Horse Riding

[watervole]

katlinel asked me to talk about horse riding.

I've never actually ridden a horse, my experience is limited to donkey rides on the beach as a child.

However, I know two interesting facts about horse riding, so I shall tell you about those.

Stirrups first appeared in China in the 4th century AD and spread rapidly. Stirrups changed the basic tactics of mounted warfare and made cavalry more important. Braced against the stirrups, a knight could deliver a blow with a lance that employed the full weight and momentum of horse and rider together.

Historically, horses used in warfare were much smaller than we tend to think. I remember an episode of time team where they dug up a bit and bridle (might have been Romano-British, but I'm not certain). It was of a size to fit a child's pony. However, it would have been ridden by an adult. If you look at the pictures on the BAyeux Tappestry http://www.bayeuxtapestry.org.uk/Bayeux24.htm you can see how close the riders' feet are to the ground.

And finally, a fact about horses rather than horse-riding. Some modern horses are enormous. Some Shire horses are staggeringly big. I remember standing next to one once. Not only was the horse enormous, but it had an erection the size of - well, if I told you, you wouldn't believe me.

Comments

[temeres.livejournal.com]

As I understand it, the size of shire horses ties in with the military side. They had to breed big horses to carry all those heavily armoured knights, along with the horse armour.

Apparently, big horses don't fare so well in cold climates, as the Germans found out when General Winter struck the Wehrmacht in 1941. Scrawny little Russian ponies, however, survived quite nicely. That might be why the fully mailed knight was a western European thing.