The Ancient Romans used horses for many different activities, inlcuding sacrifices to the gods, assistance in farming, travel purpose, sports, battle, military-especially with the calvary, topics and characters in mythology and art, and money for trading.
Farming: horses that were raced in chariot races (a popular roman sport) and won were usually sacrificed to the gods in hope of a bountiful harvest. The winning horse was taken to the priest where the horse was killed. Certain parts were used after the sacrifice. For instance, the “the blood was used to cleanse livestock”, the tail was seen as a gift of good health, and was usually given to the king, and the head was nailed to a wall, in hopes that the spirit of the horse would be looked upon by the god of the harvest as a meaningful gift and the people would be granted a successful harvest.
Travel and transportation: similar to the days of the Wild West and the use of the pony express, horses and their riders were used as a way to bring mail to and from people. In addition, horses were also used to transport goods, transportation reasons, the horse was mainly used to take people to and from desired destinations.
Equestrianism: the main sport was the exciting, thrilling, yet extremely dangerous sport of chariot racing. Similar to the present day sport of horse racing, there were professional “charioteers” (professional chariot drivers) and it attracted people on a daily basis. Also similarly to today’s horse racing, emperors or other owners would flaw or even kill opposing horses and charioteers, and if the chariot (or, like horse racing, the jockey) were to fall off, the horse continues to run, leading to scary wrecks. Similar to today, vaulting, horse acrobatics, parades up on horseback, and even a form of dressage (known then as a ‘tripudium’)
Cash market of horse: people want money. As with today, good horses were worth a lot, whether it is cash for sales purpose or trade value.
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