Author talks horse history at Merritt Bookstore

MILLBROOK — Merritt Bookstore hosted David Chaffetz for a discussion on his latest book, “Raiders, Rulers, and Traders,” Saturday, Oct. 5 in Millbrook.

A crowd of 20 gathered in the independent bookstore’s intimate upstairs to ask Chaffetz about nomadic civilizations and the empires of Asia and the Middle East.

Chaffetz said he began his personal relationship with the horse in the ‘70s when he visited Afghanistan. While researching in Iran, he had an opportunity to visit Afghani nomads with his friend and roommate at the time.

“To do this, it wouldn’t have made sense to get Land Rovers,” Chaffetz said. “They live in a very remote part of the country. The only way to see them is to go by horseback.”

So he and his college roommate bought a couple of horses from the market and set out to connect with the nomads in the Afghani countryside. They spent three months trekking and learning about the nomadic lifestyle.

That set in motion Chaffetz’s fascination with the horse and nomadism in human history.

The horse provided unprecedented mobility, Chaffetz said, which brought challenges along with the benefits. Nomadic tribes utilized this mobility to manage livestock on large ranges of pastures. Their expansive territories required careful politicking, though, so nomads had to have strong interpersonal skills to thrive.

It was a combination of equestrianism and political sense that made nomads so skilled at starting empires like the Ottoman Empire or the Mongol Empire, Chaffetz said.

The most fascinating thing about these empires to Chaffetz is their success and longevity. “Take Iran for example,” Chaffetz said. “Iran was conquered by nomadic people around the year 1,000, and then the last descendant of those people was deposed in 1923.”