The known history of the horse in Britain starts with horse remains found in Pakefield, Suffolk, dating from 700,000 BC, and in Boxgrove, West Sussex, dating from 500,000 BC. Early humans were active hunters of horses, and finds from the Ice Age have been recovered from many sites. At that time, land which now forms the British Isles was part of a peninsula attached to continental Europe by a low-lying area now known as "Doggerland", and land animals could migrate freely between what is now island Britain and continental Europe. The domestication of horses, and their use to pull vehicles, had begun in Britain by 2500 BC; by the time of the Roman conquest of Britain, British tribes could assemble armies which included thousands of chariots.
Horse improvement as a goal, and horse breeding as an enterprise, date to medieval times; King John imported a hundred Flemish stallions, Edward III imported fifty Spanish stallions, and various priories and abbeys owned stud farms. Laws were passed restricting and prohibiting horse exports and for the culling of horses considered undesirable in type. By the 17th century, specific horse breeds were being recorded as suitable for specific purposes, and new horse-drawn agricultural machinery was being designed. Fast coaches pulled by teams of horses with Thoroughbred blood could make use of improved roads, and coaching inn proprietors owned hundreds of horses to support the trade. Steam power took over the role of horses in agriculture from the mid-19th century, but horses continued to be used in warfare for almost another 100 years, as their speed and agility over rough terrain remained unequalled. Working horses had all but disappeared from Britain by the 1980s, and today horses in Britain are kept almost wholly for recreational purposes.
Pleistocene epoch
The earliest horse remains found in the area now covered by Britain and Ireland date to the Middle Pleistocene. Two species of horses have been identified from remains at Pakefield, East Anglia, dating back to 700,000 BC.Stuart, Tony (2006)"Exotic world before Suffolk" , British Archaeology (86). Retrieved 22 March 2011. Archived page Spear damage on a horse shoulder bone discovered at Eartham Pit, Boxgrove, dated 500,000 BC, showed that early hominids were hunting horses in the area at that time.Roberts, Mark (1996), "'Man the Hunter' returns at Boxgrove", British Archaeology (18). Retrieved 22 March 2011. The land the British Isles now comprise was periodically joined to continental Europe by a land bridge, extending from approximately the current coast of North Yorkshire to the English Channel, most recently until about 9,000 years ago. Dependent on the rise and fall of sea levels associated with advancing and retreating ice ages, this allowed humans and fauna to migrate between these areas; as the climate fluctuated, hunters could follow their prey, including equids."Huge ice age river carved the English Channel". The Independent. 2009. Retrieved 6&March 2012.
Although much of Britain from this time is now beneath the sea, remains have been discovered on land that show horses were present, and being hunted, in this period. Significant finds include a horse tooth dating from between 55,000 and 47,000 BC and horse bones dating from between 50,000 and 45,000 BC, recovered from Pin Hole Cave, in the Creswell Crags ravine in the North Midlands; further horse remains from the same era have been recovered from Kent's Cavern.Wragg Sykes, Rebecca (2009), "Neanderthals In Britain: Late Mousterian Archaeology in Landscape Context" 1, pp. 19, 34. University of Manchester. Retrieved 7 March 2012. In Robin Hood Cave, also in Creswell Crags, a horse tooth was recovered dating from between 32,000 and 24,000 BC; this cave has also preserved one of the earliest examples of prehistoric artwork in Britain – an engraving of a horse, on a piece of horse bone.Bahn, Paul (2003), "Art of the Hunters", British Archaeology (72). Retrieved 7 March 2012. A goddess figurine carved from horse bone and dating from around 23,000 BC has been recovered from Paviland Cave in South Wales.Dames, Michael (2005), "Footsteps of the Goddess in Britain and Ireland". Societies of Peace 2nd World Congress on Matriarchal Studies. Retrieved 7 March 2012.
Horse remains dating to the later part of this period – roughly coinciding with the end of the last glacial period – have been found at Farndon Fields, Nottinghamshire, dating from around 12,000 BC.Pitts, Mike (2010), "news (A moment in the life of an ice age hunter unique find)", British Archaeology (115). Retrieved 7 March 2012. Mother Grundy's Parlour, also in Creswell Crags, contains horse remains showing cut marks indicating that hunting of horses occurred there around 10,000 BC."Mother Grundy's Parlour" . Creswell Crags Museum & Heritage Centre. 2009. Retrieved 22 March 2011. A study of Victoria Cave in North Yorkshire produced a horse bone showing cut marks dating from about the same time.
Holocene period The Holocene period began around 11,700 years ago and continues to the present."International Stratigraphic Chart". International Commission on Stratigraphy. 2010. Retrieved 24 February 2012. Identified with the current warm period, known as "Marine Isotope Stage 1", or MIS 1, the Holocene is considered an interglacial period in the current Ice Age. Horse remains dating from the Mesolithic period, or Middle Stone Age, early in the Holocene, have been found in Britain, though much of Mesolithic Britain now lies under the North Sea, the Irish Sea and the English Channel, and material which may include archaeological evidence for the presence of the horse in Britain continues to be washed into the sea, by rivers and coastal erosion.
