Looking back at the beginning

After trying different things, reading numerous books and following multiple horse masters I found that most of them have some similar technics that they use to communicate with the horses. Yet, each one of them added their own touch and interpretation. I began to wonder when and how it all started… as least here, in United States.

The horses existed on the American territories for hundreds and thousands of years, however, the earlier ancestors of the modern horses got instinct for a number or reasons. So, the history of the American Horse began when the European settlers brought a variety of horses to the Americas. Even though the Indians were discouraged from riding by the early Conquistadors, they soon realized that being men, like the Spaniards, they could also ride.

In the 16th century the Indians started to capture the stray horse and later obtaining them from the Spanish. Without any training or guidance from the European settles the Indians had to figure out themselves how they can tame the horses and use them effectively. Slowly spreading from tribe to tripe the horse became an integral part of the lives and culture of Native Americans. Soon enough Indians became the superb horseman and horse warriors that we hear so much about in history. The horse made them masters of the herds of buffalo that gave them food, shelter, bedding, tools, saddles, lariats and the core of their religion. Riding at a full gallop with nothing more than a pelt cinched to the horses back they put to shame the generations of European horseman to follow in the West. The Indian and their horses were inseparable companions, sharing a deep sense of friendship and understanding that has not been equaled since.

The knowledge of the horsemanship was passed through generations by the word-of-of mouth and only fraction of this knowledge made it to these days. The Age of Horse Culture lasted from the 17th century to the end of the 1800s. The Indians horses reshaped the lives and culture of the Native Americans of the plains and they infused the history of the West with some of the most daring and courageous horsemanship ever known. Sadly, there is not enough recorded information of this period. Many of the Artist of the period were not very good at anatomy and did not depict the Indian horse accurately. The Native American had an oral history and when the wonder of photography came to the Plains the photographers seemed to disregard the horse as part of the Indian culture and society and instead concentrated on portraits of Indians in their regalia. We rely mostly on European accounts of what was seen or told to them by different tribes they encountered.

The Native American and their horses were made for each other, they both were free spirited, had extreme desires survival and a love of the vast country that raised them.