Horse owners in the medieval period were obviously guided by a horses’ biological requirements, but there were some variations to today.

One difference in available feed then to now is the prevalence of horse bread. This was widely used as an easily transportable and simple to preserve source of feed.  When thinking about horse bread the idea of fluffy white modern bread is not accurate; in fact, high-quality white bread was reserved for only the richest of tables.  Horse bread was very probably made from mainly beans, but also pea flour among other things, which would have been more beneficial to a horse’s digestive system then a glutenous wheat-based bread which if overfed could cause complications.  It was a cheap bread that the poor sometimes resorted to eating in hard times, and its production was, as were many aspects of medieval commerce, regulated.  This is demonstrated in the Calendar of Letter-Books of the City of London, 1378:

“Also that no horse bread be made except of pure beans and peas, without mixture of other grain or bran, under heavy penalty”

A hundred years later, regulation was still required to maintain standards.  For instance, the price and weight of loaves was set in York in 1482:

“..as long as the price of beyns beyn at iiii s. or above that the baxters of this cite shall sell thre hors lofys for i d. and that every lofe shall weye thre pound, and yf the price of beyns be ondyr iiii s. that then every baxter <of this cite> shall sell three hors lofys for i d. and that every lofe shall weye fowr pound”

 Slightly later on, Gervase Markham stipulated that horse bread could consist of a range of ingredients such as wheat, oats, peas, beans, short grass, or (presumably) chopped sweet hay or straw.  Clearly the qualities and contents varied slightly from location to location, but where commerce was under the governance of the guild system in cities it could be more rigidly controlled. That horse bread was in widespread use as an equine feed is in no doubt.  One only has to look at the household accounts of John Howard, Duke of Norfolk during the 1460s, to see the frequency of expenditure on horse bread.  It is mentioned alongside other foodstuffs such as oats and hay and is recorded very frequently.

 As a hard, or non-forage feed, cereals were certainly fed; oats being the primary additional energy source.  I have not yet found any evidence suggesting that they were rolled, crushed, or prepared in any way, so the benefit derived from them would have been arguably less than processed oats widely available today.  In fact, Walter of Henley references cereals as not being processed. Unprepared barley is mentioned as being unsuitable for horses, due to potential irritation to the horses’ mouth from the husks and is recommended as being used in small quantities to stop horses consuming chaff too quickly.  Unprepared oats are not as rough so were considered suitable for horses, and in fact are still carried by most feed merchants today.  Oats could be mixed with bran, and were even bought pre-mixed, a hint of the convenience offered centuries later.

The stipulated amounts available or theoretically provisioned to certain types of horse are available to us from 13th Century royal stud records in England. Stallions were allotted more than mares, cart-horses (affers) and others. The average cost of feeding a stallion through winter was 2.3d per day, for Oats and hay.  For mares it was just over 1.5d.

Horses of differing types had their rations supplemented by freshly cut grass when needing extra calories or building up for a period of activity.  The equitium regis accounts of royal studs in the 13th Century make mention of it for supplementing stallion’s rations, both bought and freshly cut.  The stallion, named “Morel de Ber” had 3s 4d allotted for bought grass, and 7d for cutting and transporting – presumably from demesne lands.  Walter of Henley also recommends feeding grass to plough horses to ensure that “the horse is to be in condition to do his work” and that feeding at least 12d worth of grass during summer is necessary.  He also recommends that the Ox gets the same. 

Feeding cut grass is something that is avoided in modern equestrian circles, due to the relatively short period of time that it takes grass to ferment, especially in summer if it is not managed properly.  Fermented grass is then a dangerous trigger to gaseous colic and other digestive issues.  However, there are no hints in the medieval records as to the process of producing the grass supplement, and it may be that it is more akin to the modern product “hayledge” – which is partially dried and then vacuum sealed, and used as a dust-free, and more nutritious form of forage.  It could well be that the cut grass mentioned was long, and therefore lower in sugar than short grass which if managed correctly by sheaving, ventilating, and preventing decomposition could end up more like hayledge.  If the cut grass was of a longer length purchased fairly locally and transported and fed quickly then many of the modern risks associated with it may not have applied.

Forage, the most vital part of a horse’s diet was usually grass, and again Walter of Henley discusses the benefits of differing pastures and their virtues, or not.  When stabled then hay was fed.  An anonymous late 13th / early 14th Century treatise on estate management states that it should cost one penny for three acres to be weeded (although the writer doesn’t state whether that is meadow or arable), and an acre of meadow to be mown for fourpence.  This opens up the possibility that there was an awareness and importance placed of managing meadows with respect to undesirable or dangerous plants making their way into the food chain; dried ragwort is particularly dangerous to horses and modern farmers usually use chemicals to control weed growth.  Walter of Henley advises not weeding before St. John’s day (24th June) because to do so would cause the weeds, especially thistles, to propagate.  With selective weeding of known dangerous or undesirable plants, and no chemical weed killers, meadow hay would have been full of supplemental plants beneficial to a horses’ wellbeing.

 Again, In the equitium regis accounts for the 13th century the generic standard issue of hay was four bushels daily.  A bushel is a measure of volume that has had a variety of configurations throughout history, but very roughly speaking is about 40 litres volume.  This is the same as a large tubtrug, or a medium haynet.  Given that the ability to pack a measuring container would have been limited to human strength, my estimations are that this would result in 1 bushel of hay weighing no more than 4kg; so 16kg daily.  Horses generally need to consume about 2.5% of their bodyweight in roughage per day to maintain condition, unless it is cold, or they are working very hard.  The daily ration of 16KG would be about right for a 500KG horse, but obviously there are a number of variables that would make this a very inaccurate science.

It is abundantly clear that great care, effort and expense was taken in the upkeep and feed of horses in the medieval period, ensuring that they were a commodity only for necessity or the very wealthy.

Bibliography:

1. Walter of Henley’s Husbandry, W. Cunningham - ISBN 978-93-89169-13-3

2. Horse breeding in the medieval world, C. Gladitz - ISBN 978-18-51822-70-6

3. The York House books 1461-1490, volume1, L. Attreed - ISBN 978-08-62999-36-0

4. Howard Household books, ISBN 978-7-50901-43-7