They may seem like harmless rides now, but the next time you see a child riding a unicorn on a merry go-round, consider they are participating in what began as an old-world military exercise. Horsemen in Turkey and Arabia in the twelfth century tossed around makeshift water balloons with perfumed water to each other, with the one that failed to catch having to de-perfume himself afterward — the game was called garosello in Spanish, meaning “little war.” Only later did it evolve into a more festive occasion, the kind described by a British traveler through the Ottoman Empire.

On this day, May 17, in 1620 the journal of Peter Munday, passing through modern-day Bulgaria, described a curiosity he happened upon: a large wheel with seats fastened to it on the outside, in which children are placed. The wheel then begins turning, with the children circling around.

Predictably, it was the French court that added pageantry to an otherwise pretty dull affair. A common game played by French horsemen had them attempting to snag a small ring with their lance while galloping at full speed. The snagged ring would pull away a stream of ribbons behind it. For those who wished to practice with something easier, a circular wooden platform was created to spin riders on wooden beams as they would try to snag the rings hung outside of the wheel.