When we think of knights galloping into battle on mighty steeds, we think of these mounts as enormous war horses similar to draft crosses ‒ or if modern cinema has its way, Friesians. But a new study out of the UK sheds light on the true size of medieval mounts and the results may surprise you.
The research was published by a group of zooarchaeologists at the University of Exeter, who studied 1,964 horse bones from 171 different archaeological sites dated between 300-1650 C.E., and analyzed the findings to compare with our modern horses. The results were published in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology.
According to a press statement put out by the University of Exeter on January 10, horses during the medieval period were actually below 14.2 hands high, which makes them the size of a pony. According to the researchers size didn’t matter, and historical records showed that large amounts of money were “spent on developing and maintaining networks for the breeding, training and keeping of horses used in combat.”