Kikkuli

Kikkuli was the Hurrian "master horse trainer [assussanni] of the land of Mitanni" (LÚA-AŠ-ŠU-UŠ-ŠA-AN-NI ŠA KUR URUMI-IT-TA-AN-NI) and author of a chariot horse training text written primarily in the Hittite language (as well as an Old Indo-Aryan language as seen in numerals and loan-words), dating to the Hittite New Kingdom (around 1400 BCE).

[4] Surprisingly, the regime used 'interval training' techniques similar to those used so successfully by eventers, endurance riders and others today and whose principles have only been studied by equine sports medicine researchers in the past 30 years.

[5][6] The Kikkuli programme involved "sports medicine" techniques comparable to modern ideas such as the principle of progression, peak loading systems, electrolyte replacement theory, fartlek training, intervals and repetitions.

[7] As in modern conventional (as opposed to 'interval') training, the Kikkuli horses were stabled, rubbed, washed down with warm water and fed oats, barley and hay at least three times per day.

The text is notable for its Mitanni (Indo-Aryan) loanwords, e.g. the numeral compounds aika-, tera-, panza-, satta-, nāwa-wartanna ("one, three, five, seven, nine rounds".