Horse
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A horse was a large mammal native to the planet Earth. It was used for transportation, sport and companionship. So intertwined were horses with humans, that horses were the basis for many cultural references.
As transportation[[edit] | [edit source]]
Humans used horses as transportation for thousands of years. They could be directly mounted or used to pull vehicles. (TV: The King's Demons [+]Loading...["The King's Demons (TV story)"], The Unquiet Dead [+]Loading...["The Unquiet Dead (TV story)"])
As mounts[[edit] | [edit source]]
As part of the Dalek Project, time travelling bronze Daleks engaged sword-wielding horsemen in battle. (COMIC: The Dalek Project [+]Loading...["The Dalek Project (comic story)"])
In 323 BC, Alexander the Great taught Ian Chesterton how to ride a horse. (AUDIO: The Time Museum [+]Loading...["The Time Museum (audio story)"])
When visiting the Roman Empire in 120 AD, the Tenth Doctor once sought horses for transport because he deemed them "better" — which was to say faster — than donkeys. (PROSE: The Stone Rose [+]Loading...["The Stone Rose (novel)"]) Around the same time, the Eleventh Doctor, Amy Pond and River Song used Roman horses to cover the distance to Stonehenge. (TV: The Pandorica Opens [+]Loading...["The Pandorica Opens (TV story)"])
In 1006, King Sitric Silkbeard of Dublin rode his horse Sleipnir, to whom he often spoke as if he were a person, on a three day journey from Dublin to the Abbey of Kells to retrieve the Book of Kells. (AUDIO: The Book of Kells [+]Loading...["The Book of Kells (audio story)"])
In 1207, the Eleventh Doctor rode a horse from the monastery in Cumbria to the cave where his TARDIS was hidden. (TV: The Bells of Saint John [+]Loading...["The Bells of Saint John (TV story)"])
On 4 March 1215, Geoffrey de Lacy rode his horse from London to find John of England's castle. The journey took him only four hours. (TV: The King's Demons [+]Loading...["The King's Demons (TV story)"])
The Eleventh Doctor once rode a horse through 17th century Coventry. (WC: Pond Life [+]Loading...["Pond Life (webcast)"])
In 1845, horses were kept in the stables of North Lees Hall. Charlotte Brontë and Ellen rose these horses one evening while they were staying at the manor house. (COMIC: Unearthly Things [+]Loading...["Unearthly Things (comic story)"])
In an alternate timeline, Commander Skaak mounted a horse while fighting against the Light Division led by Lieutenant General Logan during the Crimean War at Sevastopol in 1855. Skaak revealed that the reason he had the Sontarans fight during this war was because it was a period in human history where fighting on horse-back was used. (TV: War of the Sontarans [+]Loading...["War of the Sontarans (TV story)"])
As beasts of burden[[edit] | [edit source]]
Horses could be used to pull vehicles, such as chariots, (TV: The War Games [+]Loading...["The War Games (TV story)"]) carriages (TV: The Unquiet Dead [+]Loading...["The Unquiet Dead (TV story)"], COMIC: Highway Robbery [+]Loading...["Highway Robbery (comic story)"], AUDIO: The Doomwood Curse [+]Loading...["The Doomwood Curse (audio story)"], TV: The Visitation [+]Loading...["The Visitation (TV story)"], The Snowmen [+]Loading...["The Snowmen (TV story)"], The Crimson Horror [+]Loading...["The Crimson Horror (TV story)"]) stagecoaches, (PROSE: The Many Hands [+]Loading...["The Many Hands (novel)"]) wagons (TV: The Mark of the Rani [+]Loading...["The Mark of the Rani (TV story)"]) and hansom cabs. (TV: The Evil of the Daleks [+]Loading...["The Evil of the Daleks (TV story)"], The Talons of Weng-Chiang [+]Loading...["The Talons of Weng-Chiang (TV story)"])
In sport[[edit] | [edit source]]
Horses were also used — at least in England — as mounts in jousting tournaments. (TV: The King's Demons [+]Loading...["The King's Demons (TV story)"])
Other[[edit] | [edit source]]
According to Marco Polo, horses were able to sense oncoming sandstorms. (TV: "The Singing Sands" [+]Part of Marco Polo, Loading...{"namedep":"The Singing Sands (2)","1":"Marco Polo (TV story)"})
The Cybermen were able to cyber-convert horses. (AUDIO: Spare Parts [+]Loading...["Spare Parts (audio story)"])
Horses and the Doctor[[edit] | [edit source]]
The Doctor was an adept horseman in many incarnations.
