MIchael Slavin: Ireland's historical association with the horse

For the week that’s in it, with this year’s St Patrick’s Day coinciding with the Cheltenham Festival, the following question came to mind, ‘did Ireland’s patron saint ride a horse during his many journeys throughout the country?’

Now that may seem a stupid bit of enquiry, but it further leads to the questions of:

It is pretty well agreed that the horse made its way to Ireland with the Celts, during their migrations that began around 4,000 BC.

We have no images to confirm this. So we are dependent on great sagas such as that of Cú Chulainn, who is said to have been a warrior around the first century AD.

In the story of his wooing of Emer there is a beautiful description of the horses that drew his chariot. “Alike in size, beauty, fierceness and speed.

The right-hand horse was grey, proud in haunches. The other was jet black, his head firmly knit, his feet broad hoofed and slender; long and curly was his mane and down his broad forehead hung heavy curls of hair.

Irish hobby horse

Among all of the representations we have of St Patrick, none of them show him in relation to the horse.

But in the stories of him that emanate from the fifth century, there are many references to chariots being used.

For example, when King Laoghaire went to try and capture St Patrick at Slane, he is said to have brought along “three times nine chariots”.

The saint himself is credited with having a heroic charioteer named Odran, who at times had difficulty keeping track of his horses.

No equestrian images of any kind have come down to us from the time of St Patrick in the mid-fifth century.

The earliest ones date from the late eighth and early ninth centuries. One is from the Book of Kells, while at Clonmacnoise one of the crosses there has a depiction of two people riding in a chariot that looks much like a farm cart.

It would appear that the horse depicted in these artistic images is the Irish Hobby.

This small-sized animal became renowned as a riding horse and we know it was exported from here to Scotland.

The joy of this bit of research again reminds us of the length and depth of our Irish association with the horse. Something we can always be very proud of.

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