The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1892-05-12
SOLOMON AS A HoRseMAN.
NO wns One of the Earliest breeders OF
4 the Noble Animal

NO WAS One OF the Earliest breeders OF
4 the Noble Animal
BY great many people Arabia is
supposed to be the home Of the horse.
From ancient Roman, Grecian and jew
Eh history we readily learn, says q
writer in the Western Sportsman, that
1ne horse was not known in Arnbia
lDng after he was a common factor in
thc life of southern Europe. The horse
was scarcely known TO the Hebrews
prior to the days of Solomon, that
worthy and illustrious sovereign having
been brought into closer contact with
the horse by his marriage to a daugh-
ter of Pharoah, the reigning king of
Egypt, whose gorgeous wedding outfit
was supplemented by u large number Of
elegant horses, adapted alike to the scrv-
ice of war and the chase.
The appearance Of those beautiful an
hnals, as they sped swiftly along the
streets of Jerusalem. excited the envy
of a few Jealous princes, but added to
Solomon's popularity with the masses
After his marriage with the Egyptian
princess, Solomon began buying horses
from his father-in-law, and so rapidly
did he multiply them by purchase and
breeding that those kept for his own
rse required, as it is written: "Four
thousand stables and forty thousand
stalls" Hence, when honored by o
visit from the beautiful Queen of Sheba,
bringing with her "camels bearing
spices and very much gold and precious
stones," it was doubtless in contelnpla-
tion of his magnificent stud Of horses
and chariots, kept for the amusement of
his wives, as well as for display of power
and nagnifcence, that her majesty ex-
claimed in the fullness of admiration:
~Howbeit I believed not the words un-
til | came and mine eyes had seen it.;
and, behold, the half was not told me-
We find the best of cavalry in ancient
times. The Greeks ran against Sc
1ious problem in the Persian light horse
when they first trod the soil of Asia
Minor They were nothing like so
good horsemen us the Asiatics until
Alexandcr's companion showed them
wtat drill could do, and the Roman was
still less apt. Philip, of Macedon, first
utilized the excellent material Of the
Thessalian plains and organized cav
airy which, from its maneuvcrs and
fighting, must have consisted of ad-
mirable horsemen. The ancients rode
without saddles or stirrups on blanket
or pad, or bareback, and in spite of this
fnct, or perhaps by reason of it, rode ex-
tre,nely well. 1t is wonderful what
1cats of military horsemanship the bare
back rider could perform in the age of
what we might call gymnastic cques-
trianisIn.
Nothing but the knowledge of our
Old-tiIne Indian enables us to credit the
historical accounts of his agility and
skill. When centuries later saddles
carne into use, there grew up two schools
of ridinC-that of the mailed warrior,
whose iron armor well chimed in with
hi, tongues on the wall"-scatcd in his
packed saddle, and that of the Oriental
whose nose and knees all but touched.
Why the eastern rider clings to his ex-
trcrocly short lcathcrs is hard to say,
nnlcss it be to place him the higher
above his horse, and therefore to make
him the moro imposing when he stands
up in his stirrups to brandish scimitar
or na1chlocli. Yet he is wonderful
rider, this same Oriental, as, indeed, is
every man who from youth up is the
companion of the horse