Common Foundation
European horses in the Middle Ages could fall into several categories, though as a group they were likely common, small, and primitive by modern standards. There were small, hardy farm horses, smooth-stepping saddle horses, quicker "coursers", and a very few highly prized, powerful destriers. As the availability of firearms grew, heavily armored knights and their heavy mounts became impractical "relics of the past."
The Spanish horses, ancestors of the Andalusian, the Danish Fredriksborg, and the Neapolitan horse were particularly popular among the German nobility during the 17th and 18th centuries. As they collected these stallions, the residents bred them to their native mares, setting a foundation we would identify today as "baroque". From this base of thick, primarily dark-colored horses, the Groningen, Friesian, East Friesian, and Oldenburg would eventually be born.
Read more about this topic: Heavy Warmblood
Famous quotes containing the words common and/or foundation:
“The hourly kindness, the day’s common speech,
The habitual content of each with each
When neither soul nor body has been crossed.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“Whenever any form of government shall become destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, & to institute new government, laying it’s foundation on such principles & organising it’s powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety & happiness.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)