The Armour Archive

Hello, I'm Roger's wife.

I'm trying to find out about draught horses during the middle ages, and google keeps giving me stuff about destriers... I'm just looking for info about what breeds/types were used to pull wagons and carts. Nothing about warhorses--yes, I know destriers were not huge draught horses. Were the ones harnessed to wagons? When did the big feather-footed, roman-nosed breeds come into existance? (I also realize that breeds are pretty much a modern concept, but I'm asking if the horses of that size existed?)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/55808227@N ... otostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/55808227@N ... otostream/

I found these two illustrations (and can't remember were from) of horses pulling wagons that appear to have the right nose shape and slight feathers. Are they draught breeds/proto-draught breeds? Most pictures seem to show the horses pulling wagons as about the same size as those being ridden, but we all know proportion is kind of hit or miss in medieval art.

Likely all of the horse remains finds in the MoL digs were draught horses - none exceeded the 15hh range, and the published data ranges up to 1450.

Most of the carriage and draught horses we recognize today were bred up in the 18th century, the practise likely began in the 17th in some instances. Those with location names (Perche, Belgian, etc) confuse the issue, because horses were of course bred in these regions, but there is no indication that the horses bred exactly resemble the breeds existing today. 'Breeds', as we know them, just did not exist.

I take the liberty of adding the e-mail response of my friend, Drey, from Markland's Horse Guild. (I do longships, he does horses, we both share miseries. )

"de chambre's response pretty much sums it up: the concept of breeds did not exist, and that draft breeding as we'd call it did not exist prior to the 18th century.

Horses bred to pull cartage were developed as roads were built for freight hauling in municipalities. The lack of documentation is likely the result that this was mostly done on a small scale, local basis by farmers and over a period of time without much formal documentation (see above comment about modern breeds and all that goes with the keeping of breed registries). Keeping a breed registry is a part of the scientific revolution with agriculture, a set of practices developed in the 19th century for the most part."

The horses often listed as drafts - Clydesdales, Shires, Percherons, and Belgians - the heavy drafts were the work horses of the 18th century and rarely found below 16 hands which is above what you would find historically. They developed during the industrial revolution when we had lots of heavy equipment to move and processed goods that could be tightly packed for bulk shipment prior to the development of railroads and invention of automobile. There are other smaller draft breeds which were developed in different region to fill slightly different niches many of which would fit in a "under 15 hand" description and so might be closer to a medieval horse used for draft work. On the other hand there are breeds which are not draft specific which have thicker subsets which would be more apt for draft work and slimmer bloodlines considered more frequently for riding. Than again any horse is going to be able to pull more tha na person by himself and if you pull cargo with a horse it will develope the muscles to pull it and bulk up.

French 'draught' horse in the 'Tres Riches Heures of the Duc de Berry, c. 1412-1416


More often you see oxen doing draught work-
TRH/DdB, September


TRH/DdB, March


I'm actually interested in knowing when mules were 'invented', and when they began being used.
TRH/DdB, February

"...and here come the Budweiser oxen!"

Yeah, doesn't exactly have the same ring to it, does it?

I'm actually quite fascinated by the fact that the horse has a pulling collar, but the oxen appear to be pulling via a rope or something wrapped around the base of their horns.

Black Swan Designs wrote:Yeah, doesn't exactly have the same ring to it, does it?

I'm actually quite fascinated by the fact that the horse has a pulling collar, but the oxen appear to be pulling via a rope or something wrapped around the base of their horns.

Looks like the Oxen are yoked to a head Yoke.

That's one of the reasons why Oxen pre-dated horses as heavy draught animals. Oxen can be Yoked in a number of different ways with much simpler gear than horses. Untill the development of the draught collar for horses, they were not as efficient as Oxen. Wikipedia actually has some usefull stuff on this.

According to this book, the largest intact medieval horse skeleton found in London is just under 16 hh, but most of the horses and ponies found by archaeologists were between 12 1/2 and 15 hh.

There's also an interesting book on draught animals and pulling technology in medieval England by John Langdon. He mentions that the excavations at Petergate in York and the deserted village of Wharram Percy have turned up animals no larger than 15 hh.