4 
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 ona 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 
