Introducing my research project

One of the ideas behind this blog being to showcase some of the historical research I do on medieval horses, it is maybe time that I introduced my main project. More than a project actually and more like (I hope) a career plan. 

I have just embarked on a PhD at the University of Exeter (UK). My subject is the breaking-in and training of horses in medieval France. It will be an interdisciplinary project drawing on a wide range of source material, from manuscripts to the archaeological remains of riding equipment. 

I am very excited about this project. I have spent months, years even, elaborating it. It was during the first year of my Master’s degree that I started researching medieval horse-training. I chose this as the subject of my dissertation for my second year. I then decided that it was so interesting that it was worth continuing that research, this time with a PhD. 

The main author I will study is Jordanus Rufus (Giordano Ruffo) (c. 1200-1254), an Italian knight who, in 1250, wrote a veterinary treaty, the De Medicina Equorum. Though the bulk of this treaty is focussed on equine illnesses and their remedies, the first chapters describe, among other things, how to break-in and train a future warhorse. This manuscript became quite popular all over Europe just after it was written and was translated in several vernacular languages, including French. It was also reused by several authors in their own treaties, including Pietro de Crescenzi whom I quoted extensively in previous blog posts, such as the one about what makes a good horse in the Middle Ages. 

I will endeavour to pinpoint the training techniques used, understand the reasons behind them, try to determine the effects they would have on live horses, determine the popularity of a certain method over another… Because the written sources are very much centred on the valuable destriers, warhorses will be my main focus, though I will certainly try to gather more information about the training of other types of horses. 

The subject of horse-breaking and training fascinates me. It is very much determined by a cultural mindset and reflects not only the expectations surrounding horses but also the way they are perceived. The way people train their horses reveal a lot about them and this is part of what interests me. Why is a certain method used? What does it mean about the way the horse is understood? What mindset does it require? What I’m hoping is not only to learn more about medieval horses but to uncover the complexity of the medieval mentality towards them. 

Even nowadays, there is not one way of breaking-in a horse. It varies from country to country, from individual to individual even. And it is easy to judge and disparage methods that do not fit our vision of how things should be. However, that does not mean we should not try to understand why and how they are used, all the more so since modern scientific research enables us to have a better knowledge of their effects on horses. 

I will probably be making regular updates on this blog about how the project goes, and share some of the facts I come across. So if the subject of medieval horse training interests you, watch this space!