Median kándys or kantuš riding coat

Salve,

I have been asked about the riding outfit of the Achaemenid Great King Cyrus the Great , hence I decided to do a little entry on the so called Median Cloak - kandys or kantuš, that essentially it was a riding coat of the Persians and ... the Eurasian steppe horsemen.

A cameo gem showing a kandys clad mounted warrior attacking a chariot

But first about Cyrus or rather his tomb, for it is a list of garments and weapons found there when Alexander entered the tomb, some 200 years after Cyrus' death (Persian clothing in general ), according to the Arrian's depiction of the Cyrus tomb (Anabasis, 6.29.6) - which in my opinion is the closest depiction on the Great King riding costume (via one of the best books on the reconstructed Achaemenid Persian army by prof. Sekunda and illustrator Simon Chew) :

 there we have: a kandys (Median cloak), tunics of Babylonian workmanship and some other tunics,  Median anaxyrides (pants); colors of these garments - hyacinth(dark blue) and purple, and perhaps yellow (from saffron); neck torques (gold), akinaka (short swords), earrings of gold. Therefore, I daresay he would not wear the Elamite/Persian robe when mounted. On his head he would wear a form of a Persian hood (tiara or kyrbasia)  or  kitaris,  perhaps bound with a blue diadem with a white decoration (from Curtius' description in Historiae Alexandri Magni)
 Kandyses from Persepolis

Encyclopedia Iranica has a nice entry on the subject but in it strongly disclaims any connection between etymology of 'kantus' and Polish-Hungarian 'Kontusz' in their entry on 'candys' - so it may be so in etymological sense but clearly there is a connection between the Polish-Hungarian garments and Median kandys.

Sergey Yatsenko, in his work  ''Costume of the Ancient Eurasia (the Iranian-Speaking Peoples)''  Moscow 2006, writes that kandys was a long garment with sleeves longer than one's arms (sleeves like the Hungarian hussar jacket), that it had a turn down collar, and it had a pair or ribbons or strings at the neck/collar to tie it up on one's chest or shoulders. Sleeves of the Persians seemed to have been narrow whereas the sleeves of the Saka/Scythian kandys/riding coat were wide (vide UkokPlateau)

Furthermore dr Yatsenko writes that kandys was an ancient Indo-Iranian garment, and the ancestors of the Persians already had a special, thicker, parade-like fur coat. Persian riding coat seemed to have been a thinner one, a cloak with sleeves. But is was a garment worn by the Persian kings and warriors/nobility at hunt and at war (as described by Xenophon ).

Polish scholar of garments and costumes, Maria Gutkowska-Rychlewska, ventures to say (page 44-5), in her book the ''History of Costumes  '' Ossolineum  1968, that kandys, shown on the silver figurine (below in a line drawing), looks as if it was sewn from leather or even tanned skins, with the fur inside the garment. She adds that the garment was always shown with long narrow sleeves, and in some heavier kandyses, eg from Oxus treasure, they had the entire front lapels decorated with fur, while around the neck there was a hood or a collar. They wore kandys hanging it off the shoulders, with ribbons or strings tied in front, holding it on one's trunk. Light purple kandys might have been the particular king's coat.

Light kandys in Greek art

.

Famous satrap Datames who is thought to have reformed the Persian army in IV BC century.

So called Alexander Sarcophagus of Sidon:
..

.

.

Kandys is visible in the Partian art eg coins of various Parthian kings, we know from the description of Carrhae battle that  the eventually victorious Parthians and Sarmatians fighting for Rustam Suren that they had coats (perhaps leather ones) to cover their armor.

.

.

.

Commagene king's kandys

 Sassanian King Bahram II and figures wearing coats fastened with clasps

Sassanian grafito from Persepolis - showing a kandys on a horseman( more coats in the link to Calieri's article)

Roman riding coat from Egypt VII century AD

some primary sources (websites in the links) for the Achaemenid era:

Xenophon's Cyropaedia

 

[1.3.2] [...]Cyrus had recognized in Astyages his mother's father, being naturally an affectionate boy he at once kissed him, just as a person who had long lived with another and long loved him would do. Then he noticed that his grandfather was adorned with pencillings beneath his eyes, with rouge rubbed on his face, and with a wig of false hair--the common Median fashion. For all this is Median, and so are their purple tunics, and their mantles, the necklaces about their necks, and the bracelets on their wrists,

 

[8.1.40] We think, furthermore, that we have observed in Cyrus that he held the opinion that a ruler ought to excel his subjects not only in point of being actually better than they, but that he ought also to cast a sort of spell upon them. At any rate, he chose to wear the Median dress himself and persuaded his associates also to adopt it; for he thought that if any one had any personal defect, that dress would help to conceal it, and that it made the wearer look very tall and very handsome.

