The medieval horse: state-of-the-art perspectives on a culturally significant species

As we move into the Chinese Lunar Year of the Horse, it is an apt moment to revisit the animal's long and complex relationship with humans-one that is explored from different, albeit complementary, angles in two books focusing on the Middle Ages.More than simply a beast of burden, the horse was emblematic of power, social order and productivity across the medieval world.During this period, it enabled military dominance through the increasing use of mounted cavalry, defined aristocratic status and transformed agriculture.Across Eurasia, horses facilitated communication, administration, mobility and of course regime change and colonisation accompanying conquest, while occupying a powerful place in medieval cultures as symbols of elite identity, authority and divine judgement.Until recently, scholarship on the medieval horse has been fragmented across disciplines, and traditionally dominated by the study of historical sources.Archaeological approaches, largely concerned with fragmentary equestrian equipment and the skeletal remains of horses, have been more disparate.With a few exceptions (such as John Clark's The medieval horse and its equipment, c. 1150-1450 (1995) which focused on London), data has been limited to specific sites, with little in the way of broader syntheses.This explains the significance of the first book reviewed below-Medieval warhorse-which is the outcome of the ambitious, multidisciplinary 'Warhorse: the archaeology of a medieval revolution?' project that focused on Britain (and especially England).The second book-The medieval horse-provides a wider-ranging history of the horse across the medieval world, spanning the early to late medieval periods and incorporating examples from across Europe and Asia.It also draws on the author's lived experience and equestrian knowledge.