Breed of Horses Act 1535 & Horses Act 1540 facts for kids

The Breed of Horses Act 1535 and the Horses Act 1540 were special laws passed by the Parliament of England a long time ago. Their main goal was to make sure England had stronger and better horses. These laws aimed to improve the quality of horses through careful Horse breeding. They were later cancelled by another law in 1863.

Why England Needed Better Horses: The 1535 Act

The Breed of Horses Act 1535 was passed because people noticed that many horses in England were becoming too small and weak. The law said that "little horsis and naggis of small stature and valeu" were being allowed to roam and breed freely. This meant the overall quality of horses was getting worse.

To fix this, the law made new rules for horse owners. If you owned a fenced-in area for deer, you had to keep at least two female horses, called mares. These mares needed to be taller than 13 hands high. They were only allowed to breed with male horses (stallions) that were at least 14 hands high. This was to make sure that only bigger, stronger horses were used for breeding.

New Rules for Horse Breeding: The 1540 Act

The Horses Act 1540 brought in even stricter rules to improve horse breeds. This law said that no stallion shorter than 15 hands (about 152 centimeters) was allowed to roam freely on common land. Common land was open land that many people could use. Also, no mare shorter than 13 hands (about 132 centimeters) could run wild.

The law also said that young male horses, called colts, that were two years old and shorter than 11.2 hands (about 117 centimeters) were not allowed to be in areas where mares were kept.

Checking Horse Heights

To make sure these rules were followed, annual "round-ups" were ordered on common lands. During these round-ups, any stallion that was too short was ordered to be destroyed. This sounds harsh, but the idea was to remove smaller horses from the breeding pool so that only the biggest and strongest horses would pass on their genes.

A Change in the Rules

However, some parts of this strict law were changed later. In 1566, Queen Elizabeth I passed a new law that partly stopped the requirement to destroy "under-height" horses. Because of this change, many of Britain's native pony breeds, like those found in the mountains and moorlands, were saved from being culled.