Hi does anyone know when Horse Armour stopped being used for battle and started to become more decorative?

Question

When did it start being used more for ceremony and status. Anyone know of any good books on the subject?

Answer 1

Hmmm - - - - now that you bring it up all of the histories that I have read regarding Medeival War Fare tend to focus on people and I have never known there to be a book focusing eclusively on horses and war.
Actually Armour has always been over rated for humans & animals and despite a lot of fancy chrome on display in many museums most people figure out by the late 1400's that becoming weighed down with several dozen pounds of metal was impractical. It could be safe to say that by about 1450 the usefulness of full body armor was on the wane - - - please note that armor was always 'decorative' especially for well born Knights who had money to flaunt.

Note for modern Horses Kevlar Body Armor is available.

here is a wikipedia article you can play with.....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Horse




History of the horse in warfare

Greek chariot, circa 490 BCEThe earliest documented examples of horses playing a role in warfare date to the 19th century BC, when they were used in chariot warfare. The oldest preserved hippological text, the horse training manual of Kikkuli, dates to the age of the chariot. The first instance of cavalry was the horsed archer deployed by Eurasian nomads, notably the Parthians. The Iron Age provides the first evidence of mounted cavalry as a tool of war.


Haniwa horse statuette, complete with saddle and stirrups, 6th century, Kofun period, Japan. Tokyo National MuseumThough the saddle was invented fairly early on, arguably one of the most important inventions that made mounted cavalry particularly effective was the stirrup, appearing in about the 7th century AD, which gave nomadic tribes such as the Mongols a decisive military advantage.

The Muslim warriors who conquered North Africa and the Iberian peninsula in the 8th century, and the American Indian tribes of the Great Plains, such as the Comanche and the Cheyenne, demonstrated the efficiency of light mounted cavalry.

Heavy cavalry was an Iranian innovation, first appearing in the Parthian cataphracts of the third century BC, rising in importance until it reached its highest form in the plate-armoured knight of the European High Middle Ages.

During the Middle Ages, large horses with the strength and stamina to carry both a knight and his heavy armor into battle were highly prized.


Museum Display of an armored horse and knight of the European Middle Ages, Zwinger Museum, Dresden.In addition to size, this type of horse, known as a Destrier or Great Horse, was selected for speed and trainability. The expense of keeping, training and outfitting these specialized horses prevented the majority of the population from owning them. Modern breeds of draft horse such as Belgian, Percheron and Shire horse descended from the huge horses that carried armored knights and were often armored themselves.

Experts dispute the precise cause of the demise of the armored knight.[citation needed] Some claim it was the invention of gunpowder and the musket, others date it earlier, to the use of the English longbow that was introduced into England from Wales in 1250 and used with decisive force in conflicts such as the Battle of Crécy in 1346. In either case, technology evolved to counter the force of heavily-armored knights as shock troops.

With the development of muskets and other light firearms during the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, light cavalry again became useful for both battles and field communication, using fast, agile horses to move quickly across battlefields. The once-proud heavy armored charger of the medieval knight was relegated to hauling cannons and wagons of supplies.


"Napoleon I with his Generals." This painting shows the light cavalry horses used as officer's mounts in 18th and 19th century European warfare.Horses were particularly useful in the 16th century as a weapon of war for the Conquistadors. When these Spanish warriors came to the Americas and conquered the Aztec and Inca empires, horses and gunpowder provided a crucial edge. Because the horse had been extinct in the Western Hemisphere for approximately 10,000 years, the Indigenous peoples of the Americas had no warfare technologies that could overcome the considerable advantage provided by European horses and weapons.

Light cavalry remained a force on the battlefield until the 20th century. With the rise of the internal combustion engine, horses were displaced by modern tank warfare, which, ironically, is sometimes still referred to as "cavalry."

Horses were still seen in cavalry units during World War II, most famously when the underequipped army of Poland used their cavalry in a last-ditch attempt to defend themselves against the tank warfare of Nazi Germany. The German and the Soviet armies used horses until the end the war, not only to transport ammunitions and equipment, but also for reconnaissance and counter-insurgency efforts.

