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900 years ago
Europe
Knights in armor mounted horses into battle

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[TMP] Perry: More Pics of Mounted Knights

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There will be twelve horsemen with four different bodies/armour types (Italian, German, English/Flemish and Italian with coat), with bridle arms attached. There will be a variety of weapons, including couched and upright lance, sword, mace, axe, hammer, etc., the fingers attached to each weapon and supplied separate from the arms. There should be three arm positions for each of the four armor types.

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800 years ago
Asia
The mongols used lightning-fast raids to conquer much of asia they were famous for their horses- mounted archers

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Strung Bow Length: 57 1/4″ (145 cm.) Brace Height: 8″ (20 cm.) Ear Length: 13 " (30 cm.) Each bow is individually hand made in China so lengths & draws weights may vary slightly. Our List Price: $309.99
1 Yuan Mongol Bow with a draw weight between 30 & 34#

1 Yuan Mongol Bow with a draw weight between 35 & 39#

1 Yuan Mongol Bow with a draw weight between 40 & 44#

1 Yuan Mongol Bow with a draw weight between 45 & 50#

Qianlong Manchu Hunting Bow
Strung Bow Length: 59 1/2″ (151 cm.) Brace Height: 7″ (18 cm.) Ear Length: 9 " (23 cm.) Each bow is individually hand made so lengths & draws weights may vary slightly. Our List Price: $329.99
Our traditional Manchu Hunting bow is styled after one the Qianlong Emperor's favorite hunting bows. The emperor commission many paintings of himself with this bow. As with our Qing Contest bow, The Qianlong Manchu Hunting bow is covered birch bark but in an alternating pattern of three different colors. Just as with other Manchu Bows we sell, this bow follows the same pattern as those bows that became the standard traditional Qing Chinese bow. Like many other Asian bows, Manchu bows are recurved. Qing era Manchu bows differ from earlier recurve bows in a number of important ways. The first, most obvious way is that the Manchu bow is the largest bow in the family of Asian recurves. Manchu bows also have longer "ears" or siyah and string bridges. These design features were suited to the Manchu style of archery which employed a heavier, longer arrow than early archery styles. The longer ears allowed for the Manchu use of longer arrows while also acting as levers that enabled the archer to pull a heavier draw bow

1 Qianlong Hunting Bow with a draw weight between 35 & 39#

1 Qianlong Hunting Bow with a draw weight between 40 & 44#

1 Qianlong Hunting Bow with a draw weight between 45 & 49#

Qing Conquest Bow

Strung Bow Length: 59 1/2″ (151 cm.) Brace Height: 7″ (18 cm.) Ear Length: 9 " (23 cm.) Each bow is individually hand made so lengths & draws weights may vary slightly. Our List Price: $319.99 Styled after the traditional Manchu, birch bark covered bows carried during the Qing conquest of China, these bows look and shoot like the bows Manchurian mounted archers welded. They follow the same pattern as those bows that became the standard traditional Chinese bow during the Qing dynasty. Like many other Asian bows, Manchu bows are recurved. Qing era Manchu bows differ from earlier recurve bows in a number of important ways. The first, most obvious way is that the Manchu bow is the largest bow in the family of Asian recurves. Manchu bows also have longer "ears" or siyhas and string bridges. These design features were suited to the Manchu style of archery which employed a heavier, longer arrow than early archery styles. The longer ears allowed for the Manchu use of longer arrows while also acting as levers that enabled the archer to pull a heavier draw bow. Covered in real birch bark and hand painted, Seven Star's Qing Conquest Bow is a faithful recreation of the early Manchu style bow. Seven Stars is the exclusive US and European dealer for these bows.

