Thanks for the site, Lyn. I'll take a look at it. I'm glad you reminded me that the stallion was called the Godolphin. As you will know, this family are still important to horse racing and breeding. Am I right in saying that this horse was imported from Turkey? As for the difference between riding horses and coach horses, there were no coaches around here in the 17th century and very few carts. As I wrote previously, there weren't an awful lot of horses. I agree that most of them were probably dual purpose, riding and draft but the draft must have been more or less confined to plough-pulling. In a terrain that supported, in the main, cattle and sheep there wasn't the demand for a great deal of ploughing either. The few cases in which the horses were just for riding, it was made plain that this was their use. There were very few that had that type of animal and in each case it was a mare which, I assume, had the dual purpose of riding and breeding. Most farms were subsistence only. There weren't many animals to each farm, just enough to support the family, plus a little extra to sell to others. The odd one that was larger and had wider commercial interests stood out from the rest. Audrey ----- Original Message ----- From: "Lyn Boothman" <annys@boothman27.fsnet.co.uk> To: "'norman.lee1'" <norman.lee1@virgin.net>; <OLD-ENGLISH-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, August 10, 2004 9:52 PM Subject: RE: [OEL] Common vs Open > The Godolphin Arabian, one of the first, and probably the most important, of > the arabian stallions in this country died in 1753 and is buried at > Wandlebury just outside Cambridge. I put godolphin+arabian into google and > the first site on this list gives a comprehensive summary of his life and > descendants, you can find it at > http://www.tbheritage.com/Portraits/GodolphinArabian.html > > I have seen early 17th century lists/accounts with reference to riding > horses, but whether that means they were physically different from coach > horses or just that they were horses commonly used for riding, is another > matter. > > Lyn B > > >