Pictish stones, horses and riders

 Salvete Omnes,

Pictish stone from Bullion, Angus - warrior with a shield and a drinking horn

The Iron Age through the early Medieval period  inhabitants of  what today is Scotland known as the Picts-the painted warriors of nrothern British Isles -  are subject of some notable mystery and wonderment at the same time.

Picts riding horses was a comon theme in their art, but historians observe that owning and riding good horses was most likely  a privilege of the people of the higher rank and the lords and  kings, which at times were numerous. The archaeological  record of warrior burials of the Pictish Period is next to none. So the stone carvings, which are expressions of the martial spirit and warrior ideology seem to give us a glimpse into their marital world and details of armament and equestrianism.

The horses and horse riders that appear in the surviving Pictish art (both pagan and Christian), especially in the stone carvings. Many years ago Osprey Military Publishing published two books on the Picts -Angus Konstam & Paul Wagner, The Pictish Warrior AD297-841, and The Strongholds of the Picts by Angus Konstam (a review on De Re Militari).

Scottish Archaeological Journal (Univ. of Glasgow)  has this article - Pictish Horse Carvings by Irene Hughson (2010).  The author writes, p.55, that 'the riding horse of the Early Historic period was not a hefty destrier[..], it was not a stocky, heavy-coated pony.' 
Horses in the stone carvings appear to be gaited, and as dr. Miriam Bibby , many article by dr Mibby can be had from Academia or from Cheiron Journal, pointed to me there may be a connection between the old Pictish horses and the old Galloway horse. 

The Sueno Stone 

The Aberlemno Battle Stone.

The Cadboll Stone - a hunt scene with a woman riding side saddle. Her horse is a high stepping mount, with a high neck carriage and high-set tail. 

Dupplin Cross - a comitatus or a  warband. Forteviot parish, Perthshire

 

Champion warrior and his comitatus, Dull Stone, Perthshire - from this site.

. Meigle Stone - fine horses with  powerful neck

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and a boar, the symbol of the Celtic warrior people

ps

to the south of the Picts lived the Gododdin - northern Britons, who eventually became  part of the Bernicia Kingdom in the VI-VII century AD. And who themselves were horse breeders and warriors, eg the famous Welsh poem Y Gododdin .

enjoy

Valete