During the Devensian glaciation, the northernmost part of the peninsula from which Britain was formed was covered with glacial ice, and the sea level was about lower than it is today. This glacial ice advanced and retreated several times during this period, and much of what is now the North Sea and the English Channel was an expanse of low-lying tundra, which, around 12,000 BC, extended northwards to a point roughly parallel with Aberdeenshire, in eastern Scotland."Modern Human Evolution – 2008: Lecture 36" (Reconstructing drowned landscapes). University of Sussex. 2008. Retrieved 24 February 2012. In 1998, archaeologist B.J. Coles named this low-lying area "Doggerland", in which the River Thames flowed somewhat to the north of its current route, joining the Rhine to flow west to the Atlantic Ocean along the line of what is now the English Channel.Field, David (not dated), "Neolithic Geography and La Manche", Kent County Council. Retrieved 24 February 2012. Human hunters roamed this land, which, by about 8000 BC, had a varied coastline of lagoons, salt marshes, mudflats, beaches, inland streams, rivers, marshes, and included lakes. It may have been the richest hunting, fowling and fishing ground available to the people of Mesolithic Europe.Gaffney, Vincent (2008), "Global Warming and the Lost European Country" , Live Better Magazine. Retrieved 22 March 2011.
Horse remains dating from 10,500 to 8,000 BC have been recovered from Sewell's Cave, Flixton, Seamer Carr, Uxbridge and Thatcham.; ; . Remains dating from around 7,000 BC have been found in Gough's Cave in Cheddar.Jacobi, R.M. (1985), "The History and Literature of Pleistocene Discoveries at Gough's Cave, Cheddar, Somerset", Proceedings University of Bristol Spelæological Society 17(2), pp. 102–15. Retrieved 8 March 2012.; Denison, Simon (ed.; 1995), "NEWS (Kill site found of Palaeolithic hunt)", British Archaeology (4). Retrieved 8 March 2012.
Although there is an apparent absence of horse remains between 7000 BC and 3500 BC, there is evidence that wild horses remained in Britain after it became an island separate from Europe by about 5,500 BC. Pre-domestication wild horse bones have been found in Neolithic tombs of the Severn-Cotswold type, dating from around 3500 BC.; ; .
Domestication in pre-Roman times
Domesticated horses were present in Bronze Age Britain from around 2000 BC. Bronze Age horse trappings including snaffle bits have been found which were used in harnessing horses to vehicles; Bronze Age cart wheels have been found at Flag Fen and Blair Drummond, the latter dating from around 1255–815 BC, though these may have belonged to vehicles pulled by oxen. Early Bronze Age evidence for horses being ridden is lacking, though bareback riding may have involved materials which have not survived or have not been found; but horses were ridden in battle in Britain by the late Bronze Age.Osgood, Richard (1999), "Britain in the age of warrior heroes", British Archaeology (46). Retrieved 8 March 2012. Domesticated ponies were on Dartmoor by around 1500 BC."The Dartmoor Ponies" . Dartmoor National Park Authority. 2006. Retrieved 8 March 2012.
Excavations of Iron Age sites have recovered horse bones from ritual pits at a temple site near Cambridge,Denison, Simon (ed.; 2002), "news (Rare Iron Age temple excavated near Cambridge)", British Archaeology (66). Retrieved 8 March 2012. and around twenty Iron Age chariot burials have been found, including one of a woman discovered at Wetwang Slack."The Wetwang Chariot Burial". The British Museum. Retrieved 8 March 2012. The majority of Iron Age chariot burials in Britain are associated with the Arras culture, and in most cases the chariots were dismantled before burial. Exceptions are the Ferrybridge and Newbridge chariots, which are the only ones found to have been buried intact. The Newbridge burial has been radiocarbon dated to 520–370 BC, and the Ferrybridge burial is likely to be of similar date.Boyle, Angela (2004), "Riding Into History", British Archaeology (76). Retrieved 8 March 2012.
Towards the end of the Iron Age, there is much evidence for the use of horses in transport and battle, and for extensive trade between the inhabitants of Britain and other cultures.Richards, Julian (2011), "Overview: Iron Age, 800 BC – AD 43". BBC History. Retrieved 8 March 2012. A collection of Iron Age artefacts from Polden Hill in Somerset includes a very large hoard of horse gear,. and a rare, cast copper alloy cheekpiece dating from the late, pre-Roman Iron Age was found in St Ewe, Cornwall. The horse was an important figure in Bronze Age and Iron Age Celtic religion and myth, and is symbolised in the hill figure of the Uffington White Horse, near the Iron Age hill fort of Uffington Castle in Oxfordshire.
Roman Britain to the Norman Conquest
By the time of Julius Caesar's attempted invasion of Britain in 55 BC, the inhabitants of Britain included proficient horsemen. Caesar's forces were met by British horsemen and war chariots, the chariots outfighting the Gaulish horsemen who had accompanied him. Caesar later faced organised resistance led by Cassivellaunus, with over 4,000 war chariots. To the east of the Pennines, the Romans also encountered the Gabrantovici, or "horse-riding warriors". The spread and development of horse trappings recovered from this period, such as bits, strap junctions and terrets, have been used to indicate the withdrawal of ruling groups of Britons during the Roman conquest of Britain.