HI] 



AND HISTORIC TIMES 



337 



horse, and though not finelie, yet verie stronglie made, and 

 therefore more meete for the shocke than to pass a cariere, or 

 to make a swift manege, because they be verie grosse and 

 heavie, yet by industrie they are made lighter behind than 

 before : for their riders do use in their maneging to make them 

 to turn alwaies with their hinder parts, and not with their fore 

 parts:... The desposition of this Horse (his heavy mould con- 

 sidered) is not evill, for he is verie tractable, and will labour 

 indifferentlie by the way, but his pace for the most part is a 

 verie hard trot." 



Fig. 94. The Flanders Horse. 



Stradanus' drawing of the German horse, here reproduced 

 (Fig. 93), admirably illustrates Blundeville's words. 



As might have been expected, the horses of the Low 

 Countries were very similar to the German. They are 

 especially interesting for our purpose, inasmuch as it was on 

 the Lower Rhine that the German tribes first obtained horses 

 of a superior kind to mount an organised cavalry. Blundeville 

 speaks thus of the Flanders horse : " The Flanders Horse in 

 his shape, disposition, and face, differeth in a manner nothing 

 from the Almaine Horse : saving that for the most part he is 

 of a greater stature, and more puissant. The Mares also of 

 R. H. 22 



