Christina Salowey if she would be interested in supervising a January Term Independent Study on horses in Ancient Greece.
In the end, you will ultimately find that I have approached the topic as someone who loves horses. I do not intend this project to provide a complete or definitive guide to the nature of the horse in Ancient Greece; indeed, I have yet to successfully locate such a guide. This site is meant, first and foremost, to arouse the interest of visitors and to satisfy my own curiousity. I have quite possibly raised more questions than I have answered, and those questions may well be answered by scholars with more experience in Classical and Equine Studies than I. Nevertheless, I hope that you find this site educational and entertaining, and that you too walk away from your explorations of the horse in Ancient Greece with questions newly answered and newly made.
I would like to thank Professor Salowey for her support and her many contributions to this project. This study has been a wonderful opportunity.
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Equestrian Terminology
At certain points in this web site, I have used contemporary equestrian terminology. As the meaning of these words can differ from region to region, I have chosen to provide a brief list of definitions to alleviate any confusion I might inadvertently cause. For information on the points of the horse, please consult this page.
| headstall: The part of a bridle or halter fixed to a horse's head. Parts of the headstall include cheekpieces, noseband, browband and throatlatch. |
| cheekpiece: Any strap affixed to a bit or noseband that runs up the side of a horse's cheek towards his ears. Also, the part of a bit that protrudes from a horse's mouth and takes the form of more or less straight bars. |
| noseband: Any strap that runs around a part or a whole of the horse's nose. Used to hold a headstall in place, direct the horse or hold its mouth shut on the bit. |
| browband: Any strap that runs across the horse's forehead, usually intend to prevent a headstall from sliding down a horse's neck. |
| throatlatch: Strap that runs underneath the jaw of the horse, usually close to its throat but sometimes closer to its nose. Serves to hold bridle in place, and when fastened tightly enough, it prevents the horse from tucking his nose too close to his neck or chest. |
| bit: Controlling device placed in a horse's mouth. May be fashioned out of various materials, such as rope, horn or wood, but metal remains the most commonly used material. The bit usually consists of rings or cheekpieces composed of sidebars on the outside of the mouth, and a mouthpiece composed of canons in the interior. The curb bit consists of an additional exterior part (the curb). |
| sidebars: The top and bottom halves of the cheekpiece. The top sidebars usually run along the side of the nose behind the nostril at a 90 degree or greater angle to the line of the horse's mouth. The lower side bars usually extend beyond the horse's lower jaw at a 90 degree or lesser angle to the line of the horse's mouth. The length of a cheekpiece extending from the corner of the horse's mouth to the extreme end of the lower sidebar may also be called a shank. Longer shanks, with reins attached further down from the mouth, give the rider greater leverage and are most often associated with curb bits. |
| rings: Portion of bit to which reins are attached. These may be part of a more or less straight cheekpiece, or they may be large, rounded pieces of metal devoid of sidebars. Rings may be jointed in several different ways, and come in a variety of shapes from perfect circles to flat-sided "D" rings. |
| mouthpiece: Portion of the bit that is actually inside the horse's mouth. |
| canons: The more or less straight bars of the mouthpiece. In many bits, the canons actually have a slight curve to better fit the bit to the horse's mouth. A mouthpiece may have more than one canon, depending on how many times it is jointed. The typical jointed snaffle has two canons, connected by a joint in the center. A bar snaffle has no joint inside the mouth. |
| curb bit: A bit consisting of an outer strap, bar or chain (the curb) that runs under the groove at the front portion of the outside of the horse's lower jaw. The mouthpiece of the bit is often straight. The result is that the mouthpiece of the bit acts mainly on the bars of the horse's mouth and his tongue, while the curb presses against the sensitive groove. The effect is more powerful leverage on the horse's head in a downward direction. |
| snaffle bit: A bit lacking in any device that compresses against the groove of the lower jaw. Snaffles may or may not be jointed, and chiefly act on the bars, roof and corners of the horse's mouth with upward pressure. |
| roller: Any element of a mouthpiece that literally rolls inside the horse's mouth, intended to give the horse something to manipulate with his tongue, thereby keeping his jaws loose. |
| breastplate: Any strap or armor that carries across the horse's chest. |
| crouper: A strap that runs from a horse's saddle, harness or saddlecloth around and underneath the tail. Intended to prevent the ensemble from sliding forward. |
| hand: Standard height measurement for horses. One hand--roughly one hand's width--equals four inches. The height of a horse is measured as the vertical distance from the ground to his withers (the high point where his neck meets his back). |
| onside: The left side of the horse, so-called because most activities, such as mounting, grooming and saddling are done or started on the left. |
| offside: The right side of the horse, so-called because most activities are expected to be done or started on the left side. |
The Horse in Ancient Greece