The Greeks, like the Jews, no doubt derived their knowledge of the horse from the Egyptians, but neither Egyptians nor Jews have handed down to us any authentic information relative to the cultivation of horses, a subject with which Grecian literature abounds. Consequently it is from Greek authors that our primary knowledge of equine lore must be obtained, although previous to this period the Babylonian, the Assyrian, and the Egyptian empires flourished, and the ancient monuments discovered in these countries prove that the horse had not been used for agricultural or domestic purposes, but that his services had been confined to the chase, to pageants, and to war. Traditions, poems, and myths constitute among ancient nations part of their historical resources, and Homer, Hesiod, and other authors have handed down to us most valuable information relative to the manners, customs, and warlike pursuits of the ancient Greeks. Homer describes the various labours of farming, ploughing with oxen and mules, sowing, reaping, and treading out corn by oxen on the threshing floor, and also describes the many various duties of the herdsman, but we fail to discover that the horse had at this period been employed for agricultural purposes. During the Trojan war cavalry did not form a branch of Grecian military organization, but chariots and horses were conveyed in the ships that sailed to Troy at the traditional date of 1194 to 1184 B.C. The united Grecian princes, who undertook this famous expedition under the command of Agamemnon, sailed, according to Homer, with 1186 ships and 100,000 men, and the ships conveyed horses and chariots in which they fought in battle; but no mention is made of cavalry horses, and consequently it may be inferred that at this time they had not been devoted to this service.

According to Greek legend Chiron the Thessalian, supposed to have been an Egyptian, was the first person who mounted the horse; and there is no doubt that the unfamiliar appearance of a man on horseback gave rise to the fable of the Centaurs, a race of beings half-man, half-horse, said to have anciently inhabited Thessaly. From the famous war said to have been carried on between the Lapithae and the Centaurs, we may conclude that at a date as early as 960 B.C. the Thessalians used cavalry in war. Chariots and horsemen were known to several nations before this period - the Babylonians, the Assyrians, and the Egyptians had made use of them, - but the Greeks claim that Erichthonius, who was lame was the first inventor of a carriage, which he built for his own personal convenience, and of horse and chariot racing, which was first inaugurated at the Panathenaea, the festival held in honour of Minerva, 1506 B.C. But the horse had been ridden long before this date by Babylonians, by Assyrians, and by Egyptians, and also by the descendants of Ishmael, if we place any faith in tradition. If Chiron was the first to mount a Grecian horse, there is every reason to believe that the Arabians for ages previously had been accomplished equestrians.

Up to this date the demand for horses had been created by the chase, by pageants, and by war, but the world had not to grow much older before an incentive occurred in the inauguration of the Olympic games. These are said to have been first celebrated in Greece in 1453 B.C., but it was not till 884 B.C., when Iphitus, and after him Choroebus, 776 B.C., renewed these games, that they became a world-famed national institution. The horse did not, however, make his appearance in the hippodrome until the 23rd Olympiad, 680 B.C., when he was ridden, and it was not until the 25th Olympiad that he was yoked to the chariot, and his speed and power of endurance were tested in harness, after which chariot-racing became a dominant pastime of the Greeks. The Olympic games comprised horse, chariot, and man racing, leaping, throwing the discus, wrestling, and boxing, and for these sports separate areas were set apart: the stadium for the contests in running and wrestling, the hippodrome for horse and chariot racing, etc. Amongst all these games horse-racing and chariot-racing were the most popular, and they embraced various forms of sport: the chariot race with mules, with mares (described by Lausanias), the chariot race with matured horses, with four foals, and with two foals, and there was also a horse race, in which boys rode.

The hippodrome of Greece possessed the same influence as the British turf now exercises in the production of good horses. For performance at these games fleet horses were imported from all parts of the world, studs were established, training - stables built, and running - tracks laid down with as much eagerness by the ancient Greek as by the British owner of race-horses at the present day, and consequently Greece, from its earliest days, became conspicuous as a horse-breeding country. Tacitus describes the celebrated breed of horses that existed at Argolis, and the surrounding country is mentioned by Homer as forming an extensive grazing-ground favourable to the propagation and development of horses. Diodorus Siculus states that in ancient times Macedonia " abounded in horses above all countries in Greece", and that at the royal stud in Pella 300 stallions and 30,000 mares were kept. Strabo also informs us that the Cappadocians paid an annual tribute to the Persians of " 1500 horses, 2000 mules, and 50,000 sheep".

Yet, although Greece was a large horse-rearing country, and horses were extensively used in dangerous contests at the hippodrome, she seems to have used them only sparingly on the day of battle, and then only when yoked to chariots; but cavalry, which formed a most important military force of the Persians and other neighbouring nations, was by the Greeks long almost entirely neglected.

It appears, according to Herodotus, that up to the year 490 B.C. the Greeks possessed no cavalry, and at the beginning of the Peloponnesian war, 431 B.C., it only amounted to 1200 strong, out of which number 200 were hired Scythian bowmen. And even down to the time of Demosthenes this corps was not numerically increased, but it was the duty of the two hipparchs who commanded this force to see that it was kept up to its full force of 1000.