You might picture knights charging into battle on towering steeds, but medieval horses were typically no bigger than modern-day ponies.
An analysis of around 2,000 horse bones from English archaeological sites dating between 300 and 1650 AD found that the vast majority of horses were less than 148cm (58in) high (the defined maximum height of a pony today).
The breeding of war horses likely focused on behaviour and physical proportions rather than raw size, and there may even have been advantages to a smaller horse in battle: if a knight was knocked off, it’d be easy to remount.
This article is an answer to the question (asked by Tom Bletsoe, via email) 'How big were medieval war horses?'
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