Mosaic

Oxen as draught animals in Britain

Does anyone have any leads that could throw light on when oxen were replaced by horses for heavy draught work in Britain?
In addition, in the early 1500s when roads were terrible so wheeled travel was slow, why would horses be imported to develop horses for this purpose - when oxen presumably were readily available?

17:56 Wed 02nd May 2012

Church Ruins Which was not a contribution to the shift of the Southern economy toward slavery?

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Nibble

I personally don't have the time to read this, but here you go

http://www.historytod...agriculture-1100-1500

Mosaic

Question Author

That is a brilliant article Nibble - thank you!

jake-the-peg

The key to this is the development of the yoke.

Early yokes would cut off air supply to a horses head if they tried to pull against it which made them useless for agriculture.

looks like it was about 1200 before it was in generaluse in Europe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse_collar

Mosaic

Question Author

Thanks jake