The cavalry of the Greeks, long neglected by scholars of ancient warfare, has been the focus of a great deal of attention in recent decades. A number of valuable studies have appeared since G.R. Bugh's The Horsemen of Athens (1988), and books on cavalry now outnumber books on hoplites. However, there has been no in-depth study of its basic component – the horse itself – since J.K. Anderson's rather technical Ancient Greek Horsemanship (1961). Indeed, in his introduction to B.’s work, P. Brulé notes that the Greek horse has never been the subject of ‘une synthèse globale’ (p. 7). Here is the gap that B. has sought to fill.

B.’s stated intention is to write a history of ancient Greek equestrian culture from the horse's point of view. It never becomes quite clear what this means, and the acknowledged paucity of sources has forced B. to wander the length of Antiquity, so that it is difficult to discern anything like a central historical narrative or argument. Yet B. covers a broad range of topics critically and in rich detail, bringing in both material and comparative evidence to go beyond the well-known Classical literary sources and showing an understanding of the subject and its historiography that exceeds any previous scholarship. At the same time, he appears to have largely resisted the temptation to indulge in the jargon of professional equestrianism that might have made his work inaccessible to historians and Classicists who do not practise horsemanship themselves.

The first chapter is devoted to a description of the ancient Greek horse. B. is careful to avoid the assumption that the ideal features of a warhorse as described in Xenophon's On Horsemanship are a description of the typical horse. Instead, he uses iconography on coins and vases, sculpture, the famous lead dokimasia tablets from the Athenian agora and the excavated remains of ancient horses to arrive at a more nuanced description. His conclusion, that the look and size of horses would have varied considerably both within and across the regions of the Greek world, is a typical example of the way in which this work eschews easy answers and sweeping statements in favour of creating a picture of layered complexity.

The second chapter examines the horse-breeding areas of Greece. Again, a complex picture emerges from B.’s analysis, challenging the simple geographical determinism of the old assumption that plains mean horses and horses mean cavalry. Horses could serve a range of different purposes, could adapt to local conditions and could thrive in any region with sufficient pasturage and rainfall. A careful distinction is made here between regions that fielded cavalry and regions that produced horses – two separate and not necessarily related phenomena. The Athenian cavalry may be the best known of all Classical Greek mounted forces but, as B. points out, Attica was never a suitable breeding ground for horses. Conversely, the Peloponnese is identified as one of the great horse-producing centres of the Greek world, yet most Peloponnesian states did not raise their own cavalry until the fourth century b.c.

There follows a chapter on the practice of horse breeding and husbandry – its terminology, logistics and methods – and another on the question whether the Greeks created and prized particular breeds (‘races’). The latter chapter explores the Greek conceptualisation of pure lineage, which was in some ways applied to both animals (dogs, horses) and humans. B. concludes that while there was an appreciation of horses ‘d'origine contrôlée’ (p. 157), ancient Greece was ultimately a world of local breeds, and only some of these were actively being specialised and commercialised.

The fifth chapter delves into Xenophon's account of the physical aspects and character traits that make a good warhorse. Each part of the ideal horse is described in detail, from the nostrils to the testicles, with the terminology in Greek and a practical explanation for each of the preferences expressed by the Classical Greek author. Attached to this chapter is the relevant portion of Xenophon's treatise in Greek (although B. does not seem to specify where his edition comes from).

The focus of the book turns to Athens with a long chapter on the ways in which the Athenian cavalry was supplied with mounts. A brief history of the cavalry corps is followed by a discussion of its recruits, the nature of the horse-owning class and the horse market, the way the cavalry was financed, and so on. The aforementioned lead tablets, listing the colour, brand, owner and value of Athenian horses of the late fourth and third centuries b.c., are especially relevant here, and they are discussed in great detail. B. adds his own answer to the thorny question to what extent we can glean changes in the value of horses over time from the fact that the same horses reappear several times in the corpus of tablets. A final chapter on the everyday reality of Athenian horse ownership – dressage, stable management and stable hands, fodder and grooming – rounds off the main body of the work.

It is difficult to find any gaps in the way this book covers its subject. The conclusion, after summing up the previous chapters and highlighting the constant and costly presence of horses in the lives of the Greek leisure class, adds what little can be said about horse casualties in war and about the fate of retired cavalry mounts. Given the wealth of information B. provides on the matter of raising and training horses, it would be interesting to see them about their duties, and to hear more about their role in Greek warfare. However, at least four monographs already cover this ground (I.G. Spence, The Cavalry of Classical Greece [1993]; L.J. Worley, Hippeis: the Cavalry of Ancient Greece [1994]; R.E. Gaebel, Cavalry Operations in the Ancient Greek World [2002]; P. Sidnell, Warhorse: Cavalry in Ancient Warfare [2006]), and B.’s focus understandably lies elsewhere. Despite recent scholars' attempts to reassert the prominence of horsemen in the Greek way of war, B.’s casual and conservative estimate of their importance in battle is regrettably still typical. This detracts nothing from the quality of his treatment of horses and equestrian culture as such.

In its early chapters, the book features many long citations from earlier scholarship; it generally seems to lean heavily on the recent works of C. Chandezon. However, as the discussion gets more in-depth, B.’s own contributions stand out more clearly. His analysis is thorough; his arguments are nuanced and carefully made. His practical perspective on the prerequisites of horse breeding and horse ownership do much to flesh out our picture of the place of cavalry in a world of rugged terrain and subsistence farming. At times perhaps a work of niche equestrian antiquarianism, this book still delivers on its promise to reveal social and institutional practices around the horse that contribute to many fields of the study of ancient history. It deserves to be read by more than just those interested in the life and times of the ancient Greek horse.