File:The origin and influence of the thoroughbred horse (1905) (14780828535).jpg

Identifier: origininfluenceo00ridg (find matches)
Title: The origin and influence of the thoroughbred horse
Year: 1905 (1900s)
Authors: Ridgeway, William, Sir, 1853-1926
Subjects: Horses
Publisher: Cambridge, England : University Press
Contributing Library: Webster Family Library of Veterinary Medicine
Digitizing Sponsor: Tufts University

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he Assyrianhorsemen are frequently mentioned. Thus Ezekiel^ describesthe Assyrians as clothed in blue, captains and rulers, all ofthem desirable young men, horsemen riding upon horses.Again, Holofernes^, the general of Nabuchodonosor, is stated tohave had no fewer than twelve thousand archers on horseback.On the monuments the rider is represented as seated on the ^ Layard, op. cit., pp. 237-8. xxiii. 6. 3 Judith ii. 15. in) AND HISTORIC TIMES 197 back (Fig. 64) of the horse, which is only adorned with a clotheven when led behind the chariot of the king. Layard thoughtthat the horses of the Assyrian bas-reliefs were evidentlydrawn from the finest models, and the Assyrian sculptor hasnot altooether been unsuccessful in their delineation. Thehead is small and well shaped, the nostrils large and high,the neck arched, the body long, and the legs slender andsinewy. The prophet Habakkuk^ characterises the horsesof the Chaldees as swifter than the leopards and more fiercethan eveninsf wolves.
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Fig. 64. Assyrian Lion-huut. As the connection of Assyria with Armenia was very close,it is probable that the horses which the Assyrians rode anddrove, and the possession of which was a chief factor in thestory of Assyrian conquest, were largely supplied by Armenia,which was sending horses as far as Tyre in the seventh centuryB.C., and which supplied the Persian monarchs, and later stillthe Parthian kings, with vast numbers of excellent horses.But as we shall see presently, it is more than probable thatthe best horses of Assyria had in their veins some of the bloodfrom which both the Arabian horse and our thoroughbreds are 1 Nineveh and its Remains (ed. 18G7), pp. 234-5. 198 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC (CH. derived. A recent writer has endeavoured to show that the asseson an Assyrian monument (p. 49) closely resemble Prejvalskyshorse. But, as I have already pointed out that the Asiatichorse is probably derived from Prejvalskys horse, or ratherfrom a common stock, we need not assume that

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