Medieval war horses were smaller than modern day horses

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When you imagine a medieval war, there’s a good chance you imagine a horde of knights riding huge war horses into battle. Well, you’ll have to make some size adjustments, because a new study finds that most war horses were no bigger than today’s horses.

A team of archaeologists and historians from the University of Exeter analyzed the largest collection of English horse bones from 300 to 1650 AD. The horse’s size was measured “by hands,” an ancient unit of 10.16 cm (4 in). Instead of large horses with a height of 17 to 18 hands, they found that the height of horses was often less than 14.2 hands. Modern ponies can range in length from approximately 14 hands to 14.3 hands.

Published in the International Journal of Archeology, the researchers say that when breeding war horses, selection likely focused on other factors important to medieval warfare.

“Selecting and breeding practices in the Royal Nails may have focused as much on the correct temperament and physical characteristics of war as they did on raw size,” Professor Alan Outram, from the University of Exeter, said in a press release seen by IFLScience.

The horses were much smaller than you can imagine. Image credit: University of Exeter.

Even when the royal horse net existed in the 13th and 14th centuries, horses between 15 and 16 hands in length were rare – although at the time people viewed them as incredibly large animals.

The tallest horse from the Norman period (1066-1075) was discovered at Trowbridge Castle, at about 15 hands. During the high medieval period, taller horses appeared, some reaching 16 hands.

“Neither the size nor the strength of the limb bones alone is sufficient to confidently identify war horses in the archaeological record,” explained researcher Helen Pinkert, from the University of Exeter.

“Historical records do not give the specific criteria that defined a warrior horse; it is more likely that during the medieval period, and at different times, different horse formations were desired in response to battlefield tactics and cultural preferences.”

It wasn’t until the post-medieval period (1500-1650 CE) that the average height of horses became noticeably taller, approaching the average height of modern working horses. So, if you’ve been fantasizing about an early English war, you might want to imagine something a lot closer to modern day pony riding – with plenty of swordplay ending in the wildest of life, of course.

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