“Thus speaks Kikkuli, master horse trainer of the land of Mitanni” The text contains a complete prescription for conditioning (exercise and feeding) Hittite war horses over 214 days."
I found this a fascinating read. Not because the information was new, but rather that it felt so contemporary, and speaks for Kikkuli's mastery of the art of conditioning war horses. Wow those horse's trained and very much like we prepare distance horse's today. His early conditioning methods involved leading the horses for long distances at the trot and canter (prior to conditioning with a rider on their back) for several months. DR A. Nyland the author of the book took a herd of colonial arabians and followed the prescription as described in the book, thus producing several endurance champions that were sound after many years of hard competition. He utilized leading the horses with a car in order to condition several at a time. In today's world I think of MONK 'S ATV work outs, interval training, partial pause recoveries, and how many of the methods used by Kikkuli continue to resonate with the conditioning of international caliber horses today.
The book can be purchased on Kindle, Nook, and through Amazon.
No comments:
Post a Comment