The signs of a bad horse according to Pietro de Crescenzi

Richard Marshal unhorses Baldwin of Guines.
From the Historia Major of Matthew Paris, Cambridge, Corpus Christi College Library, vol 2, MS 16, fol. 88r
Image from Wikimedia commons

After a description of what makes a good horse, it is a list of the signs of a bad horse that Pietro de Crescenzi gives. Horses, whether they were bought to work on a farm or to be used in warfare, were a big investment and had to be able to stay in work for a good number of years. That was why the moment of buying was so important. People thus had to be able to know what to look for in a horse, and what to avoid. 

“A horse who has big cheeks and a small neck cannot be lightly stopped at will. 

A horse who has four white hooves will not have hard feet. 

A horse who has ears that hand down and hollow eyes will by slow and heavy. And when the bridge of the nose is low, he cannot breathe through his nostrils, and has less value. 

When a horse can see during the day but not during the night, he is worth only half the initial value, and that is known because when you lead bum by night towards something that frightened him by day, he will not be afraid, and also he does not move his feet in the same way by night and by day. 

When the horse’s eyes [are affected (?)], he is less valued for when someone leads him north or in a cold place, he cannot see a thing, and when he is led in a dark place and in warm weather, he sees. 

A horse who lays his ears back all the time is of little value and less prized, for he is deaf. A horse who does not neigh or make noise with his mouth is deaf. 

A horse who has a stiff neck that is always stretched and who does not raise his head when he walks and never turns his neck right or left, is of little value and represents a great danger for the person riding him, because he cannot be turned at will and is worth nothing for military purposes. 

A horse whose knees are bent towards the ground is of little worth, because he has very bad gaits. 

You must not keep a horse whose front legs are bent like a bow; he is of little worth. 

A horse whose front legs always seem to move has a bad nature. 

A horse who raises his tail up and down has a bad vice. 

A horse on whom you always see a swelling on the knee will shortly lose his way. 

If you see hard swellings on the front feet of the horse, this will not hinder his work, and some say that if there is swelling on the front legs, harsh is the master who will say otherwise. 

A horse who has cracks around his feet and cannot be healed is of little worth, and because he cannot be healed, he is not attractive. 

A horse who has the hair on the joint of the feet growing in the opposite direction is not hindered in his work, and his hooves are harder. 

If a horse moves his foot in another manner from the other hoses, he is hindered in his work and his worth less. [The same (?)] if a horse hits his back feet against each other when he walks. 

If the testicles (?) of the horse are to big, he is ugly and cannot work. And if his penis is always hanging down, he is ugly and not worthy of being ridden by a gentleman. 

Morphea [a skin infection], that is whiteness on the neck or on the nose or on the eyes, makes the horse ugly but doesn’t stop him from working. (…)” 

Eyes, conformation and movement appeared to be very important, as is still the case today. Some of those statements are a little bit obscure, maybe because of mistakes made by the copyists or by translators who originally translated Pietro de Crescenzi’s treaty from Latin to Middle French. 

In spite of the fact that this is an agricultural treaty, warhorses are mentioned: it seems that no medieval text about horses is truly able to focus on something other than destriers. 

The idea that white hooves are weaker than dark ones is still believed today though scientific research has disproved it. Otherwise, it is interesting to see how practical this list is, with the author mentioning cosmetic defects but claiming they are not important. Except when they concern a horse’s privates. Because horses were so anthropomorphised in the Middle Ages, there was this idea the animal was a reflection of his rider, in the higher circles of society that is. This led to all sorts of moral interpretations of the behaviour of stallions and raised many questions concerning the riding of mares and geldings.