Only the nobility could afford horses. When they began returning from the Crusades with fast Arabians the sport really took off.
>When they began returning from the Crusades with fast Arabians the sport really took off.
Good pun.
You have the principle right, but not the time period. The Darley Arabian, the Godolphin Arabian, and the Byerly Turk, the three Eastern stallions who were the founders of the Thoroughbred breed, made their appearance in England centuries after the Crusades. The Godolphin Arabian was imported from Tunisia to England in the late 1720s. The Byerley Turk was war booty captured by Captain Byerley after the Moslems were defeated at Buda in 1686. The Darley Arabian was brought from Syria to England in the first years of the 18th century. All covered native English mares and made great improvements in the quality of the bloodstock. There were, of course, many other Eastern horses who served English mares in that time period, but it is the descendants of these three stallions whom we race, hunt, and jump today, and all Thoroughbreds can be traced back to them.