1 Qing Conquest Bow with a draw weight between 25 & 29#

1 Qing Conquest Bow with a draw weight between 30 & 35#

1 Qing Conquest Bow with a draw weight between 36 & 40#

1 Qing Conquest Bow with a draw weight between 41 & 50#

Ming Chinese Bow

Strung Bow Length: 55″ (140 cm.) Brace Height: 7″ (18 cm.) Ear Length: 8 1/2″ (21 cm.) Each bow is individually hand made so lengths & draws weights may vary slightly. Our List Price: $309.99

Korean Royal Quiver
Quiver Height: 7 1/2″ (19 cm.) Quiver Width: 5 1/2″ (14 cm.)
Crafted from hand tooled leather with two main pouches for arrows, with front of both decorated with a royal patterns of the early Chosun Dynasty. This Lotus pattern was found on Korean King Lee Seong Gye's bow holster. King Lee was the first king of Chosun dynasty. The single wide suspension loop has been designed to fit any standard belt while holding the quiver securely in place. Handmade in Korea.

Korean Royal Quiver $249

Custom Made Traditional Arrows Made to Order

Seven Stars offers custom, made to order, bamboo shafted arrows in a variety of configurations. Bamboo shafted arrows are available in lengths up to 39″ (100 cm) in length, fletched in either the standard, equidistant configuration or the Manchu style fletching, with feathers at 9, noon and 3. Our arrows are either self nocked or nocked with modern plastic nocks. Please place your order online, or if you would like to discuss the various options available, please give us a call at 703-846-8222. In addition to our standard configurations listed below, we can mount customer supplied historical arrowheads, exotic feathers, or rebalance as needed.

1 Dozen Bamboo Shafted Arrows, Self Nocked, with 5″ feathers, $229

1 Dozen Bamboo Shafted Arrows, Self Nocked, with 5.5″ Magnum feathers, $269

1 Dozen Bamboo Shafted Arrows, Plastic Nocked, with 5″ Magnum feathers, $229

1 Dozen Bamboo Shafted Arrows, Plastic Nocked, with 5.5″ Magnum feathers, $269

(Please indicate your choice of feather and serving color and arrow length when ordering). Watch for wood shafted arrows up to 39″ (100 cm) long and other traditional Chinese archery equipment from Seven Stars in the near future...

Wooden Whistle Arrowheads

Small Whistle Arrowhead Length: 2″ (5 cm.) Large Whistle Arrowhead Length: 2 1/2″ (6 cm.) Our List Price: Single Head, small or large- $30, Pair of Heads- $49 Hand Made in Tibet. Available in small and large sizes, separately, in pairs or mounted on our custom made arrows.

1 Small Whistle Arrowhead, $30

1 Large Whistle Arrowhead, $30

1 Pair of Whistle Arrowheads, $49

1 Pair of Whistle Arrowhead Arrows, Self Nocked, with 5″ feathers, $81

1 Pair of Whistle Arrowhead Arrows, Self Nocked, with 5.5″ Magnum feathers, $87

(Please indicate your choice of feather color and arrow length when ordering).

Manchu Thumb Rings

Made from hardwood in the US, our Manchu cylindrical type thumb rings ... Temporarily Out of Stock. We are working on a replacment for our popular wood thumb rings, please check back with us...

For more information about Qing Dynasty Manchu Archery, please see:
Click Here for Great River Taoist Center's Manchu Archery Page
Click Here for facebook.com/groups/ManchuArchery/

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Traditional Manchu, Chinese, & Mongol Archery Equipment " Seven Stars Trading Company

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Strung Bow Length: 57 1/4″ (145 cm.) Brace Height: 8″ (20 cm.) Ear Length: 13 " (30 cm.) Each bow is individually hand made in China so lengths & draws weights may vary slightly.

