Horses became more important on farms when towns grew and farmers needed to carry food to market in carts. Horses had been used as pack animals before, but carts and wagons could carry much more. A packhorse could not carry more than 400 pounds, but with a cart, the same horse could transport a ton of hay. Horse breeding and care became more important, and horse markets grew. Horses were bred for size, and, over the last centuries of the Middle Ages, the average horse size grew by one or two hands.
Large international horse markets were held in cities like Antwerp, Cologne, and Genoa. Breeders sent agents into North Africa to buy Arabian horses and combed Europe for the best stock. Horses from the various regions across Europe were considered different breeds. The most prized horses in Northern Europe came from Spain and were often called Castilian horses. They were part North African Barb and perhaps part Arabian. They were among the tallest horses. Arabian horses in the Middle East and parts of Spain were small but very swift, had thin, elegant heads and legs, and were valued for breeding. Hungarian and Danish horses were smaller but were considered very strong, and Hungarian horses often had slit nostrils to help them breathe better while running. Horses bred in Normandy were heavily muscled. Horses from southern Italy were light boned and made good palfreys for riding but not destriers; northern Italian horses were larger.
In the 12th century, London’s Smithfield Fair became known for weekly horse sales that continued into the 19th century. Medieval horses were generally divided into the uses they were trained for. A visitor to the Smithfield Fair described seeing tall palfreys, warhorses, rounceys for general riding, plow horses (also called affers), and pack horses (also called sumpter horses). Some pack horses were mules, since donkeys were even more plentiful than horses during the Middle Ages.
Palfreys were somewhat smaller than destriers but were nearly as expensive and carefully bred. They were supposed to have quiet temperaments, unlike the destriers. Palfreys were used for hunting, ceremonial parades, and general travel among the aristocracy. Rounceys were grouped by the gait they were trained to use. The gallopers were called coursers and were ridden by men at arms and messengers. Some rounceys were trained to trot and were used by gentlemen as their main riding horse. Amblers were trained to walk with a simple rocking gait by moving their same-side legs at the same time. Both left legs, then both right legs, moving in tandem. This gait is not natural to horses. Amblers were the lady’s choice of a riding horse; Chaucer’s Wife of Bath rode an ambler. Amblers were slow moving, and they were bred and chosen for their easy-going natures. People who were inexperienced riders always hired amblers for journeys. Jennets were smaller horses for aristocratic ladies. They were probably more Arabian in breeding, since they came out of Spain. In Spain, jennets were used as warhorses.
In towns, few people owned horses. Towns were small, and most people could do their business on foot. Horses were for long journeys and had to be rented. On these journeys, horses ate a special type of bread baked for them, made of beans and peas, along with the ordinary hay. Businessmen who rented horses for a living were called, in medieval English, hackneymen. The daily hire for a horse might equal the day wages of a skilled laborer, so hackneymen were certainly able to make a good living. On routes with high traffic, such as London to Dover, hackney horses were often branded to discourage theft. Chaucer’s Tabard Inn, where his company of pilgrims met to start for Canterbury, was one place to rent horses. These horses made the journey to and from Canterbury repeatedly.
Medieval people raced horses, although, in most times and places, the game was restricted to those who could afford horses: the aristocracy. In Italy, however, the cities organized horse races to celebrate the holidays of their patron saints. By the 14th century, the races, called palios after the traditional prize of a costly palio robe, were well organized and traditional. Boys, sometimes dressed in the livery of the guild that employed them, were the jockeys, and the races were often run in the city square, rather than in a field outside the city.
The game of polo was developed in Central Asia during the Middle Ages. Polo was their war training game, as jousting at tournaments was battle training for Northern European knights. Polo required the horses and riders to be trained to work together and to make quick turns and sudden stops.