We know from excavations on the sites of Roman forts such as Newstead, near Melrose, that there were several types of horses in use in Britain in Roman times:

Black stallion with maresa Shetland type under 11 hands;

a larger 12 hand Celtic type, probably the wild pony of northern England;

a 12 to 13 hand pony with slender bones;

a thickset, long backed lowland animal;

an Arab type of about 14 hands, possibly the horse type used by Spanish, French or Hungarian troops;

and a coarse 15 hand animal that was probably imported from the Continent. This may have been the Friesian or German horse type of that time. (Edwards) We don't know what colour it was but various authorities suggest that it was dark-coated.

Tacitus, the Roman historian, wrote scathingly in 55 AD about the Germans and their battle maneouvres: "Their horses are remarkable neither for beauty nor for fleetness. Nor are they taught various evolutions after our fashion, but are driven straight forward, or so as to make one wheel to the right in such a compact body that none is left behind another." (Tacitus) He evidently admired light, speedy, handy horses more than the coarser animals of northern Europe.