82 THE DOMESTICATION OF ANIMALS 



being let loose in the forest, where the foals ran wild for 

 three years, until they were broken in. The best horses 

 were selected and kept apart in the parks about the Baron's 

 castle. Can there be any doubt that this system of forest- 

 run horses the silvestres equi possessed by the Kings as 

 well as by their Barons gave rise to the "wild horses" of 

 later centuries ? 



In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the selective 

 breeding of horses in Scotland became more general, but 

 with one main end in view, the building up of a race fitted 

 for carrying a horseman and the accoutrements and impedi- 

 ments of war. There is yet no trace of the development of 

 a heavy agricultural breed, for still " the slow team 6f steers 

 reluctant " pressed the yoke and the horse was reserved for 

 the lighter toils of carrying the fruits of the harvest to mill 

 or market. There was nevertheless considerable store of 

 horses in the country, for every burgess had to keep in 

 stable, ready for the public service, a horse worth 20 shillings ; 

 and the export to England so increased that in 1396, King 

 David Bruce felt compelled to put a heavy tax one sixth 

 of the value upon each horse exported, lest the country 

 should become impoverished of an essential adjunct of 

 war. Similar and more stern restrictions on export were 

 passed periodically by Parliament during the succeeding 

 centuries. 



Already in the fourteenth century, the persistent selection 

 for war-horses had resulted in the differentiation of two 

 breeds, for at the battle of Halidon Hill in the reign of 

 King Robert Bruce, Froissart, who was present and describes 

 the whole Scottish army of 3000 men as mounted on horse- 

 back, mentions that the knights and squires rode coursers 

 but the peasants small horses. Yet, more than a hundred 

 years later, Aeneas Silvius, the Pope's Nuncio, describes 

 our horses as mostly small-sized pacers, that were never 

 dressed by brush nor comb. 



In the beginning of the fifteenth century, there was 

 inaugurated a new policy of improving the old breed by 

 the infusion of new blood of good quality from abroad. 

 From this time on, two distinct and divergent tendencies 

 are observable in the policies of the Kings : one towards 

 improving the quality of horses as regards speed, the other 