 

[8.3.13] Next after these Cyrus himself upon a chariot appeared in the gates wearing his tiara upright, a purple tunic shot with white (no one but the king may wear such a one), trousers of scarlet dye about his legs, and a mantle all of purple. He had also a fillet about his tiara, and his kinsmen also had the same mark of distinction, and they retain it even now. 

 

[8.3.14] His hands he kept outside his sleeves.1 With him rode a charioteer, who was tall, but neither in reality nor in appearance so tall as he; at all events, Cyrus looked much taller. 

 

[8.3.10] And all the cavalry-men had alighted and stood there beside their horses, and they all had their hands thrust through the sleeves of their doublets, just as they do even to this day when the king sees them. The Persians stood on the right side of the street, the others, the allies, on the left, and the chariots were arranged in the same way, half on either side.

 

Xenophon's Anabasis 

[8] But it seemed to him that they took their time with the work; accordingly, as if in anger, he directed the Persian nobles who accompanied him to take a hand in hurrying on the wagons. And then one might have beheld a sample of good discipline: they each threw off their purple cloaks where they chanced to be standing, and rushed, as a man would run to win a victory, down a most exceedingly steep hill, wearing their costly tunics and coloured trousers, some of them, indeed, with necklaces around their necks and bracelets on their arms; and leaping at once, with all this finery, into the mud, they lifted the wagons high and dry and brought them out more quickly than one would have thought possible.

 

Plutarch's Artaxerxes 

V. Again, when he was hunting once and Teribazus pointed out that the king's coat was rent, he asked him what was to be done. And when Teribazus replied, "Put on another for thyself, but give this one to me," the king did so, saying, "I give this to thee, Teribazus, but I forbid thee to wear it." Teribazus gave no heed to this command (being not a bad man, but rather light-headed and witless), and at once put on the king's coat, and decked himself with golden necklaces and women's ornaments of royal splendour. Everybody was indignant at this (for it was a forbidden thing); but the king merely laughed, and said: "I permit thee to wear the trinkets as a woman, and the robe as a madman.''

Some examples from the early modern era, they give a feel of how these riding coats hung on or off the shoulders:

Polish- Hungarian noblemen in their beautiful garments,

 ..

..

Grodno Hussars and their 'pelisses' - XIX century

*Images from Wikipedia Commons, Archive.org, Gallica and other digital sources, and my little sketch of a Roman riding coat from Egypt.

Cavalry horse - notes from Saumur circa 1919

Salve,
 from an instructor at the French Cavalry School at Saumur (now home of Cadre Noir), in the tradition of French XVIII century riding schools, including François Robichon de La Guérinière ), comes this depiction of a cavalry horse, translated into English and published in London in 1919.
Interestingly enough, the publication of this book on cavalry horsemanship coincided with the events of the last true cavalry war (eg Battle of Komarów  between Polish 1st Cavalry Division and Bolsheviks' Budyonny 1st Cavalry Army) that raged between newly restored Republic of Poland and Red Russia, and some fine Frenchmen took part in it on our Polish side, including general Charles de Gaulle:

 Cavalry Horsemanship and Horse Training by Lieut.-Col. Blacque Belair, 

chief instructor at the Cavalry School, Saumur France, London 1919



''THE QUALITIES OF A SADDLE HORSE.— 

The many demands made on an army horse require in him a great 
many different qualities. He has to carry a considerable 
weight,* travel long distances, and often at a fast 
pace ; he has therefore to possess endurance, hardiness, 
and handiness. These qualities are nearly always 
found in a horse which has a naturally good balance, 
good paces, breeding, and conformation. The naturally 
good balance, which is the first quality to look for in 
a riding horse, enables him to have constant control 
of himself, even with the weight of a rider on his 
back, to easily change from a slow pace to a fast one 
and vice versa; to be, in fact, supple in his movements, 
and easy to ride from the first. The theory of balance 
has not up to now been scientifically considered ; 
owing to the rapidity and frequency of a horse's 
movements, the study of balance or of conformation 
is practically limited to the study of the animal at 
rest. Anatomy is nothing but the study of organs 
from which life has been withdrawn. It is therefore 
only by riding a horse, that one can with any certainty 
decide on his merits. Experience, nevertheless, enables 
one to establish certain general rules, which fix the 
good points to be looked for in a young horse, and 
to form an opinion as to what he will grow into. 

If the horse has a wither running well into the back 
and rather higher than the quarters, the chest deep, 
and the girth groove well behind the elbows, the 
saddle will rest in a good position. The rider and his 
equipment being placed between the two ends of 
the balance, near the centre of gravity, will not disturb 
the equilibrium by overweighting the shoulders. This 
conformation, combined with well- shaped hocks, 
causes the horse to be easy to handle and control 
in a fight, and in the daily work the effort is distributed 
over the body, which consequently does not prematurely 
wear out. The paces ought to be such as will enable 
the horse to cover the greatest distance with the 
minimum of effort. This condition excludes high 
action, and places value on the level extended paces, 
which are the least fatiguing for both horse and rider. 

