I really liked your post Merlin on the mounted infantry and other matters. I have never really read all of the sources for the battle before, and I worked up an image in my head of what it may have looked like. I know that this may be a simple quesiton but here goes. Who would have taken all of the horses off of the battlefield when the thegns and companions dismounted and ran to form the shiled-wall? For if each thegn armed one man, that man would have probably rushed down to form in the wall beside his lord. I believe that there was an uniform code concerning the exact number of men each lord had to bring, but that the code was not always practiced perfectly. So did many men hang back to take care of the horses and then maybe form up late?