The Fourth Doctor had no difficulty jumping on to the backs of unsaddled horses in San Martino in 1492 and galloping away from the threat of execution. (TV: The Masque of Mandragora [+]Loading...["The Masque of Mandragora (TV story)"]) He would later ride to Olympus in a flying-horse-drawn chariot with Prometheus. (COMIC: The Life Bringer! [+]Loading...["The Life Bringer! (comic story)"])
The Sixth Doctor once rode on a horse in an attempt to catch up with Astrolabus. (COMIC: Once Upon a Time-Lord [+]Loading...["Once Upon a Time-Lord (comic story)"])
In his eighth incarnation, the Doctor and Izzy Sinclair spent some time in feudal Japan, where they both travelled by horse. (COMIC: The Road to Hell [+]Loading...["The Road to Hell (comic story)"]) Later, the Eighth Doctor spent time riding with the Lakota Sioux. (COMIC: Bad Blood [+]Loading...["Bad Blood (comic story)"])
While on board the SS Madame de Pompadour in the 51st century, the Tenth Doctor came across a horse he called Arthur, which had presumably crossed over through a time window from the 18th century. It followed him around the ship for a while, but Rose forbade him to keep it. He later skilfully rode Arthur through a time window disguised as a high mirror, breaking the system the Clockwork Droids had built. Arthur was thus instrumental to freeing Madame de Pompadour from the Droids. He was left back in the 18th century by the Doctor, where Arthur was meant to live. (TV: The Girl in the Fireplace [+]Loading...["The Girl in the Fireplace (TV story)"]) He later rode another white horse when he took Elizabeth I to see his TARDIS in 1562. During a picnic, a reaction on his detector led the Doctor to believe that the Queen was a Zygon in disguise, only to find out the Zygon had taken the form of the horse instead. (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (TV story)"])
Later in his life, the Eleventh Doctor showed considerable prowess with horses not only at Stonehenge in the 2nd century AD, (TV: The Pandorica Opens [+]Loading...["The Pandorica Opens (TV story)"]) but also on the American frontier. (TV: A Town Called Mercy [+]Loading...["A Town Called Mercy (TV story)"], AUDIO: The Runaway Train [+]Loading...["The Runaway Train (audio story)"]) Amy Pond was also particularly adept at riding horses and was able to keep up with the Eleventh Doctor when they rode together. She even rode a horse on Olympus amongst the gods. (COMIC: The Chains of Olympus [+]Loading...["The Chains of Olympus (comic story)"]) The Eleventh Doctor also claimed to be able to speak horse, conversing with a horse named Susan in Mercy in 1870. (TV: A Town Called Mercy [+]Loading...["A Town Called Mercy (TV story)"])
The Ninth Doctor looked for a coach and some horses in Royal Tunbridge Wells around early 2005. (PROSE: Have You Seen This Man? [+]Loading...["Have You Seen This Man? (short story)"])
Cultural references to horses[[edit] | [edit source]]
One of the longest-standing cultural references to horses on Earth was that of the "Trojan Horse". Aware of this reference from history, the First Doctor then in turn suggested the idea to the Greek army that they build a giant wooden statue of a horse and presented it to Troy. Unbeknownst to the Trojans, the Greeks had secreted themselves inside the moveable statue and sprang a decisive attack upon the Trojans once they were behind Trojan walls. This move ended the Trojan War in favour of the Greeks. (TV: The Myth Makers [+]Loading...["The Myth Makers (TV story)"]) The Trojans had believed the Horse to be the Great Horse of Asia, which they worshipped. (PROSE: The Time Traveller's Almanac [+]Loading...["The Time Traveller's Almanac (reference book)"])
Horses were a common adornment of fairground carousels. Once, the Eighth Doctor thought that the TARDIS's chameleon circuit had accidentally started working in Nazi-occupied Paris, turning the police box into a carousel. Testing the new shape, Lucie alighted one of the fake horses and engaged the wheel. The Doctor quickly concluded the TARDIS had not in fact changed into a carousel. (AUDIO: The Scapegoat [+]Loading...["The Scapegoat (audio story)"])
The newly regenerated Seventh Doctor tried on a "capacious furry" busby but rejected it, saying that it did not "look right without a horse." (TV: Time and the Rani [+]Loading...["Time and the Rani (TV story)"], PROSE: Time and the Rani [+]Loading...["Time and the Rani (novelisation)"])
In English, "horse" sounded similar to the word "host". This resulted in the Jixen warrior, Jixey, referring to himself as a horse when he made a mistake after just having learnt English. He intended to inform Starkey that he was his host. (TV: Hound of the Korven [+]Loading...["Hound of the Korven (TV story)"])