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2,000 years ago
China
The invention of the saddle and stirrup made horse-mounted warfare much more effective

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Horses & the Persian Empire’s Royal Road

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Horses & the Persian Empire’s Royal Road

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2,400 years ago
Persian empire’s royal road
horse -ountedm messengers could carry a message 1,700 miles in a week

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The Persian Royal Road by Student Group 2

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TOUCH this image to discover its story. Image tagging powered by ThingLink

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5,000 years ago
Modern day Iraq
Fossils of worn-down horse teeth have been found

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Q: I have a Thoroughbred who has been showing in the Baby Green Hunters. He nearly constantly chews on his horse bit. We've tried many types of horse bits with no improvement. He's currently working in a flash noseband, and we have to keep punching holes because he stretches the leather. We've had him fully checked out by a vet and a chiropractor. Is there anything else I can do to break this habit of bit chewing? Since he's a hunter, there's a limit to the equipment I can use at shows.
Liza Towell Boyd
A: It sounds as if your horse is trying to tell you something. Constant horse bit chewing is often a sign of nervousness, particularly in younger horses, or discomfort. Consulting your vet and chiropractor is a good start, but you may need to dig deeper to discover the root of the horse bit chewing problem. Ask for second opinions, do your own research and experiment. Here are some avenues to explore.

If your horse is young, his bit chewing may result from immaturity or unfamiliarity with the bit. He might need more time getting accustomed to the feel of the bit in his mouth without also having to focus on a rider on his back. Remove the noseband and reins, and put the bridle on him in his stall for an hour or so, staying nearby to keep an eye on him. (Make sure there is nothing in the stall he can catch the bridle on. Never do this with a bit that can hook onto things, such as a full-cheek snaffle.) Repeat this daily until he seems to get tired of bit chewing.

Next, longe him with the bridle on, either feeding the longe line through the bit ring, over his poll and attaching it to the ring on the other side, or putting a halter or longing cavesson over the bridle and attaching the longe line to that. When his chewing ?decreases significantly on the longe line, begin riding him again.

In horses of any age, bit chewing can signify anxiety. Different horses mature at different rates. Even if your horse seems physically prepared to perform at his current level, he may not be ready mentally. Try reducing the pressure: shorten your schooling sessions, take him on trail rides and so on. Even consider turning him out for a few months and giving him a total break. Then bring him back slowly, making sure he's comfortable in every situation ?before progressing. When you ease back into showing, do just the ticketed warm-ups at first.

If your horse is older, the first thing I'd suspect is ulcers. Not all ulcers are easy to diagnose, and some do not respond to anti-ulcer medications. Even in the absence of a diagnosis, there are a wide range of effective treatments, including diet changes and alternative therapies, such as acupuncture and herbs, worth trying. Try substituting alfalfa and corn oil for portions of your horse's hay and grain. Provide his hay ration in a hay bag with very small openings to encourage him to nibble throughout the day in a more natural "grazing" manner.

Also look closely at his mouth for cracks in the corners of his lips or sores on his gums or inside his cheeks. Apply petroleum jelly to the sores and ride him in a hackamore, if possible, until they heal.

Find a certified equine dentist to take a second look at his teeth, as well. (Because they specialize in teeth, equine dentists can sometimes catch abnormalities that veterinarians miss.) In addition to identifying possible hooks, wolf teeth, etc., that might be bothering your horse, he or she can also tell if your horse has a low palate, which makes the bit sit differently in his mouth.

Speaking of bits, keep experimenting! We sometimes consult an expert bit salesman for suggestions when nothing in our trunk seems to be working. Some horses like thicker bits; some like thinner. Some like bits with multiple joints; others prefer straight, soft bits. Try different metals and materials. Look online, browse tack shops and ask other riders and trainers if they have bits you can borrow.

Hunter judges may penalize "nonconventional" bits in the show ring, including hackamores, kimberwicks, gags, multiring snaffles, etc. However, if your horse goes well in a mild, less-conventional bit, it's the judge's prerogative to deem it acceptable. I know a famous hunter, for example, who shows in a leather bit, and judges either can't tell or don't mind.

