Horse Pendant in Silver 925 and Zircons

The earliest form of domestication of the horse dates back to the dawn of time: the initial contact with prehistoric hunter-gatherers, for whom the horse was a simple prey like others. Needless to say, things changed in a short time; when man realized he was confronted with an animal that, if trained, could become docile enough to be ridden, the story was never the same.

The first breeders were able to take advantage not only of his physical strength or his agility, but also of a strong and unexpected emotional bond that until then only the "wolf-dogs" had been able to give. On the other hand, the horse immediately demonstrated that it could be useful to man even in the most disparate activities, from hunting to war, from breeding to agriculture, soon becoming a companion and guardian of man, both in work and in battle.

It is not difficult to understand, at this point, how for ancient men the horse must necessarily have divine connotations within itself: a typically shamanic animal, the horse immediately became a messenger of the Hereafter, an auxiliary and ecstatic spirit with which to undertake mystical journeys and It is not strange that in the classical-Roman culture it was always a horse that pulled the "chariot of heaven" led by Apollo, Mithra or the prophet Elijah.

The first historical peoples to consistently introduce their use were the Hittite Indo-Europeans, who imported them from Eurasia to Mesopotamia. Following this, the Assyrians, Babylonians and Egyptians began the first "crossings" with particular care, in search of new species with more useful characteristics for specific cases: it was thus that the horse soon became different from how it had once been , wild, free and indeed much smaller.

Centuries of selection created new species with strength and speed, ever more majestic, intelligent and yet docile to commands.

Far from playing the role of mere work tools, horses more and more "pure" became the protagonists of a particular relationship of symbiosis with man, characterized by fidelity and dedication, both in daily activities and in the most dangerous wars. It was precisely the use of war that brought the value of the horse and its social consideration to the apex even among Greeks and Romans, as the numerous epic and artistic works clearly demonstrate and in this sense the Homeric legend of the Trojan Horse speaks clearly.

And so the noble animal, accompanying the deeds of his knight as a protective spirit, ended up immortalized in the art of all ancient peoples: engraved on bas-reliefs, carved in marble and cast in bronze, painted on the walls and on the tableware .

In the warrior culture, both barbaric and classic, the horse is one with its rider, because it is also the architect of the latter's victories, as well as his daily battle companion. This close and continuous phenomenon of anthropization soon led to recognize in the horse, as indeed also in other animals, vices and virtues of men. The Greek Artemidorus, who lived in the second century AD, wrote in his Oneirocritica that dreaming of " riding a racehorse that obeys the reins and the rider well " was a favorable omen of a future union in marriage with a woman.

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