The Horse and the Rise of Empires
By David Chaffetz
No animal is so entangled in human history as the horse. The thread starts in prehistory, with a slight, shy animal, hunted for food. Domesticating the horse allowed early humans to settle the vast Eurasian steppe; later, their horses enabled new forms of warfare, encouraged long-distance trade routes, and ended up acquiring deep cultural and religious significance.
Over time, horses came to power mighty empires in Iran, Afghanistan, China, India, and, later, Russia. Genghis Khan and the thirteenth-century Mongols offer the most famous example, but from ancient Assyria and Persia to the seventeenth-century Mughals, to the high noon of colonialism in the early twentieth century, horse breeding was indispensable to conquest and statecraft.
Scholar of Asian history David Chaffetz tells the story of how the horse made rulers, raiders, and traders interchangeable, providing a novel explanation for the turbulent history of the “Silk Road,” which might be better called the Horse Road. Drawing on recent research in fields including genetics and forensic archeology, Chaffetz presents a lively history of the great horse empires that shaped civilization.
Find more information about the book and the author here. Available in paperback or hardcover. Purchase wherever books are sold.
NWHS Editor’s ReviewI’ve spent my life with horses—riding, training, competing, and caring for them—but I only had a rudimentary understanding of how deeply the history of humanity is intertwined with these generous animals. From the opening pages of Raiders, Rulers, and Trainers, I began to see how connected we are with horses. They’ve fed us meat and milk from their bodies and protected our own with their skins; they’ve carried us and our belongings across continents and into battle and saved us from famine, disease, and natural disasters. This book takes readers on a journey through the ages of horse and man, together, and each page brings more understanding of how very much we owe the horse. – Kim Roe
See this article in the November 2025 Online Digital Edition:
November 2025
The Northwest Horse Source is an independently owned and operated print and online magazine for horse owners and enthusiasts of all breeds and disciplines in the Pacific Northwest. Our contemporary editorial columns are predominantly written by experts in the region, covering the care, training, keeping and enjoyment of horses, with an eye to the specific concerns in our region.
