The first thing we are going to do is know the etymological origin of the term rider that concerns us now. Thus, we can establish that it is a word of Arabic origin that comes exactly from "zanati" and that was used to refer to the Moroccan soldiers who were hired in the Andalusian mercenary troops.
Zeneta o Zenata es la denominación de un conjunto de pueblos bereberes de la época medieval. Estas tribes eran conocidas por su mastery in horsemanship y por su ability to breed horses.
Riders, therefore, are people who usually ride horses , especially for reasons related to their daily work or their trade.
Throughout history there have been different important figures who have been considered to be great horsemen. This would be the case, for example, of Alexander the Great, Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (El Cid Campeador), Aníbal or General Custer.
Cowboys and gauchos are great horsemen. These country men usually spend a lot of time on horses, performing various tasks in rural areas or even using the animals as a means of transportation.
A rider who participates in horse racing is known as a jockey . These are usually subjects of small physical build, thin and short.
The Headless Horseman , on the other hand, is a fictional character whose origins date back to the Middle Ages . The American Washington Irving helped popularize the myth through "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" or "The Legend of the Headless Horseman" , a story he published in 1820 .
According to this mythology , the Headless Horseman is a headless creature that rides a black horse. While riding, he carries his head under his right arm.
In the same way, we cannot ignore the existence of another novel that also has the term in question in its title. We are referring to "The Polish Rider", which was published in 1991 and was written by the Spanish author Antonio Muñoz Molina.
That book won the 1991 Planeta Prize and the 1992 National Narrative Prize. What it does is recreate, based on the experiences and vision of the protagonist, what was the history of the city of Mágina in the period between assassination of Prim in 1870 and the Gulf War of 1990.
Likewise, another work that is worth mentioning is "The Rider of Silence." It is a historical novel by Gonzalo Giner that was published in 2011 and revolves around an orphan boy who will not have an easy life, but who will find his salvation in horses.
The horsemen of the apocalypse , meanwhile, are four knights who appear mentioned in the book of Revelation , which is part of the New Testament . These are allegories of death, hunger, war and conquest.