Horses in the Parthian and Sasanian world

[SassanianPersian]

I found one of the photos, there are a few more. I am going out of town, but I am uploading one. This is a Turkoman Horse and the Yamut strain of the Turkoman breed. The heavy horse. The photo shows how stout he is, but trust me, it was even more in person. He looked like a tank. And anyone who knows anything about horses can see if he is put on the bit and properly trained the size that neck will show. Just like the wall carvings.

Ardeshir

[Alanus]

Thank, Ardeshir

That's a "healthy" animal! And that muscular neck is also reminiscent of the Andelusian breed.

[John Conyard]

I like the video, and I too was waiting for the Romans to ambush you. We would steal the stirrup idea pretty quickly.

I understand that people are passionate about their breed of horse, especially when national identities are concerned. But in your opinion wouldn't some new blood have been introduced in to the "modern Nisean"? For example it seems hard to find a breed that hasn't being improved by the addition of Arab blood.

Now off to field five Roman cavalrymen at Ribchester.

[bachmat66]

czolem,

I found one of the photos, there are a few more. I am going out of town, but I am uploading one. This is a Turkoman Horse and the Yamut strain of the Turkoman breed. The heavy horse. The photo shows how stout he is, but trust me, it was even more in person. He looked like a tank. And anyone who knows anything about horses can see if he is put on the bit and properly trained the size that neck will show. Just like the wall carvings.
Ardeshir

how tall is this horsey?

Perhaps you may find this of interest -
in his fine books on horse conformation and breeds around the world Cpt Hayes, 1890s, talked about the sorry state of the Persian horses http://books.google.com/books?id=P1sCAA ... se&f=false while our Polish-Ukrainian writer and Turkish cavalry inspector general Michal Sadyk Pasha Czaykowski wrote about the sorry state of the Turkish horses during the 1850-70s.
Hayes describes various breeds of Persian horses, pointing their pedigree as being somewhat Arabian or as he called them Bahdadi Arabian , he somewhat praises the heavier Yamoot (Yamut) horses and has little praise for the Yaboo. There is vast difference between the Turkoman and Yamoot in Hayes book (1890s edition), from the description and photos.
If, however, we go back in time more than 300 years than Persian horses were praised for their beauty, nobility, fire and stamina, and since the early 16th century users of Polish and Russian languages adapted Iranian XV century word 'argamak' as a name for a fine, noble warhorse while importing those 'argamaks' from Persia - in our Polish language we still use that word - it is 'rumak'.