ABSTRACT
It is Xenophon, Socrates's lesser-known student, who was credited with having brought humane treatment to horses. Xenophon was primarily interested in the military use of horses; however, he distanced himself from more punitive training methods by seeking first to gain the trust and cooperation of his horses. He advocated enjoyment in the execution of military movements on the part of horse and rider. Instead of punishment for the failure to comply with rider direction, Xenophon insisted on kindness and learning through rewards.
For what the horse does under compulsion, as Simon also observes, is done without understanding; and there is no beauty in it either, any more than if one should whip and spur a dancer. There would be a great deal more ungracefulness than beauty in either a horse or a man that was so treated. No, he should show off all his finest and most brilliant performances willingly and at a mere sign. (Morgan, 1962, p. 62)
Xenophon recommended that the horse be treated with tact such that, if spooking or balking at an unfamiliar object, the horse be shown, through rider handling of that object or bringing the horse up to it in gentleness, that there is nothing to fear (Ibid., p.37). Submission to the rider's will is sought, but it is to come voluntarily, not by “pulling at his mouth with the bit” but “with a light hand on the bit” that encourages the horse to “do just what the animal himself glories and delights in” (Ibid., p. 56). Xenophon wrote of “giving the horse the bit” not only as reward for holding the desired head position but also as the appropriate encouragement of the horse's spirit, letting him “bound along with proud gait and prancing legs, imitating exactly the airs that he puts on before other horses” (Ibid., p. 60). The Athenian's treatise titled The art of horsemanship still reads as an enlightened animal psychology that is the basis of a human-horse partnership.