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:
“Whenever there are in any country uncultivated lands and unemployed poor, it is clear that the laws of property have been so far extended as to violate natural right. The earth is given as a common stock for man to labor and live on.... The small landowners are the most precious part of a state.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“Laws remain in credit not because they are just, but because they are laws. That is the mystic foundation of their authority; they have no other.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)