In 2014 I bought my first horse, Fancy. She looks perfect for my daughter, but I thought she would be just barely big enough for me. However, when I looked at medieval horses, it appears that she would be relatively large for a medieval horse. She is approximately 15.1 hands high at the withers (that’s about 5’ 1”, or 155 cm, at the highest part of the back, just behind the front legs). She currently weighs about 960 lb. From illustrations and measurements of surviving medieval horse armour in the British Royal Armouries, it appears that horses bred for military use were actually in the range of 14 to 15 hands. One well known illustration supporting this is from the Luttrell Psalter.
If we assume that Lady Agnes Luttrell was of average height (5’ 2”), then her eyes would be at about the height of the withers. He husband is clearly taller, and he would have stood shoulder-to-shoulder with his horse. Many other illustrations, including the Bayeux Tapestry, show horses reaching only to the shoulder height of their riders.
Even if we assume that the well-fed men and women portrayed in art were taller than average, most of the 15th and 16th C illustrations show horses between 14 and 15 hands. Some are even smaller.
Studies of surviving bits (which fit into the mouth and therefore can be a useful estimate of head size) also seem to show that horses had smaller mouths, consistent with horses of no more than 14 to 15 hands. Similar studies of surviving horseshoes and hoof cores, compared to modern shoes and hoofs, show that only the largest available shoes would fit an average modern horse. From this, it is safe to assume that I, being the average height of a medieval man (5’ 8”), can safely ride Fancy. Assuming I can get my daughter to let me try…
Fancy, with my daughter, who is 5’ 4”tall.
Source: The Medieval Horse and its Equipment, edited by John Clark. Museum of London; 19
There has been some discussion that the size of the people in painting had a direct relation to their importance, so the woman is not nec so small or the man so tall. This makes using them to judge the size of the horse less useful than other studies of horse size. That being said, 14 – 15.2 is a good average height.
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Size based on importance is true, especially in religious images with donors, but you also need to look at the proportions between man and his horse. They tend to have the withers at shoulder height regardless, so if you know the height of the man (such as the case of Luttrell), you can make a good estimate of the size of the horse.
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