A Year of Horse Books: Xenophon On Horsemanship - reviewed by Katherine Roberts
Xenophon grew up in Athens and served in the Greek cavalry a few years before the birth of Alexander the Great. In his retirement, he wrote what is considered to be the first book on horsemanship, which I found useful when I was writing "I am the Great Horse", although I don't claim to have read it in the original ancient Greek! Fortunately translations exist, and I chose 'The Art of Horsemanship' translated from by M H Morgan for its layman's approach to the text rather than being aimed exclusively at scholars of the period. The Art of Horsemanship This neat little book includes Xenophon's original Treatise on Horsemanship, together with an essay on the Greek Riding Horse, closing with a chapter describing the characteristics of a good horse according to 10 prominent Greek and Roman writers of the time. A series of notes at the end provide fascinating detail to the equestrian, such as the type of bit used in the horse's mouth for everyday riding (smo...