Apr 13

Iranians and Horseback Riding

On 13 April 1896, Hans Adolf Eduard Driesch, the famous German zoologist, philosopher and scholar, published a paper about horse and its evolution, and commented that Iranians were the first people to tame horses and use them for riding and in wars. It is evident from the researches of Hans Eduard, who taught in German and Chinese universities, and has written books about life and creation of generations, that all the three Iranian tribes (Southern Aryans) were able to use cavalry in war, from 800 BC. Previously, it was presumed that horses were first tamed in the west of Siberia because in the archeological excavations in the West Siberian region, ancient graves have been found, in which the dead were buried together their horses. This discovery was the reason for them to think that these people were the first in the world to ride on horseback.     According to ancient historians, the interest of ancient Iranians for horses was to the extent that they would not use horses for carrying load and instead would use mules, which were born of donkey and horse, for carrying load, especially in mountainous regions, and most probably, the reproduction of mules was an innovation of Iranians. Hans Eduard has confirmed this probability. He has done extensive research on embryology and foresaw cloning 100 years ago.     The love of Iranians for horses was to such an extent that they would create titles for themselves according to the shape and features of their horses, for instance, Goshtasp, Lohrasp (asp = asb means horse).     Since the letter P does not exist in Arabic alphabet, ‘asp’ gradually turned into ‘asb’ in Iran. A study was carried out in the World Horseback Riding Club in September 1956 in which Iran was listed as the 43rd country in horseback riding. This negligence caused the then government to take certain steps to correct this negligence, which finally gave no result.          Translation by Rowshan Lohrasbpour