Mankind has been horseback riding for over 6,000 years and it has had a tremendous influence on the development of most of the world’s great cultures. In many places horses are a symbol of the elite. Kings and generals liked to have their portraits painted while in the saddle astride magnificent horses galloping with streaming manes and tails. Of course men hunted horses for their meat long before they were domesticated and ridden. Some scholars maintain that for millennia they were kept simply for their meat, milk and hides before anyone though to ride them. Some also think that the horse, which originated in North America, was hunted to extinction here by Native Americans some 10,000 years ago. Fortunately that did not happen until after some of them had managed to migrate to Asia, otherwise we would never have had our equine friends and civilization would have been held back for a very long time.

Riders today use horses mainly for vacations, but horseback riding was almost a necessity until a hundred years ago if people wanted to move themselves or their freight quickly and travel by water was not an option. Horses were used also in the elaborate canal systems of Europe which were so vital to the economy before the advent of the railways.