North British Horses

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Too often we seem to assume the smaller horses were baggage animals, while the taller ones were for officers. An assumption based on modern opinion.

I can sure you that is not an opinion I hold.

I think initially I would disagree with your concept of British horses for British cavalry in the first years of the conquest. Ceasar's accounts of fighting the Britons describe charioteers not cavalry. Native British must have been aware of the Gallic tendancy to ride their horses rather than drive them as trade links across the channel were firmly established. The possibility then arises that a decision was made at some point to harness small horses rather than ride them. This is a fairly major edcision as driven hroses are not as versatile as a single mount and we have your people carrier as opposed to the Ferrari - dare I say it, horses for courses?

A horse's natural state is unshod. A horse's natural state is also in the open, grazing and browsing as vegetation is available. When you start to shoe a horse you change the balance of the foot and the natural scheme of things. When you have shod horses kept in deep mud you're asking for trouble unless you take extraordinary care of their feet which, on campaigns is virtually impossible. But, for the most part, the evidence suggests horses of this period were not shod (And the fashion for natural, unshod horses in this modern era is sharply curtailed if you have to do any significant work on tarmac roads as opposed to tracks and turf.

The most interesting thing about Ewart's analysis is, as you say, the fact that differing skeletal types were found, although I have already said that the term "thoroughbred" is not appropriate as it is not a breed of the period. It perhaps suggests a lighter boned animal which in itsef is interesting as thas does not really fit any of the North British breed types.

Perhaps my view of the size of the horse comes from different metrics? A 14.2hh pony is only two inches short of the 15hh so I'm not particularly worried about that (My best polo pony was 14.2hh and I am just shy of 6ft tall). My concern is more the capability of a much smaller horse to tackle the terrain (and ATV if you will).

So a patrol regime of , say, from Corbridge on the Stanegate up to the Wall and back on a daily basis would be my ideal testing ground rather than on flat, safe ground.