The Majesty of the Horse: An Illustrated History. Tamsin Pickeral
popular and led to a demand for suitable horses, ones that were agile and noble, while also having a calm and forgiving temperament. The Iberian breeds fit this mold perfectly. The most famous of the Riding Schools and the oldest still in existence is the Spanish Riding School of Vienna, which was established in 1572 as part of the Hapsburg Court. The school uses only the regal Lipizzaner horse, bred especially at the Piber Stud near Vienna. These magnificent white horses are exercised daily in the baroque splendor that is the Winter Riding Hall, built in 1735.
The pinnacle of the Riding School endeavors lay in the exercises above the ground, or the airs above the ground. These maneuvers were loosely based on those used on the battlefield, and the Iberian breeds that excelled in battle also excelled in these exercises. There were originally a number of these movements, but today only three are performed: the levade, the courbette, and the capriole. In the levade, the horse must sit back on its haunches with its front legs bent; for the courbette the horse maintains this position and springs forward on its hind legs; and to achieve the capriole the horse must then leap from this position into the air vigorously extending its hind legs out behind it. The agility of the Iberian breeds is second to none, and it is in this respect that these horses also surpass others in the dangerous arena of bullfighting. The Iberian or Spanish horse is the mount of choice for the Spanish and Portuguese cowboys because it is able to move swiftly and smoothly after cattle in the working place and nimbly avoid the bull in the arena. In fact, many of the exercises performed in the bullring are an extension of those seen in the Riding School.
The development of gunpowder weapons from the mid-sixteenth century saw a decrease in the deployment of heavy cavalry and a move toward professional infantry-led armies. The Hungarian Hussars were among the most famous and effective of light cavalry units. They relied heavily on their fast horses and were known for their frequent use of “lightning strikes,” sudden and deadly surprise attacks on the enemy. Hungary has an established tradition of breeding top quality horses that dates back to the Magyar horsemen of the ninth century, when they settled in the Carpathian basin. Through subsequent centuries, Hungary built a reputation for producing the finest horses for use in the military, based on native stock with heavy Arabian influence. During the eighteenth century, this was centered on the studs of Bábolna and Mezohegyes. From Bábolna came the Hungarian-bred Shagya Arabian; Mezohegyes produced the Nonius and Furioso, and from the former Kisber Stud came the Kisber Felver, developed during the mid-nineteenth century.
Although the costs of supporting a heavy cavalry were prohibitive, it was still deployed occasionally. Termed cuirassiers, the “modern heavy cavalry,” which replaced the knights of the Middle Ages, was seen in French, British, Russian, and German armies to the twentieth century, although in small numbers. As armies became more organized, specific horses were bred as army riding horses, commonly called “remounts.” The Russian Don, for example, earned great fame during the Russian/French wars in the winter of 1812. Napoleon’s army and horses could not withstand the Russian climate; those that survived fled back to Paris, pursued by the Russians on their wily Don horses, which had thrived.
The Boer War (1899–1902), fought between the British Empire and the Dutch-speaking Boers of the South African Republic and the Orange Free State, saw horrific loss of equine life, thought to number approximately 400,000 horses on the British side alone. These included the native South African horses, the Boer Horse and Basuto, British horses, and huge numbers of the Australian Waler. World War I also had a devastating effect on many horse breeds and resulted in the death of millions of horses. However, they were used to great effect on the Eastern Front, where the Australian Waler was deployed in its thousands. The Indian Marwari fought bravely at the Charge of Mughar Ridge at Haifa, Israel, 1917, but were also heavily relied on across the Western Front where they were used as pack animals, for transportation, draft purposes, and fighting. Significantly, too, the horse was used by nearly all the nations involved, including, but not limited to, Germany, Russia, Poland, Japan, Turkey, North Africa, Australia, France, and the United States. Horses were used again during World War II, although less so in the face of improved vehicles.
The spread and exchange of breeds from east to west during wars and conflict is hugely significant in relation to the development of modern horse breeds. However, regardless of the specific breed, the feats of bravery and heroism exhibited by horses during warfare are quite extraordinary, and indeed humbling. There are many honorary monuments scattered across the globe that pay homage to our most loyal and indispensable friend.
NORTH AFRICAN BARB
PREHISTORIC – NORTH AFRICA – COMMON
HEIGHT
14–15.2 h.h.
APPEARANCE
An attractive head with a ram-like profile and almond-shaped eyes. Neck is well-arched and shoulders are sloped and powerful. Withers are well-defined, the back is short, and the croup is sloped with a low-set tail. Chest is wide and hindquarters are muscular.
COLOR
Gray, bay, brown, black, or chestnut.
APTITUDE
Riding, dressage, classical dressage, endurance, cavalry
THERE ARE FEW HORSES AS ANCIENT, mysterious, and important as the North African Barb (also known as the Moroccan Barb), one of the foundation breeds for many of the modern light horse breeds. Because of the Barb’s very great antiquity, there is little documented history and a great deal of myth surrounding its origins, but what is clear is the enormous role it has played in the development of other breeds.
The Barb is said to have originated in North Africa in prehistoric times, but there were no indigenous horse breeds there, so its ancestors must have come from the east or traveled across prehistoric land bridges from the Iberian Peninsula. There is a widely debated connection to the Arabian horse, with some sources citing the Barb as the ancestor to the Arabian. Considering the dominant physical differences between these two breeds, differences with which they stamp their progeny, this seems unlikely. The two breeds’ most distinctive trait is their unique morphology: the Barb is typified by its ram-like profile, sloping croup, and low-set tail; the Arabian is almost the opposite and displays a concave profile, level croup, and high-set tail. What is more probable is that the Barb and the Arabian shared a similar prehistoric heritage and then developed their particular characteristics as a result of being bred differently in different geographic locations.
The Barb shares similarities with the postulated Horse Type 3, a prehistoric desert animal whose nearest modern equivalent would be the Akhal Teke. These desert horses that lived in Central Asia—the ancient Turkmenian, the now-extinct Tarpan, the Mongolian, and the Caspian, with its very Arabian characteristics—must have formed the early basis for the Barb in some combination. It can be conjectured that the ancient superhorse used by the Persians, the Nisean, might also have contributed to the Barb. The Nisean, which is thought to have been related to the ancient Turkmenian, often exhibited the classic ram-like profile seen in the Barb and the horses of the Iberian Peninsula. There is further speculation that the primitive Sorraia, which could have traveled from the Iberian Peninsula into North Africa, also contributed to the Barb, and the two breeds also share similarities in the shape of their heads.
Warring nomadic peoples like the Hykos and the Hittites traveled with their horses from Central Asia down into the Middle East in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries B.C.E. Nomadic tribes spread across North Africa, and there was a great exchange of equine blood, particularly in Algeria, Morocco, and Libya. The Barb played a central role in these cultures and was widely used as a warhorse because of its incredible speed and endurance. The horses were particularly prized by the Numidians, semi-nomadic Berber tribes who occupied part of Algeria and Tunisia from around the second century B.C.E. The Numidian riders were famed for their great skills and were said to ride their horses with no restraints, using just a piece of string around the horses’ necks