History of the horse in Britain
Dependent on the rise and fall of sea levels associated with advancing and retreating ice ages, this allowed humans and fauna to migrate between these areas; as the climate fluctuated, hunters could follow their prey, including equids.
[3] Although much of Britain from this time is now beneath the sea, remains have been discovered on land that show horses were present, and being hunted, in this period.
[5] A goddess figurine carved from horse bone and dating from around 23,000 BC has been recovered from Paviland Cave in South Wales.
[8] A study of Victoria Cave in North Yorkshire produced a horse bone showing cut marks dating from about the same time.
During the Devensian glaciation, the northernmost part of the peninsula from which Britain was formed was covered with glacial ice, and the sea level was about 120 metres (390 ft) lower than it is today.
This glacial ice advanced and retreated several times during this period, and much of what is now the North Sea and the English Channel was an expanse of low-lying tundra, which, around 12,000 BC, extended northwards to a point roughly parallel with Aberdeenshire, in eastern Scotland.
[13] Horse remains dating from 10,500–8,000 BC have been recovered from Sewell's Cave, Flixton, Seamer Carr, Uxbridge and Thatcham.
[32] The spread and development of horse trappings recovered from this period, such as bits, strap junctions and terrets, have been used to indicate the withdrawal of ruling groups of Britons during the Roman conquest of Britain.
[33] A large amount of horse dung has been found in a well at a Roman fort in Lancaster, Lancashire, which was a base for cavalry units in the 1st and 2nd centuries.
[37] Some of the earliest evidence of horses used for sport in Britain also dates from Roman times, a chariot-racing arena having been discovered at Colchester, in Essex.
[52] In the 8th century, the Anglo-Saxon Bishop Willibald of Eichstätt wrote that, when a source of fresh water was needed for a monastery on the site where St Boniface had died, in the kingdom of Frisia, the ground gave way under the forelegs of a horse, and, when the horse was pulled free, a fountain of spring water came out of the ground and formed a brook.
[55] Although there is reference to Viking horsemen fighting in the 10th century Battle of Sulcoit, in Ireland, their primary use for horses in Britain – some of which they captured or seized, and some of which they brought with them – was to facilitate rapid travel.
[60] In the 11th century, Anglo-Saxon warriors on horseback fought successfully against Viking, Welsh and Scottish armies, the latter including Norman allies.
[61] Duke William of Normandy shipped horses across the English Channel when he invaded England in 1066, and the outcome of the subsequent Battle of Hastings has been described as "the inevitable victory of stirruped cavalry over helpless infantry".
[68] At the coronation of Edward I of England and his queen Eleanor of Castile in 1274, royal and aristocratic guests gave away hundreds of their own horses, to whoever could catch them.
Both tenant farmers and landlords were involved in the harrowing of land for arable crops in the relatively new open field system, and employed horses for this work.
In 1482, while in Scotland, King Edward IV established a temporary relay of riders between London and Berwick-upon-Tweed, which allowed messages to be transmitted within two days, and appears to have imitated a system used by Louis XI of France.
[75] Henry VIII appointed the first British Master of the Post in 1512: he established local postmasters, whose post-boys would carry royal mail from one stage to the next on horseback, in a system which "combined elements of several European models".
Annual round-ups on common land were enforced, and any stallion under the height limit was ordered to be destroyed, along with "all unlikely [small horses] whether mares or foals".
[81] Human population expansion in Britain during the reign of Elizabeth, and the resulting necessity for improvements in transport, increased the demand for good horses.
[82] During the Tudor and Stuart periods, horse ownership was more widespread in Britain than in continental Europe, but it suffered a decline in the harsh economic environment of the late 16th and early 17th centuries.
[83] Horses had been raced in Britain for hundreds of years by the time of King James VI of Scotland (1567 – 1625), but he brought the sport as it is known today into England from Scotland while he was king of both countries (1603 – 1625); he organised public races in a number of places, and continued to import quality animals aimed at the development of a new, lighter, faster type of horse.
The project succeeded, and was quickly copied by Cambridge University; by the end of Charles II's reign, in 1685, Flying Coaches ran three times a week from London to all major towns, in good conditions covering a distance of around fifty miles in a day.
In many cases a proprietor would work his horse teams only in his local district, but some owned many coaching establishments, and could provide transport over much greater distances.
[97] Horses remained the primary source of power for agriculture, mining, transport and warfare, until the arrival of the steam engine.
These initially used horse-drawn vehicles,[98] but developments in steam engines made them cheaper to run than horses, and more useful as a source of locomotive power on railways.
By 1840, numerous railway lines had been laid, forming networks such as that created by George Hudson;[100] the number of rail miles expanded from 1,497 in 1840 to 6,084 by 1850, and horse-drawn passenger coaches became virtually obsolete over long distances.
In a letter to The Farmer's Magazine in 1849, Alderman Kell of Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, commented that "[enough] ... has been said, although perhaps not mathematically correct, to show that horses are kept at vast expense in comparison with a steam engine that eats only when it works".
They compete in all equestrian disciplines, carry riders from novice to advanced on trekking and trail-riding holidays, work in riding schools, provide therapy for the disabled, and are much-loved companions and hacks.
The horses and riders of Great Britain have won numerous medals for eventing in equestrian sports at the Summer Olympic Games.
