Alexander III. had several establishments for rearing horses, to be used in hunting as well as in war.[1]
I cannot find any record of the price of shoes in Scotland at this period. It is merely mentioned that in 1488, a dozen horse-shoes, two plough-irons, and the iron mountings of two ploughs which had been stolen, were valued at twenty shillings.[2] And in the Thane of Cawdor's Western Journey in 1591, there is an entry in his journal of expenses to the effect, that at Glasgow, one of the items in the host's bill was 'giffin to the smyth for your broun geldin's schoun xiij s iiij d.[3]
The English statutes of the reign of Edward VI. (1547-52) give us an approximate idea of the size of the horses commonly in use in England and Scotland. The stallions allowed to be imported into England for breeding purposes were to be fourteen hands high, and the mares fifteen hands.
So important did Henry VIII., the father of Edward VI., consider the possession of large and good horses, that he devised a law by which it was intended that none but these should be kept in the country, fixing a standard of value for that purpose, and regulating that the lowest stallion should be fifteen hands high, and the mares thirteen hands; and before they had arrived at their full growth, no stallion at two years old, under fourteen hands and a half, was permitted to run on any forest, moor, or
