These quotes are from 'On Horsemanship' by Xenephon, who lived from 431-355 BC. According to Wikipedia he used to hang out with Socrates!

~ For what the horse does under compulsion, as Simon also observes, is done without understanding; and there is no beauty in it either, any more than if one should whip and spur a dancer.


~ It is the best of lessons if the horse gets a season of repose whenever he has behaved to his rider's satisfaction.


~ If you desire to handle a good war-horse so as to make his action the more magnificent and striking, you must refrain from pulling at his mouth with the bit as well as from spurring and whipping him... but if you teach your horse to go with a light hand on the bit, and yet to hold his head well up and to arch his neck, you will be making him do just what the animal himself glories and delights in.