In ancient Rome, the Ides of October fell on what we would call October fifteenth. Each year on this day, a horse would be sacrificed at the end of an important horse race. This equine victim was the October Horse (equus October); the rite itself lacks a name. Read more
Equus October was a festival on 15 October (idus), in which the right hand horse of the winning pair of a race was sacrificed to Mars. The tail was rushed to the regia to have its blood drip on the hearth there. There was a traditional fight over its head between the inhabitants of the Subura who wanted it for the Turris Mamilia, and those of the Via Sacra who wanted it for the regia. The Equus October has been considered as one of the rites of the closing of the military season and as related to the successful campaigning which secured harvests. It has a close parallel in the Vedic rite of the Asvamedha as wellas in other IE people rites. Read more