Finding Horses Where I can

This weekend was another one of those weekends that I just needed to get out and do something. I wrote about it on my other blog, Country Girl in Chicago. We went to the Oriental Institute of Chicago. A fabulous museum and I managed to find horses.
This was a very large relief from Assyria. There were several reliefs from this time period that I found very fascinating. 

  The next three are all from the same relief. They are beautiful and portray nobles hunting lions. This first one gave me a bit of pause. I was unsure why the driving was using three reins. On one of my favorite horse sites someone pointed out that there are three plumes. I had missed that. So this chariot is being pulling by three horses.





This one is actually behind the first one. So these riders are following the chariot. Notice no saddles. Below you can get a bit of a better view of the bridle and the  tack that was on the horses. Looks something similar to some arab costumes in the  modern day arab shows.

  

Here we have moved on to Persia or Iran. The bridle here is rather interesting as in the bit that was used. If you look at the nasty bit below you will immediately feel sorry for the horses of this time period. It is really rather hideous. The center ring was for the reins, the holes above and below the center ring are what held the bride to the bit, cheek pieces basically.











This bit really is nasty. The mouth piece is lined with lots of metal points.

These final photos show the first saddle that uses a tree. It is a Nubian saddle and the next photo shows how it is used.










Well that sums the horsey part of my trip to the Oriental Institute of Chicago. I really love to look at the history of the horse and how he has worked along side of man. How we treated him and what his role was.