Haquenai

French

hakene (Middle English)

♦ Though the modern Hackney has both Arab and Thoroughbred blood in its veins, the haquenai is recorded at least as early as 1300, more than three centuries earlier than the Thoroughbred. It was certainly a riding horse, usually small, and sometimes a pacing horse (see Ambulatorius); often also a horse let out to hire. The Italian achinea refers simply to a quiet ordinary horse.

(Davis, R.H.C. The Medieval Warhorse: Origin, Development and Redevelopment, 136)

Related terms: Ambulatorius (equus)