The Romans were never slow to appreciate good animal breeding in any country that they visited or conquered. They were the first literate people to discover the Hobby, and they exported it eastward to Rome from Ireland, Scotland and northern England. “Paraveredeus” was the name that the Romans used specifically for the Hobby, probably deriving from the name of a British tribe from which they obtained them.
At the height of the Roman Empire, it was customary for military officers to be buried with a carved gravestone. Those for officers of cavalry often depicted their skill or exploits. This slab basrelief, crafted for a soldier named Primigenius, shows...
A highly detailed wall painting
from a house in ancient Pompeii shows a high-stepping Samnite ambler with rider and groom. Samnite territory bordered Rome to the east during the first century A.D. when this mural was created, but the
horse is clearly...
A young man wearing a wreath of flowing ribbons rides his ambler in high collection. Crafted somewhere between the first and third centuries B.C., this terra cotta figurine from Ptolemaic Egypt shows the Hobby phenotype. (British Museum)