Scythian Movement

Can horses move like the Scythian examples?

Originally presented for a West Kingdom 12th Night Display 

Horses have a tremendous range of motion from their ears to the top of their tail. Their shoulders connect to their spine via muscle (no collar bones). They have 7 cervical vertebrae, 18 Thoracic vertebrae, 5-6 lumbar vertebrae, 5 sacral vertebrae (fused), and an average of 18 caudal vertebrae (range 15-25) (Dyce et al, 2016). The sacrum is fused and does not flex. All the others have a joint with some degree of flex often in multiple planes.

The dark dorsal stripe on the mare pictured below demonstrates how much flex is possible. The black marking is part of the mare's coloring and runs from the black mane to the black tail across the top of her spine. This handy marker shows the spine flexing in both the dorso-ventral (back to belly) and lateral (side to side) axis. The combination of many vertebrae each moving a little in preferred directions creates a dramatic twist in the back.

The Scythian examples are absolutely stylized, but the artists could have drawn inspiration from naturally expressed equine movement. 

Frontlet for a horse’s bridle (danglu) Western Han dynasty (206 BCE–9 CE), Gilt Bronze, L. 16.5 cm, W. 7.5 cm Excavated 1999, Luozhuang, Zhangqiu County, Collection of Jinan Municipal Museum, (cat. #1), Image: Asian Art
"Hunny" - AQHA, Buckskin mare with dorsal stripe bucks and twists with pinned ears.
Image: THL Morrighan Markaigh 
Shoulder tattoo on a Pazyryk woman of high status. Included is a redrawing of the mythical animal made by Siberian scientists. The Iron Age mummy is at least 2500 years old and was discovered in 1993 by Natalia Polosmak Image Source