The Republic needed horses. The inquiry on horses conducted in the year III, at the request of the Commission of Agriculture and the Arts of the Convention, was in line with the tradition of Old Regime economic surveys, revived during the Revolution to address the urgency of the time. The results of this inquiry are reviewed here. They reveal not only the structure and geography of horse-breeding, but also its strengths and weaknesses, in the context of the increased needs imposed by a war economy. Running counter to a long-lasting trend in rural historiography,this study invites us to consider all aspects of horsebreeding and the universe of the horse,topics that have received scant attention so far.