Assassin’s Creed: How realistic are horses?

When i started Assassin’s Creed ValhallaI was greeted with a familiar face. Not a beloved Assassin, not even a Templar, but … my horse.

Horses have long been a part of Assassin’s Creed, but this particular horse model has been with us since Origins of Assassin’s Creed released in 2017. It has a very compact body with sturdy legs, and it tends to carry its head high on a slender neck. He’s a horse that doesn’t attract me in a madly romantic way, like draft horses Breath of the wild, but it is a perfectly usable courier.

But then I started to think. Origins, Odyssey, and now Assassin’s Creed Valhalla all use this horse model. Horses are different colors, with different types of harnesses – but there are no distinct breeds, as there are in Red Dead Redemption 2, for example. Just this singular horse, which appeared in Greece, Egypt, and now England and Norway, over a period of about 1,200 years.

These are regions with very different climates, terrains, cultures, technologies … the list goes on. I was not sure what horses should look like each of these places and times, but I was pretty sure they wouldn’t be the same.

Now I don’t think Ubisoft Needs to rebuild the horse from scratch every time he makes a new set. There are a lot more important things to prioritize, and I’m quite able to suspend disbelief on the horse models. However, I was curious: what did horses actually look like through these different historical eras?

I needed a horse historian.

I found a horse historian

Professor Donna Landry is a literary and cultural researcher. His work has long focused on pastoral life in England, and his latest book, Noble Brutes, explores how Arabian horses changed not only English breeding practices, but the entire culture of riding in the country.

Since its publication, she has been researching Ottoman riding and preparing a publication on the role of horses in Waterloo. She was one of a group of scholars and horsemen who for the first time reconstructed the route laid out by the 17th century writer and traveler Evliya Çelebi in her 10-volume travel book. The 600-kilometer road is now called Evliya Çelebi Way, and it turns inland from the Gulf of İzmit, through the Turkish countryside to Simav. It’s also open to tourists – whenever we’re allowed to travel again, I guess.

In short, Landry’s work is cool; she has legitimate horse skills; and, for some reason, she generously agreed to let me show her a PowerPoint presentation of the screenshots from Assassin’s Creed.

According to Professor Landry, the native horses in these games would appear distinct from each other – but the horse Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is not entirely irrelevant for England in 873.

The Vikings were not the first to invade England. The Saxons and Romans were among the groups that came before him, bringing horses from all over Europe, West Asia and North Africa. So while native British horses and ponies tend to be small and furry, there would have been hundreds of years of crossbreeding by the time Eivor landed with his crew in the late 9th century. (Norwegian horses were also small and furry, for what it’s worth – but Vikings tended not to take them out to sea.)

Professor Landry said the Assassin’s Creed horse most closely resembles the modern Frisian, whose ancestors the Romans might have picked up when they swept north from Italy. The Friesians are the bane of horse experts: the extremely striking breed is a benchmark for the entertainment industry, regardless of historical precision.

The Frisians appear in cinema and television across borders and time. The Persians ride them 300, just like Jamie Fraser in Outlander. Bucephalus in Alexander is played by a Frisian horse, just like Toronado in The legend of Zorro. Once you see this horse, you cannot forget it.

“People said the Frisians were good at working with them and they looked spectacular,” said Prof Landry. “And because no one in the audience knows anything anymore!”

The Assassin’s Creed horse may not be a literal Frisian – according to Professor Landry his gait resembles that of a Quarter Horse, and Ubisoft was unable to confirm to Polygon what breed the model was on. based. But he shares notable characteristics with the Frisians, such as a high head and a steeply sloping rump. These traits, along with his stocky legs, make the Assassin’s Creed horse more consistent with horses in colder climates.

What is your type?

Breeds of horses are divided into three types: warm-blooded, cold-blooded and warm-blooded. It has nothing to do with the actual composition of the horse’s blood, but rather with the climate it comes from. Cold-blooded horses, like Frisians or Belgian Drafts, tend to be heavier and cool down like hell. And the Icelandic Horse and the Exmoor Pony, both capable of incredible winter coats, are probably the best models we have for what Northern European horses would have looked like.

The Norwegian Fjord horse is also suitable for this type – it is a stocky draft horse that comes from western Norway, where Eivor hails from. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. We know that the Vikings raised Fjord horses for farming and warfare, and were sometimes buried with them. We also know that the horse in Valhalla is absolutely not a fjord. It lacks the thick neck as hell, the two-tone mane and the dun color that is characteristic of 90% of the breed.

“All species in a hot climate tend to have long, thin limbs; longer ears; thinner layers; and a different disposition towards food and water, due to the relative scarcity, ”Professor Landry told me. “And the further you go in colder climates, you tend to have shorter, stockier legs; longer coats; and, you know, the ability to eat huge amounts.

What makes the horse Assassin’s Creed becomes more and more anachronistic as we travel back in time to ancient Egypt. “This type of Northern Europe is just not relevant,” said Prof Landry. “Because horses tended not to sink that way.”

Egyptian art depicts horses with high tails, extremely arched necks, and bulging noses – all traits that are still present in Arabian horses today. From the appearance of the horse in Origins of Assassin’s Creed, Professor Landry said, “Oh no.”

The horse of ancient Egypt was “a much thinner, lighter and more elegant horse,” continued Professor Landry, adding that it was something “that we know from all kinds of archaeological evidence.”

We also have a good idea of ​​what Greek horses would have looked like, even as far away as Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, which took place over 2,000 years ago. Professor Landry designated Xenophon, a philosopher and cavalry commander who wrote On horseback riding and Hipparchicus, which are two treatises on … well, horseback riding. Xenophon described in detail the ideal Greek war horse.

Xenophon’s cavalry horses are compact stallions, with short legs, curved necks and wide hindquarters. “This continues to be a desirable form in the cavalry, including the British cavalry,” Professor Landry told me. “In the 19th century, people still speak of the beautiful ideal for a cavalry horse, it is to have an ass like a waitress. Horses: We love them thicc.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey behaves a little better on horse precision than Origins, then. This horse has short legs, and that’s what I would call “big”. However, Xenophon also wrote that “the head should be bony and the jaw small,” while the horse’s withers, or front shoulders, should be high.

“The high withers give the rider a more secure footing and better grip on the shoulder,” said Professor Landry. “So you want a high withers, but you want to be seated and on that wide back.

Having a good seat was important because it turns out that saddles weren’t invented yet. Hence the ideal cavalry horse being beautiful and wide, without a protruding spine. Because, ow.

Horses are history

The history of horses is also the history of human culture. It was the flow of Arabian horses north to England that ultimately helped change the way the English thought about animal welfare.

In the 17th century, horses were, shall we say, not treated awesome In England. “There was a lot of occasional brutality,” Professor Landry told me. “These eastern horses in particular weren’t used to it at all, and they wouldn’t tolerate it at all.

Arabian horses have a remarkably delicate appearance compared to English breeds, and unlike English horses, they were not immune to violence. Among the Bedouins, Arabian horses were treated with respect and foals were raised alongside humans. And so, English horse owners who welcomed Arabs began to view horses as sensitive and sensitive – which of course they had always been. Newer books, like Anna Sewell’s Black beauty in 1877, reinforced animal welfare messages.

Assassin’s Creed grapples with the history of religion, war, and architecture. So far, the horses of Assassin’s Creed serve as vehicles more often than sentient creatures – although a heartbreaking scene when opening Valhalla looks at the latter. But there is a rich history of how animals shaped, and in turn were shaped, through our interactions with them, and it’s a story worth exploring.