Horses have been a staple of warfare for a long time and appropriate resources needed to be devoted for sustaining cavalry units. Supply lines which provide food and weapons to soldiers would also provide fuel to their equine steeds. In times of bad weather, stables might have been erected to keep them safe. Executing all of this was a major logistical challenge.
What if you did not have to do any of the above? Welcome to Mongol Horse Rearing 101!
First, choose a semi-wild breed of horse which is docile but also does not need its diapers changed every day. A Mongolian horse breed is a good choice in this regard. It is durable, can withstand the weather, has a higher stamina than other horse breeds in addition to being semi-wild and free. It can be responsible for its own feeding if the conditions are right.
Which brings us to the Second choice: choose an area to start rearing your horses. If you choose the Eurasian Steppes, the North American Prairie, or the African Savannah, you are in luck! The Central Asian part of the Eurasian Steppes is an even better choice since it gives you free access to several major civilizations in the vicinity, including the Persians, Chinese and the Indians. The grasslands provide ample food for grazing huge, extensive plains for trotting. The temperature often fall below freezing, which is not a problem at all for this horse.
The Third choice is the most important and difficult part of all. You need to be born into one of the horse tribes which live there which lives and breathes horse. You will undergo special training for horse riding, learning how to live off of horse meat, drink mare’s milk as well as which horses’ veins to slit to make a drink of blood and milk when in a jiffy. After some more tragedies including killing your childhood best friend, you would need to change your name to Genghis Khan. You and your descendants are then ready to terrorize half the world for a century.
The Mongolian Horse is indeed the nature’s hypermarket when it comes to the tribes which depended on it. Its presence was extremely critical to the success of the Mongols in the 13th century.
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