If the trot is more especially the pace for the road, 
the pace for fighting is the gallop. More than ever 
the actual necessities of war require the fast paces 
maintained for long distances. The army horse ought 
therefore to be above everything a galloper, and the 
relative length of the ischium is a characteristic of 
this aptitude. 

Handiness is indispensable in going through 
evolutions in open country, and it is acquired all the 
more promptly and completely in proportion as the 
horse has the necessary conformation, an open angle 
at the junction of the shoulder and arm, and powerful 
hindquarters. If the length and obliquity of the 
shoulder, combined with high withers, assists the 
balance, by enabling the rider's weight to be evenly 
distributed, it is the relative length and vertical 
position of the arm, still more than the direction of 
the shoulder, which gives freedom in the paces and 
handiness. The power of the hindquarters, which 
drive the horse forwards or backwards, gives the horse 
control of himself and of his balance ; it gives him 
the free use of his hocks and enables him to bring 
them more or less under his body ; it enables him to 
pull himself together, or to extend his i^aces according 
to circumstances ; in fact it puts it in his power to 
take any direction or speed he wishes. 

Moreover, if his confidence in his long and oblique 
shoulders enables the horse to land lightly over a 
fence without any apparent effort, it is the contraction 
and thrust from the hindquarters which gives the 
spring that carries him over. The riding horse should 
therefore have a large hip bone, projecting well at the 
side, and extending slightly above the spine, producing 
what is called the jumping bump. 

The perfect shape. — If one adds to the requirements just mentioned,
a forehand formed less by a useless length of neck than by the
addition of cervical vertebrae, and a wither running well into the back, 
one will have the frame of a riding horse in all its 
useful beauty, and in consequence, the type to look 
for. 

 One of the first qualities of a riding horse is, that 
he should carry his saddle in the proper place, that 
is to say, the girths should naturally pass well behind 
the elbows. 

The other points to look for are — 

A broad forehead and a well- set- on head. 

An open, intelligent eye. 

A well-proportioned and well- set -on neck. 

A high wither, running well into the back, and 
slightly higher than the quarters. 

An oblique shoulder. 

A long and straight arm. 

A forearm with large powerful muscles. 

A deep chest. 

A strong back. 

A wide loin with strong muscles behind the saddle. 

Well-shaped long quarters, slightly sloping and 
muscular. 

Large prominent hips. 

The muscles of the thighs and second thighs well 
developed and extending well down towards the 
hocks. 

Short, compact body with well- sprung ribs. 

Knees low down, large, wide, and flat. 

Cannon bones short and strong. 

The hocks large, straight, and low. 

The legs hard and clean, ending in four good 
symmetrical feet. 

A fine skin. 

A horse with these characteristics will not only be 
well balanced, but will move well and possess a free 
striding walk ; a trot starting from the shoulder, 
which is long, easy, and regular ; a gallop which is 
smooth, powerful, and extended. 

Quality. — This results from the constitution or 
power of endurance of the organs with regard to their 
work ; blood, which by the energy it gives enables the 
organism to resist the ordinary causes of collapse ; 
stamina or endurance in any kind of work. 

Courage, however, alone secures the maximum 
advantage of this quality. The horse's quality arises 
from various causes ; it depends upon good food from 
the earliest age, from the soil on which he has been 
reared containing lime, and so developing bone and 
strength of muscle ; but it depends chiefly on the 
breeding of the horse. It is indispensable therefore 
to secure the proper mating of the thoroughbred horse 
with the half-bred mare to transmit the blood, and to 
maintain the size.''

* the British Cavalry a man, weighing 10 stone 7 lbs, 
stripped, rides no less than 21 stone, in full marching order.* 

-------------------------
Polish cavalry of that war is beautifully described in a book by a Polish scholar and novelist Bohdan Królikowski title  '' Ułańskie lato (Uhlan Summer)'' (needs to be translated into English)

Sassanian horses in rock reliefs 2

Salve,
continuing with the Sassanian rock carvings and their portrayal in various media,   I will turn to the drawings of  Jean-Baptiste Eugène Napoléon Flandin, who together with architect Pascal Coste trekked across Persia during 1839-41  drawing and sketching and painting along the perilous journey.
These are some  of the fantastic archaeological drawings published in multi-volume edition (one volume of the text and 5 volumes of plates) titled ''Voyage en Perse'' in France in 1851.

The drawings and engraving that were made after the drawings to have been reproduced in the books are precise, archival quality, a swan song of such drawings, soon to be replaced by the photography
...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

 

...

