Everything about Palfrey totally explained
A
Palfrey is a type of
horse, not a breed of horse, and was highly valued as a
riding horse in the
Middle Ages.
The word "palfrey" is cognate with the German word for horse (of any type), "Pferd". Both descend from Latin "paraveredus", meaning a post horse or courier horse. The German term for a palfrey, meanwhile, is
Zelter, which literally means "
ambler" and is cognate with the
Icelandic tölt.
Breeding
The term 'palfrey' usually referred to the most expensive and highly-bred types of riding horse during the Middle Ages, sometimes equalling the
knight's destrier in price. Consequently, it was popular with nobles, ladies and highly-ranked knights for riding,
hunting and ceremonial use.
Gait
The significant characteristic of the palfrey was that, rather than
trotting, it usually possessed a smooth,
ambling gait. The amble was the name given to a group of smooth, four-beat
gaits faster than a walk, but slower than a
canter or gallop. The
trot is a two-beat gait, about 8 mph, suitable for covering a lot of ground relatively fast. However, the horse also has a bit of a spring in its motion as it switches diagonal pairs of legs with each beat, and thus can be rough for a
rider, and jostles about packs or weaponry to a considerable degree. The amble is about as fast as the trot, not tiring for a horse that performs it naturally, and much smoother for the rider. Thus, because much ground transportation in the Middle Ages was on horseback, with long distances to be covered, a smooth-gaited horse was much desired.
An amble is achieved by the horse when it moves with a 4 step rhythm, either derived from the two-beat lateral gait known as the
pace or from the diagonal trot, with the two beats broken up so there are four. There are several variations, but most either have a lateral sequence of footfalls (left hind, left front, right hind, right front), or a diagonal sequence (left hind, right front, right hind, left front). In either case, only one foot is all the way off the ground at a time. Such a gait can be maintained for long distances, and sometimes at considerable speed.
Ambling horses are now uncommon in Europe. They were effectively replaced by trotting horses for several reasons. The first was that travel by
carriage became more common, and trotting horse breeds were generally larger and stronger, more suited to the job at hand. Another reason was the rise of the
Thoroughbred and other breeds developed for
horse racing and for light
cavalry, both of which required horses able to
gallop for substantial periods of time. Breeds swift at the gallop also tend to trot rather than pace or amble.
The smooth ambling gaits today have many names, including the single-foot, the stepping pace, the tolt, the rack, the paso corto, and the fox trot. (
see ambling) Though ambling horses are less common today than in the
Middle Ages, there are still many ambling
breeds, particularly in
North America where today they're referred to as
gaited horses. Some of these breeds include the
Missouri Fox Trotter,
Tennessee Walking Horse,
Icelandic horse and a sub-group within the
American Saddlebred. The
Paso Fino and the
Peruvian Paso, breeds developed in
Latin America, perform two or three different ambling gaits of varying speed, and are probably the closest modern descendants of the medieval Palfrey.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Palfrey'.
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