It is one of Britain's most-loved ancient hill figures,
careering across the downland. Now vets are being urged to
question whether the White Horse of Uffington was meant to be a
horse at all. Challenging the traditional description of the
Oxfordshire landmark, retired vet Olaf Swarbrick asks whether
the "beautiful, stylised" figure might instead be a dog such as
a greyhound or wolfhound. In a letter to the Veterinary Record,
his profession's journal, the former cattle and poultry
specialist suggests a canine origin for the 110-metre by
38.5-metre animal, which was carefully dug into the downland. He
invites alternative theories, too. Swarbrick says: "Looking at
it again, it seems that it is not a horse at all: the tail and
head are wrong for a horse and more suggestive of a dog. It
appears more like a large hound at full stretch. I thought it
may be a greyhound, but an anthropologist suggests it is a
wolfhound, which (assuming it is not a horse) makes more sense."
The horse, if it is one, is about 3,000 year