Though formal mounted cavalry is considered a thing of the past, in some Third World nations today, mounted units of armed fighters are still used for small-scale raiding, mostly against unarmed refugee and other civilian populations. Examples include the Janjaweed militias used in the Darfur region of SuTraining of war horses
A common misconception is that a war horse is simply a horse in armor. In fact, whether light or heavy cavalry, much training was required to overcome the horse's natural aversion to the smell of blood, and its natural disinclination to trample a person. A war horse's training would generally address its responsiveness to being controlled without reins, tolerance for the noises of battle, and its adaptability to weapons and armor the rider would be using. In addition, some war horses were trained to kick, strike and even bite on command, thus becoming weapons in the extended arsenal of the warriors they carried. The Haute ecole or "High School" movements of classical dressage taught to the famous Lipizzan horses at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna have their roots in maneuvers needed on the battlefield.

In addition to the historical traditions of armored warfare, the modern Olympic disciplines of eventing, show jumping, and dressage have roots in the skills required of the light cavalry horse of the 18th and 19th centuries. The ability to travel quickly over rough terrain and to cross formidable obstacles were crucial skills for carrying messages and coordinating troop movements. Officers also required basic dressage skills in their horses to keep them calm and obedient in tight quarters, able to move quickly on command. In the early decades of the modern Olympic movement, riders for national equestrian teams were drawn almost entirely from the ranks of cavalry officers.

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Horses in the military today

Horse Guards in LondonToday, the historical military uses of the horse have mostly evolved into peaceful applications. The graceful training techniques and equestrian competition known as dressage has its roots in training horses for battle maneuvres. Aficionados of military history also use horses to reenact significant battles, paying scrupulous attention to accurately reflect details of equipment, weaponry and battlefield conditions.

The Police Horse is a fixture in many large cities, used for patrol and crowd control. In rural areas, many Sheriff's offices have specially deputized, usually volunteer, search and rescue units who are often sent out to locate missing people in wilderness areas.


Lipizzan horses in the Slovenian armed forcesAlthough horses have little combat use today by modern armies, the military of many nations still keeps a few mounted units for certain types of patrol and reconnaissance duties in extremely rugged terrain, including the current conflict in Afghanistan.


U.S. special forces troops on horseback in Afghanistan, 2001Germany, Hungary, many Commonwealth nations, many Balkan nations, and nations that comprised Soviet Central Asia maintain cavalry units as part of light infantry and reconnaisance formations for use in mountainous terrain or areas where fuel supply may be difficult. Many nations also maintain traditionally-trained and historically uniformed cavalry units for exhibition purposes."

Answer 2

The 2 are still in being, and it has always been the case. I take it you are thinking about battles like Towton, and the like. But these were all part of Wars, in fact I can't think of any battles that were not part of wars. Whilst some may not be obvious, Towton was in the War of the Roses. The battle of Hastings 1066 was a war between Saxons and Normans and was waged over a number of years, it is merely that is the famous battle. Marathon was in the Persian Greco war 5th Century BC Carl Von Clausewitz wrote that war starts when diplomacy ends. In fact you could argue that it is the other way around, when did we stop having wars and start having Battles, the War of Jenkins Ear has as far as I know no actual pitched battles. The Egyptians frequently were at war with no recorded fighting taking place.

Answer 3

About the same time as human armor stopped being used except as ceremonial garb (like the cuirasses worn by Hussars and Horse Guards).
Gunpowder made it's entry onto the battlefield in a big way about 1500, with harquebuses and similar "one-man cannon". With a gun, any peasant with a week's training could down a knight and his horse that took years to train, a fortune to equip, and a centuries-long breeding program (for the horses, not the knights) to develop.
Prior to the 16th century, most firearms were pretty inaccurate, so armor and guns did co-exist for much of the 14th and 15th centuries. But by 1500, guns and firearm tactics had made horsed armor pretty much obsolete.
Cheers.

Answer 4

I imagine it probably stopped being used offensively in battle when the English gave the French heavy cavalry a pasting at Agincourt. The longbow served to cut down the horses and riders with relative ease. The armour on the horses became less effective, and then just used decoratively.

Answer 5

1

Answer 6

In my opinion it is still used but refined on police horses,bull fighting and l am positive its still used in some parts of the world in the more traditional manner

Answer 7

Tuesday 22nd March

Answer 8

It was used upto the 16th century like the knight gunpowdwer caused its demise and mobility became the norm

Answer 9

stephen slater has a good book on heraldry, if you look at the bbc website there was a program that covered suits of armour in detail. regards lf

Answer 10

4th june 1901-16th august 1938. There.

Answer 11

You're not the same guy who wanted to know about horse sex, are ya?