Sassanian horses in rock reliefs 1

Salve,
while doing some research on the ancient Persian costumes and textiles, I went back to the images showing riders and horses at various rock/stone reliefs in Iran carved during the Sassanian Empire period.
 Hence, this entry in my blog has been born - bring as many images of the Sassanian horses as I can find in my collections (from various Wikipedia archives, photos and drawings), to have them 'corralled' in one place. Sometimes I find it useful to put all the images of one subject matter next to one another, perhaps some new ideas will have been born out of such compilation.

I am going to start with the drawings, and these are quite extraordinary, since they had been made by famous British traveler, diplomat and draughtsman  Sir Robert Ker Porter, during his travels across the Asia Minor, Turkish 'Arabia,' Georgia and Persia  almost 200 years ago - these drawings were published in a two volume account of the travels titled ''Travels in Georgia, Persia, Armenia, ancient Babylonia, &c. &c. : during the years 1817, 1818, 1819, and 1820''
London 1822.
Sir Robert executed these line drawings with lots of gusto and vibrant skill, and we can see some more detail of tack etc in his drawings than in the photos of the surviving monuments today. The horses are clearly visible(or better say as Sir Robert saw them carved in the rocks in his days): strong, graceful muscular bodies of warhorse, perhaps a Nisaya horse,  not unlike the horses shown in VII century Tang Chinese art, eg emperor Tang Tai Zong horses from his mausoleum resemble these a lot. The stallions are collected,
Finally  I say stallions because it is known since Herodotus that the Persians rode stallions, a particular equestrian custom they preserved until the modern era.

..

..

..

..

..

..

.. this one particularly interesting - it shows shah Ardashir, the founder of the Sassanian Empire,  and his son Shapur I

 This another traveler to the Iranian heartland - Eugene Flandin  tomorrow or part 2 if you will



..
On Livius.org  you can quietly pass the time exploring the Sassanian rock carvings, as the kindly scholar Jona Lendering organized them according the Sassanian kings' chronology.
Do enjoy

Galloping horse and reading

Salve,
I have been reluctant to draw on my Imac, although converted from OS to Linux Mint, these days as my eyes seem to quickly grow tired, even sore from the glare of the monitor/display, thus my digital output has been meagre.

On the other hand I have been reading, and to read my vast collection of digital books articles, from archive.org and Polish Digital Libraries, I bought this ebook reader that has Linux (very important to me) and is E-ink technology, reads djvue and it has been very relaxing reading ever since  -   PocketBook Pro 913
My reading as of lately:
The best biography of duke Jeremi Wisniowiecki, published 1933, by Władysław Tomkiewicz, (1899-1982).
My friend Michał  Kadrinazi Paradowski's book - Studia i Materiały do historii wojen ze Szwecją 1600-1635 (studies and Materials on history of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth wars againt Sweden 1600-1635.
 E. R. Chamberlin. The Sack of Rome - very interesting book of the infamous sacco di Roma AD1527 based on Italian sources, nota bene if you want to read the novelised and rather benign description you can Mika Waltari had a chapter in his book The Adventurer.
Fine book on German Chivalry via Holy Roman Empire and  Piotr z Gdańska (Peter von Danzig) fechtbuch manuals by  Jeffrey Hull, Knightly Duelling, I cannot honestly say I read it whole, as this type of scholarly work requires one to study the chapters and details slowly and with patience.
 Thanks to Witold Biernacki, great Polish military historian and wrtier, I have the vol I of monumental work by professor Marek Plewczyński: Wojny i wojskowosc polska w XVI wieku, 1500-1548 (Wars and Polish miltiary of 16th centurym 1500-1543). I also have volume II of the series, and waiting for the Vol III that finishes the series.
I received ''Jousting in Medieval and Renaissance Iberia'' by professor Noel Fallows, but I have not read it yet/
Also read some novels: P.C. Doherty-The Spies of Sobeck, Robert Crais -Suspect ( well, we have a 2 year old German shepherd female :) )M. H. Greenberg ed- After The King, Sories in Honor of J.R.R. Tolkien (an older book), and Jacek Komuda's two books, Samozwanie (tsar Dmitri Yoannovich) c, vol 3 and "Zborowski" (both dealing with the early  XVII century history of Polish wars with Muscovy, Polish Borderlands , Zaporozhian Cossacks, Tatars etc)
...and have been doing some translations from Bernardino de Mendoza book Comentarios de don Bernardino de Mendoça de lo sucedido en las guerras de los Payses Baxos: desde el año de 1567 hasta el de 1577 - it is a lot of fun with the old Spanish
Recently, 26 June, we had 718th anniversary of White Eagle in Red Field being adopted as the official emblem (coat of arms) Kingdom of Poland. It was our king Przemysł II and his circle, my favourite Archbishop of Poland Jakub Świnka, that adopted the White Eagle. I have been working on some drawings attempting to show king Przemysl in his regalia. 

