On Horsemanship written c. 350 BC by Xenophon is one of the earliest extant treatises on horsemanship in the Western world (the oldest is the one written by Kikkuli of the Mitanni Kingdom). In it, Xenophon details the selection, care, and training of horses both for military and general use. One of the most important qualities in a horse, Xenophon writes, is that it have a fleshy (or "double") back. This presumably is because Xenophon wrote this treatise before the invention of the saddle. Xenophon's On Horsemanship is one of the oldest surviving Western works detailing the principles of classical dressage, including training the horse in a manner that is non-abusive. In On Horsemanship, Xenophon himself pays tribute to better established works by apparently more celebrated contemporary horsemen-in particular, a trainer and writer referred to only as "Simon"-but no known copies of these other texts have survived into the modern era.
About the Author: Xenophon (430 - 354 BC), son of Gryllus, of the deme Erchia of Athens, also known as Xenophon of Athens, was a Greek historian, soldier, mercenary, and a contemporary and admirer of Socrates. He is known for his writings on the history of his own times, the 4th century BC, preserving the sayings of Socrates, and descriptions of life in ancient Greece and the Persian Empire. Diogenes Laertius states that Xenophon was sometimes known as the "Attic Muse" for the sweetness of his diction; very few poets wrote in the Attic dialect. Xenophon is often cited as being the original "horse whisperer," having advocated sympathetic horsemanship in his "On Horsemanship." Xenophon's standing as a political philosopher has been defended in recent times by Leo Strauss, who devoted a considerable part of his philosophic analysis to the works of Xenophon, returning to the high judgment of Xenophon as a thinker expressed by Shaftesbury, Winckelmann, Machiavelli, and John Adams. Ponting cites Xenophon as one of the first thinkers to argue that the ordered world must have been conceived by a god or gods. Xenophon's Memorabilia poses the argument that all animals are "only produced and nourished for the sake of humans." Though he spent much of his life in Athens, Xenophon's involvement in Spartan politics (he was a close associate of King Agesilaus II) has led to him being closely associated with the city. Xenophon's writings, especially the Anabasis, are often read by beginning students of the Greek language. His Hellenica is a major primary source for events in Greece from 411 to 362 BC, and is considered to be the continuation of the History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides, going so far as to begin with the phrase "Following these events...." The Hellenica recounts the last seven years of the Peloponnesian war, as well as its aftermath. His Socratic writings, preserved complete, along with the dialogues of Plato, are the only surviving representatives of the genre of Sokratikoi logoi.