For three. fucking. thousand. years.
So, let's say that average human lifespan (if you make it to adulthood) has been around 50-65 years. (Childhood death rates make the average lower, I'm not talking about that.) So, 3000 divided by 50 is 60. Sixty generations. (More or less, just vibe with me here, m'kay.)
During that time there have been at least 30 wars fought in this part of the U.K.. That we know about. Any number of famines. A few rounds of plague, including the terrible Black Death in which about a third of Europe, including England, died. Whole villages erased by death. During this time there were at least three massive, cataclysmic, religious shifts. Two small ice ages occurred. The country shifted from small croft to large village to towns with a middle class to religious fiefdoms to freeholds to large towns to cities.
During this time infants died and crops failed. During this time people moved and left home, never to return. During this time families thrived and new farms were established.
For three goddamn thousand fucking years, sixty generations of humans have kept this horse alive. We don't even know WHY people wanted this horse. We don't know what it was for, we don't know who designed or built it. We don't know and we don't NEED to know --
-- for three THOUSAND YEARS humans have kept this horse alive.
And there is no fucking way we are going to let the horse die now.
I love people sometimes. Sometimes, humans are fucking amazing.