Kikkuli

Kikkuli was the Hurrian "master horse trainer" (assussanni, virtually Sanskrit aśva-sana-) of the land Mitanni" (^LÚA-AŠ-ŠU-UŠ-ŠA-AN-NI ŠA KUR ^URUMI-IT-TA-AN-NI) and author of a chariot horse training text written in the Hittite language, dating to the Hittite New Kingdom (around 1400 BC). The text is notable both for the information it provides about the development of Indo-European languages and for its content.

“Thus speaks Kikkuli, master horse trainer of the land of Mitanni” (UM.MA Ki-ik-ku-li ^LÚA-AŠ-ŠU-UŠ-ŠA-AN-NI ŠA KUR ^URUMI-IT-TA-AN-NI).

Thus begins Kikkuli's text. The text contains a complete prescription for conditioning (exercise and feeding) Hittite war horses over 214 days.

The Kikkuli Text addresses solely the conditioning, not education, of the horse. The Mitannians were acknowledged leaders in horse training and as a result of the horse training techniques learned from Kikkuli, Hittite charioteers forged an empire of the area which is now Turkey, Syria, Lebanon and Northern Iraq. Surprisingly, the regime used 'interval training' techniques similar to those used so successfully by Three Day Eventers, endurance riders and others today and whose principles have only been studied by equine sports medicine researchers in the past 30 years. The Kikkuli programme involved "sports medicine" techniques comparable to modern ideas such as the principle of progression, peak loading systems, electrolyte replacement theory, fartlek training, intervals and repetitions. It was directed at horses with a high proportion of slow-twitch muscle fibres.

As in modern conventional (as opposed to 'interval') training, the Kikkuli horses were stabled, rugged, washed down with warm water and fed oats, barley and hay at least three times per day. Unlike conventional horse training, the horses were subject to warming down periods. Further, every example of cantering included intermediate pauses to relax the horse partially and as the training advanced the workouts include intervals at the canter. This is on the same level as the Interval training we use in modern times. However, Kikkuli made much use of long periods leading the horses at the trotting and cantering gaits rather than harnessing them to a chariot.

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