Experiment with his noseband, too. It sounds as if he's fighting the flash, which may be contributing to his anxiety. Try removing it and lowering or raising the cavesson a hole or two. Sometimes repositioning where the noseband sits on the jaw can make a positive difference. Switching to a figure-eight noseband temporarily may also help. Remember, though, that flash, dropped and figure-eight nosebands are not "recommended" in the show-hunter ring (according to the USEF Rule Book).

Finally, ask a trainer or clinician to evaluate your riding to make sure you're not contributing to the problem unconsciously. Too-strong hands or locked elbows, back and shoulders even in the subtlest form can cause this type of resistance in sensitive horses. Asking an experienced rider to school your horse can also supply valuable feedback that may help to identify the source of the problem.

Whatever is causing your horse's chewing, be patient with him. Taking time to solve this problem now is much more important than sticking to whatever predetermined plan you may have had for this show season. If you only fix the problem temporarily, don't be discouraged. Some solutions need to be modified over time. But you'll succeed in the end if you keep thinking outside the box and listening to your horse!
One of today's leading hunter riders, Liza Towell Boyd learned much of what she knows from two top trainers: her father, Jack Towell, and Missy Clark. After college, she joined the family business and went on to win 11 USHJA Hunter Derbies and numerous major hunter championships. Liza and her husband, Blake, have a 2-year-old daughter, Ellen.
This article originally appeared in the January 2012 issue of Practical Horseman magazine.

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A reader says her horse chews on bit constantly. Find out several ways to fix bit chewing this from top hunter rider Liza Boyd.

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4,000 years ago
Middle east
Drawings found of horses pulling chariots

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The Chariot in Egyptian Warfare, its history, design, and use

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Recently
World
Horses have been bred selectively for certain characteristics

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17000 years ago
Lascaux, France
Cave paintings by early humans of horses have been found before

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Lascaux Cave is famous for its Paleolithic cave paintings. The original caves are located near the village of Montignac. The paintings are estimated to be 17 300 years old. They primarily consist of images of large animals, most of which are known from fossil evidence to have lived in the area at the time.

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17000 years ago
Bering land bridge
Horses crossed here and spread to Asia then Europe

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Horses and other large mammals who lived on Alaska's massive northern slope during the last ice age relied on the land bridge across what is now the Bering Strait to cope with the rapid climate changes that characterized the period, according to researchers.

It allowed them to move between different continental habitats during what the study team described as boom and bust cycles.

Short periods of warm climate during the last ice age triggered these boom-and-bust cycles in the populations of large mammals in the Arctic, the researchers reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Many large mammals became extinct when these cycles and the ice age ended and spreading peatlands and rising sea levels restricted the animals' ability to move between continents.

Scientists from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the University of California examined the age and abundance of the bones of megafauna - a term for mammals weighing more than 100 pounds - on Alaska's North Slope, a tundra region between the Brooks Range and the Arctic Ocean.

By radiocarbon dating the fossils and comparing their ages and abundances to climate records spanning the past 40,000 years, the researchers reconstructed a picture of what happened to horses, woolly mammoths, steppe bison and other mammals in Alaska's Arctic.

"We wanted to know how these large animals responded to the rapid climatic changes that characterized that period of Earth's history," said lead author Daniel Mann, an associate professor in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

To do this, the study team tested a hypothesis suggested by retired paleontologist Dale Guthrie that megafaunal populations experienced boom-and-bust cycles during the ice age as the vegetation tracked climate change.

The last ice age, which began about 80,000 years ago and ended around 12,000 years ago, was a time of diverse climates, Mann said.

The results of the 20-year study show that animal and plant communities were much more changeable during the ice age than they have been during the last 12,000 years of interglacial climate in which we live today.

"This has been a long-term effort, and it has resulted in a much larger data set of bones from one given area than anybody else has ever compiled," said co-author Groves, a wildlife biologist with the university's Institute of Arctic Biology.

During the last ice age, a lowered sea level drained the Bering Strait, the narrow seaway now separating Alaska and Asia.

