Does Size Matter?: Medieval Warhorses

There seems to be a great dilemma over ascertaining the average size of these medieval horses, both in class discussion and in the readings. The scholarship dismisses the large end of the spectrum: horses standing at approximately 18 hands. The height of a horse is measured at the withers, where the neck meets the body directly over the shoulder and also where the mane ends). Each hand constitutes 4 inches and the left over height is tallied in increments of inches, from one to three. Therefore, an 18 hand horse is 6 feet tall along its front arm; picture a Budweiser horse. If you can find the tack to fit a horse of this size or are bold enough to ride bareback, it is fine to ride at the slow gaits and experience the thrill of how high you are from the ground. Riding such a large horse at faster gaits is truly uncomfortable and you’re just trying to stay on, as you know it’s quite a long way down. On the shorter side of things, ponies stand at 14.2 hands and smaller. Though I am not an expert, I would imagine anything under 13 hands to be a bit absurd for an adult male to ride. Unless medieval horsemen had abnormally short, stubby, child legs, an adult’s feet would surpass the heart girth (the rib cage of the horse behind the elbow and shoulder) of a 13 hand horse. In this situation, the rider using leg commands would probably kick his own spurs or directly under the horse’s belly, which is sensitive and would probably upset the horse (the typical response to this is a horse ‘crow hopping,’ or jumping straight up on all fours). We viewed many examples in medieval imagery of horses in with their riders’ legs exceeding the heart girth but this is probably due to the style of depicting humans as long, slender figures.

Travel in the Middle Ages

I have a special interest in horses because my Master’s project centers around travel and pilgrimage in medieval England and horseback was the main form of this travel. Horses in medieval Europe were sort of like cars in the modern world: almost everyone had one, you could buy them, you could rent them, you could get along without them and walk everywhere, you used them for work, for pleasure, for long travels, for moving goods.[1] Really, the list is endless. We talked a lot about types of horses and their sizes and their presence in documents and such but we didn’t actually get into the logistics of horse travel. So I did a little research on speeds and distances for our edification. (The lower numbers are winter numbers, the higher numbers are summer numbers and these are all just estimates and should be taken with a grain of salt)

• · Oxen/Horse & Cart: 2 miles per hour[2]
• · Walking person: 2-3 miles per hour[3]
• · Walking Horse: 3-4 miles per hour. [4]
• · Medieval Boat Travel: 4.6-9.2 miles per hour (4-8 knots per hour; 1 knot = 1.15 mph)[5]
• · Trotting Horse: 8-10 mile per hour[6]
• · Cantering Horse: 10-17 miles per hour[7]
• · Post rider: 100 or 120 miles in a day (with pre-arranged changes of horses[8]