> Damon Agretto <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > [I wrote:]
> > Arabian horses, of course! ;)
> > I'm being a little over-the-top, but since at the
> >time horses were the best overland transport and
> military
> > assets, the impact of the introduction of Arabian
> >and Barb horses, along with style-of-riding, was
> huge. As
> > anyone who has worked with heavy/draft horses vs.
> > Arabs & their cousins can tell you, the
> responsiveness
> > of the light horse is remarkable; they changed
> >cavalry tactics -- perhaps not, in retrospect, a
> > thing for the better...
> Can you put this in historical context? Medieval
> warhorses were not
> clydesdales, or draft horses. They were larger, yes,
> but according to my
> sources this meant they had larger chests and
> hindquarters.
I'm going to answer from the books I've read, but will
check out 'net sources later -- because I've spotted
at least one error in _The Encyclopedia Of The Horse_,
which is generally a very good sourcebook put out by
the British Riding Club (or Association?).
The drafts Shire, Belgian and probably the Percheron
were all descendents of what is called either the
Great Horse of Flanders or the Great Medieval Warhorse
(when crossed with native mares in England, it became
the Great English Black Horse -> eventually the
Shire). These horses carried roughly 400# of man,
armor, tack and horse-armor, IIRC; as a horse cannot
easily carry more than a quarter of its bodyweight for
significant periods of time, that would make these
animals need to be 1600#, which puts them in the
drafter category. The Friesian-type, a lighter draft,
goes back for at least 1000 years (it was modified by
the addition of Andalusian blood centuries ago, they
in turn a result of the crossing of Moorish Barbs and
other oriental horses with the Spanish native
jennets), and would be less bulky and more nimble than
the other drafters (of course the Percheron also was
influenced by the introduction of Arabian blood after
-IIRC- the Battle of Tours, and they too are a bit
lighter and nimbler than the Shire).
Interestingly, there were 'clydesdale-type' horses in
some prehistoric European cave paintings, as well as
Exmoor pony-types and tarpan-types (the latter typical
of the Assyrian charioteer horses).
However, the modern German Holsteiner (now greatly
lightened by the addition of Thoroughbred and other
blood) did descend from the German medieval warhorse,
and those were more of a carriage-type build than
draft-type -- I recall seeing some woodcuts of German
knights who appeared to be less heavily-armored, and
on lighter horses such as you describe.
I'll try to find some on-line pix of the various
riding styles (knight vs. Moor) etc.
Debbi
Don't Throw Me Into That Briar-patch Maru ;)
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