Being able to move back and forth across Bering Strait was probably what kept the large Arctic mammals thriving for so long, Mann said. This travel corridor allowed mammals to come to Alaska when their favored foods - grasses, sedges, and rushes - thrived during warm periods.

The corridor also allowed mammals to leave Alaska for greener pastures when prolonged periods of warmer, wetter climate allowed peat to spread, which cooled the ground and discouraged the grass, sedges and rushes from growing.

"Counterintuitively, rapid climate changes during the ice age were, at times, highly beneficial for megafauna when rapid warming allowed grasses and forbs to briefly spread before peatlands had a chance to take over the landscape and degrade forage quality," Groves said.

When the planet's big ice sheets collapsed at the end of the last ice age, their melting caused global sea levels to rise as much as 100 meters in roughly 10,000 years, which is fast in geological time, Mann noted.

"In the case of northern Alaska, the rising seas flooded the Bering Strait, which changed the climate of the North Slope," Mann said.

"Summers became wetter and cooler because the sea was much closer. This encouraged the spread of organic soils and peat at the same time that it cut off access between Asia and Alaska."

The animals could not migrate elsewhere because ice sheets were still blocking their way to the east.

Mann became interested in the study when he and other researchers went to archaeological sites on the North Slope in 1994 to see what ice-age humans were eating.

He said they did not find much evidence of humans on the North Slope, which suggested they weren't a driving factor in the mass extinction of the large mammals.

However, the researchers did find more than 4000 bones of ancient ice-age animals during the last two decades. The bones are now archived in the University of Alaska Museum of the North.

It took two decades to collect enough bones for the study and then several more years to figure out the statistical methods needed to analyze the radiocarbon data, Mann said.

Groves continued: "One of the contributions of research like this is helping humans understand the challenges large animals face today from climate change. It's a testimony to the value of doing long-term research."

Evolutionary biologist Beth Shapiro, of the University of California Santa Cruz, who was also a part of the study, said: "We've known for some time that the population sizes of these animals fluctuated throughout the last ice age. What this study provides is a possible explanation for these changes."

The study's conclusions have implications for present-day extinctions.

Sharpiro said: "As human populations grow, patches of suitable habitat for many species are becoming increasingly isolated from each other. If we are to preserve these species, we will need to devise strategies that allow these populations to remain somehow connected."

Mann says Arctic climates are particularly unstable and are changing rapidly today. "This means the Arctic is an interesting place to study how climate changes cause extinctions, and the past gives us many interesting examples of extinction there. Plus, bones are exceptionally well-preserved because of the frozen ground."

Based on current evidence, the regional extinction of the ice-age megafauna was complete in arctic Alaska around 12,000 years ago, leaving caribou, the tundra muskox, and brown bears as the only surviving megafaunal species.

Of the Pleistocene species, horses and steppe bison survived the longest. The most recent horse lived between 12,400 and 12,700 years ago. They said there was no direct paleontological evidence in the form of dated bones in mainland Alaska supporting claims based on ancient DNA that mammoths and horses survived as recently as 7500 years ago.

Their research pinpointed a surge in horse numbers on the North Slope of Alaska from around 40,000 years ago during these boom and bust cycles.

The project was supported by the National Science Foundation and the US Bureau of Land Management.

Life and extinction of megafauna in the ice-age Arctic
Daniel H. Mann, Pamela Groves, Richard E. Reanier, Benjamin V. Gaglioti, Michael L. Kunz, and Beth Shapiro.
doi: 10.1073/pnas.1516573112

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Land bridge helped ice-age horses and other mammals survive for millennia - Horsetalk.co.nz

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Horses and other large mammals who lived on Alaska's massive northern slope during the last ice age relied on the land bridge across what is now the Bering Strait to cope with the rapid climate changes that characterized the period, according to researchers.

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55 million years ago
In tropical rain forests of North America
Leaf-eating mammal about the size of a dog

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Information about the primitive horse Hyracotherium (also previously known as Eohippus) and other prehistoric creatures.