Working Horses in London

For centuries, London and its citizens relied on horses, donkeys, and mules to provide the necessities and luxuries of life. There was scarcely an event or activity in England’s capital that did not in some way require equine support. A twelfth-century description of London’s most famous horse fair, Smithfield, shows the importance of the pack horses, swift palfreys, powerful war horses and draught mares and their foals to the economy and social life of the city. Horses were still on sale a...