horses only for the sake of greater mobility, 

 and were what in modern phrase are styled 

 mounted infantry. 



Saxons and Danes brought horses of 

 various breeds into England, primarily to 

 carry on their warfare against the British ; 

 the most useful of these were horses of 

 Eastern blood, which doubtless performed 

 valuable service in improving the English 

 breeds. The Saxon and Danish kings of 

 necessity maintained large studs of horses 

 for military purposes, but whether they took 

 measures to improve them by systematic 

 breeding history does not record. 



King Alfred (871 to 991) had a Master of 

 the Horse, named Ecquef, and the existence 

 of such an office indicates that the Royal 

 stables were ordered on a scale of consider- 

 able magnitude. 



King Athelstan (925-940) is entitled to 

 special mention, for it was he who passed 

 the first of a long series of laws by which 

 the export of horses was forbidden. Athel- 

 stan's law assigns no reason for this step ; 

 but the only possible motive for such 

 a law must have been to check the trade 

 which the high qualities of English-bred 

 horses had brought into existence. At no 

 period of our history have we possessed 



