Horses were important to the trade and culture of the Silk Road. They played a role in private and royal trade. Some of the first horses were from the Central Eurasian region. They were not the horses that were domesticated for chariots which were used in the China later.[1] Horses provided transportation for merchants, travelers and royal precessions. The Chinese had problems with breeding good stock horses.
Chinese horses were smaller compared to the Central Asian horses. One reason cited for this is the type of feed they received. The Central Asian horses grazed freely on grasslands and the Chinese horses were given feed which was hand delivered to their stalls.[2] Horses were purchased from Europe and were bred, but the offspring were usually smaller and unsuitable for military use. The horses were bought for military purposes.[3]
People used camels, donkeys, yaks and horses to transport people and goods. Horses were traded for silk and Steppe horses were usually the source for suppling horses to people. All cultures in China bought horses including Persians. Horses were cheap to transport because they could walk to be transported and didn’t have to be transported by boat or container. Horses were also used for other things other than business; they were important in the game of polo. This was introduced in both the east and west and was played by princes and princesses.[4]
The strongest use of the horse on the Silk Road and the Mongolian region was the diverse use of the horse in the Mongolian society. According to an article by Paul Beull, “Mongolian horses were sturdy, strong, and were raised in a harsh environment. Though small in stature compared with the warhorses of Europe or even horses used in the Middle East, the Mongol horse was exceeding strong and was said to surpass all others in terms of endurance.[5] The horses provided a source of food, used as mounts for the military and used as pack and cart animals for moving yurts and supplies. The Mongols used geldings and mares for military purposes instead of stallions like the Europeans used. The geldings were considered to more gentle and easier to control. The Mongol horses underwent stringent training and were superb on the battlefield as well as when being used for riding, packing or pulling carts.[6]
The influence of the horse on the Silk Road did not stop with the physical horse itself. The influence seeped into the story telling culture along the Silk Road. Stories. Paul Beull stated, “This included magical views of horses, horse mythology, views on what qualities makes a horse superior, breeding methods and horse medicine, hippiatrics."[7] Horse lore was also strong on the maritime routes where horses were exported to different parts of the East and West.
One of the more interesting areas which was developed for horses was the invention of veterinarian medicine for horses. Paul Beull discovered that there were 2 types of horse care. “First is horse medicine that is primarily based in various forms of magic, with no actual treatment of the horse in real terms. Second is a hands-on medicine involving the actual application of treatment, primary herbal drenches but other methods are employed as well”.[8] It appears that the knowledge on horse care was fairly universal through out Asia and Europe. Because the problems with all horses were the same, many of the methods used to treat the problems were very similar.
[1] Beckwith, Christopher I. Empires of the Silk Road : a History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present. Princeton, NJ, USA: Princeton University Press, 2009. https://pitt.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01PITT_INST/i25aoe/cdi_askewsholts_vlebooks_9781400829941., 51.
[2] Hansen, Valerie. The Silk Road. Oxford University Press, 2017., 16.
[3] “The Forum” Silk Routes: Two Thousand years of Trading” by Bridget Kendall, Valerie Hansen, Susan Whitfield and Tamara Chin Pod cast. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p056srhv
[4] Ibid.
[5] Buell, Paul. “The Horse and the Silk Road: Movement and Ideas.” Academia.edu, 22 May 2014, https://www.academia.edu/218892/The_Horse_and_the_Silk_Road_Movement_and_Ideas. 9.
[6] Ibid., 10.
[7] Ibid., 11.
[8] Ibid., 12.
-Marcus Hale