When you picture medieval war , there ’s a good probability you imagine a horde of knights riding monolithic warfare horse into battle . Well , you ’re going to have to make a few size adjustment , because a novel study has found that most warfare horses were no bigger than modern - day pony .
A squad of archaeologists and historiographer from the University of Exeter canvass the largest lot of English horse os from 300 to 1650 CE . knight size was measured in " men " , an old unitequivalent to10.16 cm ( 4 inches ) . Rather than the big horse of 17 to 18 hands high , they bump that cavalry were often under the elevation of 14.2 hand . New - day pony canrange fromabout 14 hands to intimately 14.3 hands marvellous .
Publishing in theInternational Journal of Osteoarchaeology , the investigator say that when spawn war - horses , natural selection likely concenter on other factors important to medieval warfare .
" Selection and breeding exercise in the Royal studs may have concentrate as much on temperament and the right physical characteristics for warfare as they did on natural size , " Professor Alan Outram , from the University of Exeter , said in a insistence release encounter by IFLScience .
Even when a royal stud web was in place in the 13th and fourteenth 100 , horse that were 15 - 16 hands tall were rare – though people at the time would have construe them as unbelievably gravid animals .
The tallest horse from the Norman full point ( 1066 – 1075 ) researchers found was discovered at Trowbridge Castle , at around 15 hand . During the mellow medieval period , taller sawhorse come forth , with some reaching 16 hands .
“ Neither size , nor branch bone robusticity alone , are enough to confidently identify oldtimer in the archeologic phonograph record , " Researcher Helene Benkert , from the University of Exeter explained .
" historical phonograph record do n’t give the specific criterion which define a oldtimer ; it is much more likely that throughout the medieval menstruation , at different times , dissimilar abidance of horses were desirable in response to changing battlefield tactics and ethnical preferences . ”
It was n’t until the post - medieval period ( 1500 - 1650 CE ) that the mean elevation of cavalry became importantly marvellous , border on that of modernistic - twenty-four hour period workings horses . So if you ’re picturing former English warfare , you might want to conceive of something far closer to a mod - solar day trot ride – with a lot more vicious life sentence - ending play , of course .
