The type of "princely horse" or "boyar horse" is distinguished - a heavy cavalry horse for a warrior armed with heavy armor and, accordingly, for an outfit - artillery. Light cavalry sat on mobile steppe horses; in Russia, earlier than in Western Europe, they began to master the eastern horse. In the Moscow period, in the era of Ivan III, the royal horse breeding was well developed and began to develop into a state horse breeding.
In 1496, the court approved the position of the highest specialist in horse breeding - "groom". The groom was at the head of a special department, he led almost all state (royal) estates, enjoyed the confidence of the Grand Duke, occupying an honorable place in the boyar duma. In 1497, the post of "nursery" was approved, who was an assistant and deputy equerry. How honorable the post of equerry was, is evident from the fact that Boris Godunov, the brother of the wife of Tsar Fyodor Ioanovich, later the Moscow Tsar, was appointed to it.
By the 16th-17th centuries, numerous horse-drawn palace, monastic and boyar factories appeared.
From the beginning of the 17th century, state, privately owned and military stud farms began to develop, which mainly raised horses for the needs of the army.