Sep 10, 2026 · 23 min · 7 segments
In this article, hunting dog historian Craig Koshyk explores how from medieval hunting traditions to modern field trials, horses and hunting dogs have worked together for centuries. Use code PU20 for…
Hunters on horseback following packs of hounds is as old as the hills, right? And American field trials have always been about handlers and judges on horseback following the best bird dogs in the land, right? Well, not exactly.
Sure, dogs have been helping hunters put meat on the table for over 15,000 years, but for the first 10,000 of those, horses were among the hunters' favorite quarries.
Fortunately, about 5,000 years later, soon after we figured out how to domesticate horses, the tables turned.
The hunted became a key ally to the hunter.
The earliest depictions of hunters on horseback date to about 2,500 years ago.
Ancient stone carvings from the Middle East depict Assyrian king Ashurbanipal spearing a lion from the back of a horse.
Interestingly, the same carving shows hunters and mastiff-like dogs killing wild horses.
The transformation from hunted to hunter took thousands of years, but once it started, it eventually developed into a relationship second only to the bond between man and dog.
In all cultures where it was performed, hunting on horseback was considered an effective and enjoyable way to take game.
Military leaders also understood that the lessons hunters learned while chasing game on horseback could be applied directly to the battlefield.
Hunting Dogs and Horses in Europe By the Middle Ages, the use of dogs and horses in the pursuit of game had been perfected across much of Europe as well as parts of Asia.
Many of the best-known illustrations from that era show mounted hunters accompanied by various types of dogs as they pursue hare, deer, boar, and other animals with bows, crossbows, hawks, and falcons.
This type of hunting, known as la venerie, fun fact, the French word venerie is where we get our word venison for deer meat, or chasse à cour, is still practiced in some parts of the world, most notably in France, where it is considered by many to be an important part of French culture and heritage.
Currently, over 100,000 French hunters participate in the sport, assisted by nearly 400 packs of hounds, approximately 30,000 individual dogs, and 7,000 horses, many of which are rescues from the horse racing industry.
In their book Game in the English Landscape, published in 1980, Authors Anthony Vanderbilt and Charles Coles stated that, "...extensive areas of the English countryside today owe their present form as much to our long sporting history in its widest sense as to the evolution of agriculture, forestry, and social development over the centuries, and in particular that of the last 300 years or so." this spirit of the chase in the medieval forest was kindled under the norman kings and impressed itself on the history of the countryside around the same time we find some of the earliest depictions of setters and pointers and most of them include horses in the scene And this makes sense.
Breeders of bird dogs at the time would have, at a minimum, owned horses for work on their lands and for transportation.
But many would have also bred horses and were probably active in the horse racing and mounted hunting world.
So it was only natural that hunters using nets, bow and arrow, or other arms would also have horses helping them in some manner.
Well-known dog trainer G.T. Teasdale Buckle wrote, The shooting pony, in conjunction with pointers and setters, is not often seen now in England, but it was certainly very common when the rideable portions of the country were mostly shot by the assistance of those dogs.
The mounted guns, whether one or three, had handlers of dogs, each mounted also, and each working a brace of speedy dogs, and by that means covering three-quarters to a mile of a country at a beat.
The horn is used to sound a point, and then the six miles an hour foxtrot is increased to hunting speed, until the point is reached when the shooters slide off and shoot.
This sport is sort of a cross between hunting and shooting, and also was that of ancient England, if all accounts are true.
Hunters on horseback following packs of hounds is as old as the hills, right? And American field trials have always been about handlers and judges on horseback following the best bird dogs in the land, right? Well, not exactly.
Sure, dogs have been helping hunters put meat on the table for over 15,000 years, but for the first 10,000 of those, horses were among the hunters' favorite quarries.
Fortunately, about 5,000 years later, soon after we figured out how to domesticate horses, the tables turned.
The hunted became a key ally to the hunter.
The earliest depictions of hunters on horseback date to about 2,500 years ago.
Ancient stone carvings from the Middle East depict Assyrian king Ashurbanipal spearing a lion from the back of a horse.
Interestingly, the same carving shows hunters and mastiff-like dogs killing wild horses.
The transformation from hunted to hunter took thousands of years, but once it started, it eventually developed into a relationship second only to the bond between man and dog.
In all cultures where it was performed, hunting on horseback was considered an effective and enjoyable way to take game.
Military leaders also understood that the lessons hunters learned while chasing game on horseback could be applied directly to the battlefield.
Hunting Dogs and Horses in Europe By the Middle Ages, the use of dogs and horses in the pursuit of game had been perfected across much of Europe as well as parts of Asia.
Many of the best-known illustrations from that era show mounted hunters accompanied by various types of dogs as they pursue hare, deer, boar, and other animals with bows, crossbows, hawks, and falcons.
This type of hunting, known as la venerie, fun fact, the French word venerie is where we get our word venison for deer meat, or chasse à cour, is still practiced in some parts of the world, most notably in France, where it is considered by many to be an important part of French culture and heritage.
Currently, over 100,000 French hunters participate in the sport, assisted by nearly 400 packs of hounds, approximately 30,000 individual dogs, and 7,000 horses, many of which are rescues from the horse racing industry.
In their book Game in the English Landscape, published in 1980, Authors Anthony Vanderbilt and Charles Coles stated that, "...extensive areas of the English countryside today owe their present form as much to our long sporting history in its widest sense as to the evolution of agriculture, forestry, and social development over the centuries, and in particular that of the last 300 years or so." this spirit of the chase in the medieval forest was kindled under the norman kings and impressed itself on the history of the countryside around the same time we find some of the earliest depictions of setters and pointers and most of them include horses in the scene And this makes sense.
Breeders of bird dogs at the time would have, at a minimum, owned horses for work on their lands and for transportation.
But many would have also bred horses and were probably active in the horse racing and mounted hunting world.
So it was only natural that hunters using nets, bow and arrow, or other arms would also have horses helping them in some manner.
Well-known dog trainer G.T. Teasdale Buckle wrote, The shooting pony, in conjunction with pointers and setters, is not often seen now in England, but it was certainly very common when the rideable portions of the country were mostly shot by the assistance of those dogs.
The mounted guns, whether one or three, had handlers of dogs, each mounted also, and each working a brace of speedy dogs, and by that means covering three-quarters to a mile of a country at a beat.
The horn is used to sound a point, and then the six miles an hour foxtrot is increased to hunting speed, until the point is reached when the shooters slide off and shoot.
This sport is sort of a cross between hunting and shooting, and also was that of ancient England, if all accounts are true.
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