Intellectual Equestrian Quotes

FUN ZONE

INTELLECTUAL EQUESTRIAN QUOTES

These definitely make you think ... not for the feeble mind...

1. Where in this wide world can man find nobility without pride, friendship without envy or beauty without vanity? Here, where grace is laced with muscle and strength by gentleness confined. He serves without servility; he has fought without enmity. There is nothing so powerful, nothing less violent; there is nothing so quick, nothing so patient.
RONALD DUNCAN

2. When I bestride him I soar, I am hawk. He trots the air; the earth sings when he touches it; the basest horn of his hoof is more musical then the pipe of Hermes
FROM HENRY V – WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE 1600

3. Hast thou given the horse strength? Hast thou clothed his neck with thunder? Canst thou make him afraid as s grasshopper? The glory of his nostrils is terrible. He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength: he goeth on to meet the armed man. He mocketh at fear, and is not affrighted; neither turneth he back from the sword.
BOOK OF JOB

4. Thou shalt be a source of happiness and wealth for man
THE PROPHET MOHAMMED

5. Horse and rider are one being, the will of a man and the body of the animal: thus they burst through all deeds and decisions that lie ahead. From this unity grew all nobility and chivalry; grew tender understanding for the creature which the rough fist can never spur on to great achievements; grew the fearlessness which is transferred from the rider to the horse and the delight in being able to gallop away into the distance and swiftly overcome the obstacles encountered.
PROFESSOR RICHARD GERLACH

6. When God created the horse, he spoke to the magnificent creature: I have made thee without equal. All the treasures of this earth lie between thy eyes.
KORAN

7. No other animal has had such an impact on man’s attitude as the horse. The first nations of horsemen were regarded as demigods or centaurs by the inhabitants of the Aegean coast and the American Indians fled before demons when the first Spanish discoverers rode up to them. The Arabs say that their horses are born “out of fie and wind” and on horseback the conquered the desert.
PROFESSOR RICHARD GERLACH

8. Mares yield so willingly to domination by man because their wild forebears always had a despot over them, the stallion. Now they subordinate themselves to the rider or the wagoner and transfer to him their instinct for submissiveness.
PROFESSOR RICHARD GERLACH

9. Horses possess hooves, which carry them over ice and snow, and a coat which protects them from wind and cold. They eat grass and drink water and they hold up their tails when they gallop. When they are in high sprits they rub each other’s necks. If they are angry they turn around and strike one hoof against the other. That is the true nature of horses.
CHUANG-ZU

10. Allah said to the South Wind: “Become solid flesh for I will make a new creature of thee, to the honor of My Holy One, and the abasement of Mine enemies and for a servant to them that are subject to Me.” And the South Wind said: “Lord, do Thou so.” Then Allah took a handful of the South Wind and he breathed thereon, creating the horse and saying: “Thy name shall be Arabian and virtue bound into the hair of thy forelock and plunder on thy back. I have preferred thee above all beasts of burden, inasmuch as I have made thy master thy friend. I have given thee the power of flight without wings, be it in onslaught or in retreat I will set men on thy back that shall honor and praise Me and sing Hallelujah to My name”
BEDOUIN LEGEND

11. ‘With these legs I cannot walk” says the Mongolian, “I can only ride.” Making an art, a competition, a show, out of the normal, everyday relationship to the horse, that is the source of the inexhaustible number of equestrian games. For the nomadic horsemen who have grown up, lived and fought on horseback, the equestrian game became an expression of life, which originated from basic urges. Yet for thousands of years it has not been a mere pastime. Through the school of play the warrior on horseback was trained for war. And the mastery of horse riding, proving oneself in peaceful competition, was an obligatory preparation for war."
HANS-HEINRICH ISENBART FROM "THE KINGDOM OF THE HORSE"

12. "Seventy girls rode out onto the field in fervent ardor before their queen. In courage each one was like the Isfandiar, in their skill with the bow they were equal to the knights and they played polo so well that they played as when the sun rises and a falcon swoops down to catch a partridge."
NISAMI, PERSIAN WRITER (1140 - 1202).

13. "The horse can never be made to perfect the form in which it expresses its ability by force, but only by a carefully harmonized interplay between flattering and demanding, between much praise and little punishment."
ALOIS PODHAISKY, SPANISH RIDING SCHOOL, VIENNA

14. “50 the horse must be able to Jump over ditches, to overcome small entrenchments and to mount heights. One should also try riding him uphill, on descending ground and downhill. For such tests show whether his spirit is courageous and his body quite sound. Many cannot do these things perhaps only because they have not practiced them, but not because they lack the energy to do so. But once they have learnt to do these things and master these exercises, they will do everything properly, as long as they are healthy and are not of bad character.”
XENOPHON

15. “And as I was riding along, my heart resounded in the lawn dampened steps, resounded in the snorting and I champing on the bit by my gray, and a blissful happiness lit up my heart and I I knew: If I now' dropped out of the world, I would fall into heaven!”
BARON VAN MIINCHHAUSEN