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I started a thread about this a while back. None old the old roman, greek or egyption pottery shows horses wearing blinkers and somehow I can’t think roman war chariot horses were sprititless dogmeat.
This doesn’t deserve it’s own thread but this looks creepy does it actually work? http://www.ebay.com/sch/Equestrian-/3153/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=horse+harness[/QUOTE]
Link only showed a list of Ebay harness for sale. What specific detail did you want us to see?
Chariot horses fall into a catagory, like logging horses, chuck wagon racing, doing a specific job, in their own setting.
There was a recent rebuilding of a chariot, from ancient pictures, writings, in as true a recreation as they could manage, hand made parts, at a local College. Their research showed the animals pulling it, were about 11-12H equines. A local Driving Club member was contacted to find a Pair to pull it, and she went down and drove the chariot, gave the kids building it rides to see how it worked. I understand everyone had a great time. Hitching and driving the chariot made the kids VIEWPOINT of how things were done, in building, possibilities of the hitched vehicle, change dramatically. Made things come to life for them in relating to all the written records they had reviewed. Even with such small equines, the speed of travel was increased incredibly. Looking at as a war machine, speeding across fighting ground, changed the whole game.
However, those chariot animals were “just animals” who were to serve the people driving them. There wasn’t a lot of working around horse issues, equipment was severe to keep control, training was minimal. You could “always” just run them until they stopped if you couldn’t hold them with muscle. Going from ponies to horse size (14+H) they still were not enormous for physical control. You COULD wrestle them into submission, keep them somewhat controlled for drives. I expect that as time went along, better methods of training came along, less of a fight with each animal. But you just don’t know how many equines failed the class, got wrecked with lost control on chariots. It is part of the “way of doing business” that happens when you MUST have animals working for you. Problems with driving animals were probably too common to mention, same as many other things that used to be part of daily living. Times were harsh, animals had to do what was required of them or bad things happened to them. Drivers of those horses EXPECTED them to be snorty, some would shy, others didn’t. One of the plus of Multiples is they often don’t spook at the same time! Hitching the old horse with the learner training method, probably started way back then!
You also may want to review some of the old pictures of chariot drivers. They carried whips, which they used as ruthlessly as needed, to charge FORWARD in the chariots as a solid line of destruction. SECOND person in the chariot was the warrior with arrows, spears, swords, doing the fighting. Driver had his hands FULL with reins and whip, used sharp bits for control. There was NO reason acceptable, that war chariots didn’t advance as required if Driver meant to keep his job. Probably killed the Driver who didn’t go as told, so maybe death by enemy or FOR SURE by your commander, for failure to advance. I am SURE the horses got lively at times, but Horses get NO VOTE in charging towards the scary stuff!
People learn as time goes along, so not letting horses SEE a problem got learned pretty early. All kinds of uses for that! Horses go forward into places they wouldn’t CHOOSE to go with full vision.
Settings where various kinds of Driving took place, would make a huge difference in whether you reduce vision in your working animal. Speed of travel, congestion on roads, all make a difference as well. Places with lots of miles to cover before you reach a destination, straight forward travel, often have no blinders on their traditional harness. Nothing to get in your way, horses get TIRED doing those miles, maybe bad ground to cover so you want him looking down, don’t need or want blinders in those places. Again, the horse was a tool, to get from here to there, so he commonly was forced to work against his will. Lots of ways and means to get around a fighter, nice or not, turning him into a useful animal. He received no “win” for fighting, so probably just gave up and got used to being driven. Can’t afford to throw away a good horse, can’t afford to keep one that doesn’t work.
Driving these days is not nearly what it used to be, 50 years ago or 300 years ago, or in ancient times. Few horses really get worked very hard, don’t go home tired after their Driving activities. Farm horses have usually worked pretty hard, pulling their loads and doing it for hours each day. They learn the value of standing quietly when they have that offered. They work at slower speeds, a BIG walk is their most valued gait, since it is used the most for their jobs. Routine is their friend, see and do the same things over and over, rock solid in their reactions in those settings. They CAN BE a totally different personality in a strange setting.
If I meet a blinderless driving horse in a gathering, I keep an eye on that turnout. Just want to MAKE SURE I am nowhere close IF the horse loses it. Don’t want that horse hurting MY HORSE/S in his effort to leave! I did my efforts in education for Drivers, some make other choices about bridles and blinders. I am not going to get hurt because they may have chosen badly. Horses still react like they did 200 years ago when they get frightened, spook, try to get a better look at scary things. You HOPE the Driver has trained him well, can hold him from running. Blinders often give you that fraction extra time, as head swings eye away from scary thing, can’t see scary thing now, to change his mind, hold him in place. Most horses are not THAT BOLD, to go right up to scary thing, face it down. So while a great many things have changed in driving over the hundreds of years, the HORSE is still the same kind of prey animal, tries his BEST to get AWAY from scary things he sees. Instinct is in the bones, so any Driver has to stay on their toes with their animal.
Over the years I’ve been very thankful on a number of occasions that the blinkers were there to help finesse some sticky situations.