Nota bene Polish historian and historical fiction writer Elżbieta Cherezińska wrote fantastic novel, Korona sniegu i krwi, (Crown of Snow and Blood), on duke and king Przemysł II and his contemporaries, especially duke Henryk Probus (here duke shown in the Mannese Codex) - I hope it will  be skilfully translated into English, French etc, since this novel is such a fine example of medieval Slavic romance, intrigue and a bit of fantasy too, and subejct not tackled since Karol Bunsch novels on the Piast Poland. 

until the next time

Taldy 2: Saka of Saryarka

Salve,
summer upon us, and I have been travelling and found no way to post  anything; all right, perhaps it is the sun and rain duo that has been fiercely lashing us... and strawberries season, straight from the strawberry bushes :)
Ad rem, there is a very nice article at the Karagandy Oblast Museum website on the Saka;
 and could not stop myself from copying the picture of the reconstructed Saka and his horse onto my blog. Obviously all copyrights to this image lay with the Museum etc

All of us who are interested in the history of horsemanship and horse tack, the reconstruction of the Saka King horse's bridle and reins should be most interesting , because it shows the third rein and its attachment (naturally leather, since the Saka were cattle herders and horse breeders and tanned leather as well as rawhide were most likely plentiful ). Also note the way the throatlatch is arranged in a similar fashion to the  the way we saw it portrayed in the Achaemenid stone reliefs of Persepolis Apadana -

Also this photo shows a little bit of the saddle. Looking at the horse: it is a very fine specimen, similar to the tall ones discovered in the Saka Kurgans of Pazyryk in the Ukok Plateau, Altai Mountains, and portrayed in the felt carpet discovered by S. I. Rudenko's team  in the Pazyryk Kurgan.

Museum Website

Hippotoxotai from Dura Europos' Mithraeum I

Salve,
 I have this weakness for the eastern neighbours of the Greeks and Romans, the Persians, Medes and Sakas.
Well, for a long while I have been looking at the images from the Syrian desert found at the fortress city of Dura Europos, that was a frontier outpost under the Parthians and in  AD165  Dura was captured permanently by the Romans (note that emperor Trajan's army captured Dura during his Parthian campaign), who kept it for about a century until the fateful siege of AD 256.  Then the Sassanian warrior-king Shapur's forces captured the fortress and thus ended its history and because it was left as a ruined site then the sands of time covered the ruins and preserved its rich culture to our times, early XX century.
Interesting scholarly article on the siege's technical aspects, including the death of some Roman defenders and how it came about.
On a lighter side you could travel to Dura during the siege via some historical fiction eg British writer Harry Sidebottom wrote his series' first novel Fire in the East )Warrior of Rome)   about the siege of Dura Europos, although he changed the name of the fortress and some topography.
Also, you can get a glimpse of Dura art and culture from this short museum exhibit film
A student made mini-documentary

At Dura,  during the previous rulers and under the Roman governance, there were various temples and religious sites -  Roman, Greek, Palmyrene, Jewish and even a small Christian church and one of them was the Mitraeum - excellent site here - place of worship of Mithraism. There, during the excavations, several paintings were discovered, including a painting of Mithra on horseback, circa AD 200.
In that linear painting, Mithra, the hunter, is riding a horse, hence a horse archer -  hippotoxotai. He is painted wearing a standard Parthian costume (well, he is not wearing the typical Median coat or kantus, like the two personages at the Dura Synagogue are painted wearing. )

My own quick sketch of the original mural painting

A sketch, in progress, of a warrior with his horse

A horse - that will eventually carry the shooting hippotoxotai, just shooting at some wooden target etc. ..

...

                                                                        ..

Saka - daily sketch

Salve amici and fellow travellers,
a quick sketch of a Scythian/Saka with a horse, somewhere on the  plains of Eurasian Steppe
...

...
Also, a sketch in progress, one abandoned a while back , and now I am going to work on it some more - these are Saka of the Altai's Ukok Plateau etc, 400-200 BC (after the Pazyryk finds etc)

...

Aristotélēs on Horses - part 2

Salve,
today is Corpus Christi - one of the most important liturgical feast for all Roman Catholics - may they have quiet and peacefull processions!
 In Poland  Corpus Christi has bee celebrated since the 1320s; during the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth period the most important feast was held at the royal city of Poznan, in Greater Poland (Wielkopolska) . When I was a kid my grandmother Natalia, God bless her soul, used to take me to the festivities (eg 2012 video -part 1)  (part 2)centered around the Assumption of Virgin Mary and Saint Nicolas Cathedral in ancient city of Łowicz in the south-western Masovia (Mazowsze). Besides the holy Jasna Góra Monastery  this is my favorite religious place in Poland.

