Russian Horsemanship
ussia is a melting pot of
horse riding and driving cultures. They emerged through millennia in a huge space where
the Horse has been tamed for the first time, and widely used. To be sure, Russians adopted
from the rest of the world what was useful, for instance, European–style coach driving in
towns and classical equestrian sports. They can even boast some remarkable achievements in
the latter, especially in dressage. At the same time Russians and other peoples who
inhabit the huge spaces of Russia have developed their own riding and driving practices,
ones that suit the country's transportation and military needs the best.When people in Russia had to cover huge distances they wanted to be assured that they get to their destinations home and dry, and not fall pray to frost or wolves. And so when they drove, they normally drove in a troika of three hardy hacks who could fight horrendous Russia's roads, cold, snow, fogs, wolves, and so on and so forth. When trekking on horseback, they could use alternately two horses (odvukon'), an age–old Steppe practice.
At war Russians, especially Cossacks, placed much reliance on the formidable stamina of their steeds. Russian troopers thought nothing of covering 100 km every day, hitting and running, destroying and disappearing, like wasps. Those harassment tactics were extremely efficient, for example in the Napoleonic wars. Even in his excite Napoleon had nightmares of the Don Cossacks.
In head–on saber clashes Russians stunned their opponents by their jighitovka tricks, an equine martial art developed by the warriors of the Russian steppe and improved by the Cossacks.
Russia's peoples used their equine friends not only for work. There are many equine games in Russia, along with many forms of hunting on horseback. Hunting to hounds or falconry are more or less like in Europe, although hunting with eagles seems to be only practiced in the ex–USSR.
But there is one inherently Russian form of wolf hunting. By the way it was described by Leo Tolstoy in War and Peace. This pursuit is extremely intoxicating and dangerous, it is not for gentleman riders. It consists in pursuing a wolf on horseback and flogging it to complete exhaustion. When the climax comes, the most experienced hunter dives from his saddle and either stabs the wolf or takes it alive.
 Wolf Hunting N. Sverchkov, Oil on canvsss Russian Horse Breeding Museum |
 A Cossack with Two Horses E. Lancere, Bronze Russian Horse Breeding Museum |
 The Taking of a Snow Fortress V. Surikov, Oil on canvass The Russian Museum |