Years ago Ralph Harcourt undertook a similar study and failed to find any physical evidence for the existence of large horses in the medieval period. I am not sure that this study was ever published, but I remember talking to him about it.
Annie Grant
-----Original Message-----
From: Jo Wilson [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 03 May 2003 12:06
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [ZOOARCH] Medieval warhorses
I'm looking at medieval horses for an MA project, and was wondering if anyone
knew of any zooarchaeological evidence for large warhorses during this period.
The sources all refer to the breeding of very large horses to carry armoured
warriors, but in all of the animal bone reports I've looked at, the horse
remains seem to have belonged to animals that were no more than New Forest Pony
size. Can anyone help, or is there just a disagreement between the textual and
archaeological sources here?
Many Thanks
Jo Wilson
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