Continuing from yesterday, let us go back to the great truth seeker Aristotle and his opus:

History of Animals, Book VI,
                              Horses, mules and asses etc:

''In the case of horses, the stallion and the mare are first fitted for breeding purposes when two years old. Instances, however, of such early maturity are rare, and their young are exceptionally small and weak; the ordinary age for sexual maturity is three years, and from that age to twenty the two sexes go on improving in the quality of their offspring. The mare carries her foal for eleven months, and casts it in the twelfth. It is not a fixed number of days that the stallion takes to impregnate the mare; it may be one, two, three, or more. An ass in covering will impregnate more expeditiously than a stallion. The act of intercourse with horses is not laborious as it is with oxen. In both sexes the horse is the most salacious of animals next after the human species. The breeding faculties of the younger horses may be stimulated beyond their years if they be supplied with good feeding in abundance. The mare as a rule bears only one foal; occasionally she has two, but never more. A mare has been known to cast two mules; but such a circumstance was regarded as unnatural and portentous.
The horse then is first fitted for breeding purposes at the age of two and a half years, but achieves full sexual maturity when it has ceased to shed teeth, except it be naturally infertile; it must be added, however, that some horses have been known to impregnate the mare while the teeth were in process of shedding.
The horse has forty teeth. It sheds its first set of four, two from the upper jaw and two from the lower, when two and a half years old. After a year’s interval, it sheds another set of four in like manner, and another set of four after yet another year’s interval; after arriving at the age of four years and six months it sheds no more. An instance has occurred where a horse shed all his teeth at once, and another instance of a horse shedding all his teeth with his last set of four; but such instances are very rare. It consequently happens that a horse when four and a half years old is in excellent condition for breeding purposes.

The older horses, whether of the male or female, are the more generatively productive. Horses will cover mares from which they have been foaled and mares which they have begotten; and, indeed, a troop of horses is only considered perfect when such promiscuity of intercourse occurs. Scythians use pregnant mares for riding when the embryo has turned rather soon in the womb, and they assert that thereby the mothers have all the easier delivery. Quadrupeds as a rule lie down for parturition, and in consequence the young of them all come out of the womb sideways. The mare, however, when the time for parturition arrives, stands erect and in that posture casts its foal.
The horse in general lives for eighteen or twenty years; some horses live for twenty-five or even thirty, and if a horse be treated with extreme care, it may last on to the age of fifty years; a horse, however, when it reaches thirty years is regarded as exceptionally old. The mare lives usually for twenty-five years, though instances have occurred of their attaining the age of forty. The male is less long-lived than the female by reason of the sexual service he is called on to render; and horses that are reared in a private stable live longer than such as are reared in troops. The mare attains her full length and height at five years old, the stallion at six; in another six years the animal reaches its full bulk, and goes on improving until it is twenty years old. The female, then, reaches maturity more rapidly than the male, but in the womb the case is reversed, just as is observed in regard to the sexes of the human species; and the same phenomenon is observed in the case of all animals that bear several young.

The mare is said to suckle a mule-foal for six months, but not to allow its approach for any longer on account of the pain it is put to by the hard tugging of the young; an ordinary foal it allows to suck for a longer period.
Horse and mule are at their best after the shedding of the teeth. After they have shed them all, it is not easy to distinguish their age; hence they are said to carry their mark before the shedding, but not after. However, even after the shedding their age is pretty well recognized by the aid of the canines; for in the case of horses much ridden these teeth are worn away by attrition caused by the insertion of the bit; in the case of horses not ridden the teeth are large and detached, and in young horses they are sharp and small.
The male of the horse will breed at all seasons and during its whole life; the mare can take the horse all its life long, but is not thus ready to pair at all seasons unless it be held in check by a halter or some other compulsion be brought to bear. There is no fixed time at which intercourse of the two sexes cannot take place; and accordingly intercourse may chance to take place at a time that may render difficult the rearing of the future progeny. In a stable in Opus there was a stallion that used to serve mares when forty years old: his fore legs had to be lifted up for the operation.

Mares first take the horse in the spring-time. After a mare has foaled she does not get impregnated at once again, but only after a considerable interval; in fact, the foals will be all the better if the interval extend over four or five years. It is, at all events, absolutely necessary to allow an interval of one year, and for that period to let her lie fallow. A mare, then, breeds at intervals; a she-ass breeds on and on without intermission. Of mares some are absolutely sterile, others are capable of conception but incapable of bringing the foal to full term; it is said to be an indication of this condition in a mare, that her foal if dissected is found to have other kidney-shaped substances round about its kidneys, presenting the appearance of having four kidneys.

After parturition the mare at once swallows the after-birth, and bites off the growth, called the ‘hippomanes’, that is found on the forehead of the foal. This growth is somewhat smaller than a dried fig; and in shape is broad and round, and in colour black. If any bystander gets possession of it before the mare, and the mare gets a smell of it, she goes wild and frantic at the smell. And it is for this reason that venders of drugs and simples hold the substance in high request and include it among their stores.
If an ass cover a mare after the mare has been covered by a horse, the ass will destroy the previously formed embryo.

