| Abstract [eng] |
Horses were of the greatest importance through out the Medieval Ages in Europe and Asia. Ever since their domestication by Indo-European tribes in approximately 4 thousand years BC, until the 19th c. technical achievements, the whole communication and thus – administration of countries, warfare, large scale constructions, agriculture and other activities were heavily dependent and based on the horse power. Especially technical achievements of Middle Ages, increased the importance of the cavalry. It became the basis of the knight culture, the only possible way for noblemen to participate in wars. Thus in order to be able to judge about every country’s economical, military and technical state and potentials, the knowledge of its horse economy becomes inevitable. The Baltic Rim has old traditions of horse farming. The area where the Baltic tribes used to live is all covered by various ingravements with horses. They show, that here, like elsewhere, horse breeding was mostly encouraged by military needs. Riders played the central role in early military fellowship of the 9-12 c. although horses were used not for fighting, but for communication and transportation. Only formation of a state and better tax system enabled a real cavalry to appear. It aquired new horse breeds and special training of both - horses and riders. Other social field where horses played a vital role was communication system. Its maintenance and administration also aquired special services and duties of the subjects of the Grand Duke. There was a special group of road servants, who played a role of road guards, postmen and couriers. Finally, the horses also needed to be administrated and thus a whole range of special servants (grooms, horse feeders etc.) and craftmen were involved. At the top of them there were also special state officers. The goal of my work was to show the functioning of this multi-stage, miscellaneous system of maintenance and administration of the sovereign's horses and stables, to examine how far the horse farming in the 14-16 c. Grand Duchy of Lithuania was developed and what significance it had. The research demonstrated, that horse farming did not lose its' importance and value after the formation of the state. It expierienced different impacts both from the West (the German knight Order, later the kingdom of Poland) and from the East (the Golden Horde, tartars, Turkey and Arab tribes), but also continued to develope local breed of small steppe type horses - one of the oldest in the world. |
