Welcome to The Kikkuli Method. Working for the welfare of horses  Iron Free! No bits, no trees in saddles, no shoes - no iron in the diet, as there is NO recorded case of diet-related iron deficiency in horses. Horses are NOT like humans, and must not be fed iron, as this lowers their copper and zinc ratios and has a range of effects from so-called sunbleaching to loss of performance in competition. (This research is fairly new and unfortunately is unknown by many vets.) Here you will find information about ancient horse training methods, natural horse care the right way, horse worms, and more - see menu at left. Also, ebooks can be bought from this site for instant download, and they are also available on Kindle, Nook, from iTunes, Sony, Kobo, and Diesel. Paperbacks are available from Amazon and from our USA store. In early February 2012, these paperbacks will again be available from this site, postage free, to Aussie buyers! NEWS FLASH! New book exclusively on Kindle for $0.99 "How to Care for the Rescue Horse"! Link will be here tomorrow!      The Kikkuli Method. The Kikkuli Text, a horse training text dating to c. 1345  B.C., played a major role in the development of the powerful Hittite Empire in the ancient Near East. Prior to this time, Hittite horses had not been used in great numbers, nor to any great advantage, in warfare. Up to this time the Hittites only had farm horses. However, on the accession of the Hittite King Suppiluliuma, the Hittites purchased vast numbers of Arabian horses and to provide instruction in their training acquired the services of Kikkuli, a master horse trainer from the land of Mitanni. The Mitannians were acknowledged leaders in horse training, and as a result of the horse training techniques learned from Kikkuli, Hittite charioteers forged an empire of the area which is now Turkey, Syria, Lebanon and Northern Iraq. Kikkuli trained the Hittite war horses and had his horse training regime recorded upon four clay tablets known today as the Kikkuli Text. Surprisingly, the Kikkuli Text used 'interval training' techniques similar to those used so successfully by Three Day Eventers, Endurance riders and others today and whose principles have only been studied by equine sports medicine researchers in the past 20 years. The Kikkuli program involved state of the art sportsmedicine techniques such as the principle of progression, peak loading systems, electrolyte replacement theory, fartlek training, intervals and repetitions and was directed at horses with a high proportion of slow-twitch muscle fibres. Thus it was an amazing system of horse training developed 3,300 years ago without any scientific backup. In 1991, then doctoral student Ann Nyland - an Arabian breeder and endurance competitor - translated the Kikkuli Text from Hittite cuneiform into English. On June 1991, Ann started a replication of the Kikkuli Text regime with ten Arabian horses, the breed used by the Hittites. The training program set down by Kikkuli lasts for seven months and the training regime and feeding program were followed precisely. For the experimental horses, Ann used "Colonial" Arabians, "Colonial" Arabians being descended from the desert-bred Arabians imported to Australia around 1900.  Trained by The Kikkuli Method. Perseverance Mauser went through Kikkuli training and along with Laura Seegers has been selected for the South Africa team for the Endurance  World Champs in Great Britain 2012. He has always been barefoot and is a great ambassador for barefoot endurance. The photo taken in Oct 2011 at Schanskraal 160 CEI is with Francois Seegers - Mauser won the heavyweight category 100 miler in 10 hours 09 minutes. Mauser does not wear boots. In his three years endurance career, Mauser has entered 20 endurance rides, and successfully completed 19. A 95% success rate. He has 1800km on his  logbook. A Kikkuli success story! Read more about Mauser;s success HERE!