(Horse-trainers do not appoint a horse as leader to a troop, as herdsmen appoint a bull as leader to a herd, and for this reason that the horse is not steady but quick-tempered and skittish.)
            Asses The ass of both sexes is capable of breeding, and sheds its first teeth at the age of two and a half years; it sheds its second teeth within six months, its third within another six months, and the fourth after the like interval. These fourth teeth are termed the gnomons or age-indicators.

A she-ass has been known to conceive when a year old, and the foal to be reared. After intercourse with the male it will discharge the genital sperm unless it be hindered, and for this reason it is usually beaten after such intercourse and chased about. It casts its young in the twelfth month. It usually bears but one foal, and that is its natural number, occasionally however it bears twins. The ass if it cover a mare destroys, as has been said, the embryo previously begotten by the horse; but, after the mare has been covered by the ass, the horse supervening will not spoil the embryo. The she-ass has milk in the tenth month of pregnancy. Seven days after casting a foal the she-ass submits to the male, and is almost sure to conceive if put to the male on this particular day; the same result, however, is quite possible later on. The she-ass will refuse to cast her foal with any one looking on or in the daylight and just before foaling she has to be led away into a dark place. If the she-ass has had young before the shedding of the index-teeth, she will bear all her life through; but if not, then she will neither conceive nor bear for the rest of her days. The ass lives for more than thirty years, and the she-ass lives longer than the male.

           Mules When there is a cross between a horse and a she-ass or a jackass and a mare, there is much greater chance of a miscarriage than where the commerce is normal. The period for gestation in the case of a cross depends on the male, and is just what it would have been if the male had had commerce with a female of his own kind. In regard to size, looks, and vigour, the foal is more apt to resemble the mother than the sire. If such hybrid connexions be continued without intermittence, the female will soon go sterile; and for this reason trainers always allow of intervals between breeding times. A mare will not take the ass, nor a she ass the horse, unless the ass or she-ass shall have been suckled by a mare; and for this reason trainers put foals of the she-ass under mares, which foals are technically spoken of as ‘mare-suckled’. These asses, thus reared, mount the mares in the open pastures, mastering them by force as the stallions do.

A mule is fitted for commerce with the female after the first shedding of its teeth, and at the age of seven will impregnate effectually; and where connexion has taken place with a mare, a ‘hinny’ has been known to be produced. After the seventh year it has no further intercourse with the female. A female mule has been known to be impregnated, but without the impregnation being followed up by parturition. In Syrophoenicia she-mules submit to the mule and bear young; but the breed, though it resembles the ordinary one, is different and specific. The hinny or stunted mule is foaled by a mare when she has gone sick during gestation, and corresponds to the dwarf in the human species and to the after-pig or scut in swine; and as is the case with dwarfs, the sexual organ of the hinny is abnormally large.

The mule lives for a number of years. There are on record cases of mules living to the age of eighty, as did one in Athens at the time of the building of the temple; this mule on account of its age was let go free, but continued to assist in dragging burdens, and would go side by side with the other draught-beasts and stimulate them to their work; and in consequence a public decree was passed forbidding any baker driving the creature away from his bread-tray. The she-mule grows old more slowly than the mule. Some assert that the she-mule menstruates by the act of voiding her urine, and that the mule owes the prematurity of his decay to his habit of smelling at the urine. So much for the modes of generation in connexion* with these animals.
Breeders and trainers can distinguish between young and old quadrupeds. If, when drawn back from the jaw, the skin at once goes back to its place, the animal is young; if it remains long wrinkled up, the animal is old.

There is found in Syria a so-called mule * . It is not the same as the cross between the horse and ass, but resembles it just as a wild ass resembles the domesticated congener, and derives its name from the resemblance. Like the wild ass, this wild mule is remarkable for its speed. The animals of this species interbreed with one another; and a proof of this statement may be gathered from the fact that a certain number of them were brought into Phrygia in the time of Pharnaces, the father of Pharnabazus, and the animal is there still. The number originally introduced was nine, and there are three there at the present day.

                                                           ----
* original spelling
*I think this is an onager
---
illustrations/pictures are from wikipedia, except for the last one.

Aristotélēs on Horses - fragments from 'History of Animals'

Salve,
I like Aristotélēs (Aristole) and his writings, and browsing around his History of Animals (written circa 330 BC) I extracted some parts related to horses.
Today, I will provide you with the bulk of his horse 'quotations' from the translation by D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson   and tomorrow the parts of chapter 22, 23, and 24 from Book VI of the same 'History of Animals.'


