ABSTRACT
The possession of large war-horses did not remain a long-term privilege of the Christians, since capture or purchase made it possible for the heathens to overcome this disadvantage to some extent. For the Teutonic Order it was always a battle against time to maintain its advantage by continual improvements in technique, hardware and horsepower. During the conquest of Prussia, the Knights became familiar with a small horse indigenous to that region, the so-called Sweik. Most of the wounds suffered by the horses during the time of the crusades of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries were caused by spears, arrows and swords, later mainly by the bolts of crossbows. The Teutonic Order had, from the very beginning, preferred the crossbow to the ordinary bow. The crossbow was brought into Livonia and Prussia by the military orders in the thirteenth century and played an extremely important role there in the war against the heathens, a fact which has been greatly underestimated.
