There's a story about Alexander the Great which needed to be told so that history wouldn't just remember him as Richie Rich with an army and absolute power. It's about how he earned the admiration of his soldiers, his people, and his father by earning the admiration of an untamable horse.
Scott reminded me in a recent conversation of how knights in France got started. Basically, when they needed to determine who were worthy aristocrats, they put out the call and anyone with a horse qualified.
What's the deal with horses? You might say in your favorite horse-faced comedian voice.
The deal was that it was once very difficult to get a deal on a horse.
We think, "Oh, screw the rich and their money."
But that's a capitalist's rationalization. Capitalism today has successfully cost out 90% of the world's resources and human interactions into cash value and then made it available on Amazon or at Walmart.
What if I told you that for much of the post-Roman French countryside, there weren't many markets where you could buy horses?
You couldn't just put in the order and be handed the reigns and an instruction manual to a beast whose hooves could cave your neighbor's skull in with a single smite.
In ancient France, owning a horse meant you had the virtues to tame one or to inspire someone to do it for you.
Sure, some of these equestrians were useless once they got on a battlefield.
But many did not miss the point about horses and nobility: A true noble doesn't just possess the skills to be seen atop a horse. A true noble possesses nobility: a package of life qualities like courage, grit, perseverance, cunning, strength, etc.
Whatever you need and more to master yourself so that you could master a horse.
A peasant looked out at the wild horses trampling his crops and terrorizing his livestock and thought, "what a blight upon my farm!"
A nobleman looks at the same horses, and his eyes gleam with opportunity, "Free meat/rides/war machines, alright!"
And so it has been for much of history around much of the world. Where the peasant goes out with rocks to shoo the horses away, the noble goes out with a bridle.
Don't you think that if one had a horse it was also a sign of wealth, power, privilege, and, presumably, competence in battle? Maybe war is the tool of the wealthy elite classes. If the commoners are content, they won't saddle up to conquer another country.