Aristotle was a keen observer, and in his search for truth and reality  he strove to understand the world around him, and his notes on animals are first rate observations  to be repeated, quoted or commented by various writers for the next 2000 years or so.  I will quote him here, with a great pleasure :)
Well, let us begin, just note that these are Arystotle's observation (IV c BC) on the biology of  horses and alike, so perhaps more interesting to those into the breeding or history of science etc. So if you are brave and willing, plunge in.



Book VI

The statements made in regard to the pairing of the sexes apply partly to the particular kinds of animal and partly to all in general. It is common to all animals to be most excited by the desire of one sex for the other and by the pleasure derived from copulation. The female is most cross-tempered just after parturition, the male during the time of pairing; for instance, stallions at this period bite one another, throw their riders, and chase them.[...]

Of female animals the mare is the most sexually wanton, and next in order comes the cow. In fact, the mare is said to go a-horsing [hippomania]; and the term derived from the habits of this one animal serves as a term of abuse applicable to such females of the human species as are unbridled in the way of sexual appetite. This is the common phenomenon as observed in the sow when she is said to go a-boaring. The mare is said also about this time to get wind-impregnated if not impregnated by the stallion, and for this reason in Crete they never remove the stallion from the mares; for when the mare gets into this condition she runs away from all other horses. The mares under these circumstances fly invariably either northwards or southwards, and never towards either east or west. When this complaint is on them they allow no one to approach, until either they are exhausted with fatigue or have reached the sea. Under either of these circumstances they discharge a certain substance 'hippomanes', the title given to a growth on a new-born foal; this resembles the sow-virus, and is in great request amongst women who deal in drugs and potions. About horsing time the mares huddle closer together, are continually switching their tails, their neigh is abnormal in sound, and from the sexual organ there flows a liquid resembling genital sperm, but much thinner than the sperm of the male. It is this substance that some call hippomanes, instead of the growth found on the foal; they say it is extremely difficult to get as it oozes out only in small drops at a time. Mares also, when in heat, discharge urine frequently, and frisk with one another. Such are the phenomena connected with the horse.

Mares and kine* alike, when in heat, indicate the fact by the upraising of their genital organs, and by continually voiding urine. Further, kine mount the bulls, follow them about; and keep standing beside them. The younger females both with horses and oxen are the first to get in heat; and their sexual appetites are all the keener if the weather warm and their bodily condition be healthy. Mares, when clipt of their coat [? ] , have the sexual feeling checked, and assume a downcast drooping appearance. *

The stallion recognizes by the scent the mares that form his company [herd, harem], even though they have been together only a few days before breeding time: if they get mixed up with other mares, the stallion bites and drives away the interlopers. He feeds apart, accompanied by his own troop of mares. Each stallion has assigned to him about thirty mares or even somewhat more; when a strange stallion approaches, he huddles his mares into a close ring[circle], runs round them, then advances to the encounter of the newcomer; if one of the mares make a movement, he bites her and drives her back.

Of all quadrupeds the mare is the most easily delivered of its young, exhibits the least amount of discharge after parturition, and emits the least amount of blood; that is to say, of all animals in proportion to size. With kine and mares menstruation usually manifests itself at intervals of two, four, and six months; but, unless one be constantly attending to and thoroughly acquainted with such animals, it is difficult to verify the circumstance, and the result is that many people are under the belief that the process never takes place with these animals at all.

With mules menstruation never takes place, but the urine of the female is thicker than the urine of the male.

Book VII

Of all animals the woman and the mare are most inclined to receive the commerce of the male during pregnancy; while all other animals when they are pregnant avoid the male, save those in which the phenomenon of superfoetation occurs, such as the hare. Unlike that animal, the mare after once conceiving cannot be rendered pregnant again, but brings forth one foal only, at least as a general rule;

Book VIII

Horses, mules, and asses feed on corn and grass, but are fattened chiefly by drink. Just in proportion as beasts of burden drink water, so will they more or less enjoy their food, and a place will give good or bad feeding according as the water is good or bad. Green corn, while ripening, will give a smooth coat; but such corn is injurious if the spikes are too stiff and sharp. The first crop of clover is unwholesome, and so is clover over which ill-scented water runs; for the clover is sure to get the taint of the water. Cattle like clear water for drinking; but the horse in this respect resembles the camel, for the camel likes turbid and thick water, and will never drink from a stream until he has trampled it into a turbid condition.

Book IX

When mares with their colts pasture together in the same field, if one dam dies the others will take up the rearing of the colt. In point of fact, the mare appears to be singularly prone by nature to maternal fondness; in proof whereof a barren mare will steal the foal from its dam, will tend it with all the solicitude of a mother, but, as it will be unprovided with mother's milk, its solicitude will prove fatal to its charge.

                                                               ---------

 *

archaic English plural for 'cow's'

 

*  

in other translation I read there is a different interpretation of this fragment - namely: ' if the manes of the mares are cut, their desires become weaker, and they are rendered more gentle'