Barding. Barding (also spelled bard or barb) is body armour for war horses. Did medieval horses have armor? Throughout the Middle Ages in Europe, knights and their horses wore steel armor. Such armor is heavy, often weighing more than 50 Read more…
Horses were one of the first things traded in the Columbian exchange. They were used for a variety of reasons and really affected life in the Americas. Horses allowed Native Americans to travel to find food and other supplies. Horses Read more…
Evolution. The very first horses evolved on the North American grasslands over 55 million years ago. Then, they deserted North America and migrated across the Bering land bridge into what is now Siberia. From there, they spread west across Asia Read more…
47 Million Years Ago, Horses Were About the Size of a Labrador Dog. Researchers open a window onto ancient mammal evolution using fossils from Germany. Did horses used to be the size of dogs? The preconceived notion that the horse Read more…
They were adopted in the twelfth century in response to conditions of campaigning in the Crusades, where local armies employed archers, both on foot and horse, in large quantities. The covering might not completely protect the horse against the arrows Read more…
The reason large horses were so effective in warfare and in tournaments was because their weight gave greater force to the impact of the knight’s lance. By the 14th century, an average warhorse would weigh between 1,200 and 1,400 pounds Read more…
Although horses appeared in Paleolithic cave art as early as 30,000 BCE, these were wild horses and were probably hunted for meat. When did horses first appear on Earth? 55 million years agoThe earliest known horses evolved 55 million years Read more…
Knights were expected to have at least one war horse (as well as riding horses and packhorses), with some records from the later Middle Ages showing knights bringing twenty-four horses on campaign. Five horses was perhaps the standard. Do knights Read more…
Horses, the scientists conclude, were first domesticated 6000 years ago in the western part of the Eurasian Steppe, modern-day Ukraine and West Kazakhstan. And as the animals were domesticated, they were regularly interbred with wild horses, the researchers say. Why Read more…
The first horses to return to the main continent were 16 specifically identified horses brought by Hernán Cortés in 1519. Subsequent explorers, such as Coronado and De Soto brought ever-larger numbers, some from Spain and others from breeding establishments set Read more…