The white horse has been an enduring icon in human mythology and history, in books, on battlefields and at many a finishing post.

Its special place has been enhanced after a weekend report suggesting that almost every white horse that ever inspired a legend, or carried a King, or won the King George IV Chase, may have had a common ancestor: a single mare or stallion that lived thousands of years ago.

Scientists in Sweden have identified the genetic origin of white horses. The study, led by Leif Andersson of the University of Uppsala, tested more than 700 belonging to eight different breeds. Each was found to contain the same dominant genetic mutation that caused each horse's hair to gradually lose pigmentation, turning grey and subsequently white.

Such horses, more properly known as greys, would probably never have survived in the wild. It appears that one horse developed the mutation and caught the eye of ancient humans to such an extent that they protected it and bred more.

Dr Andersson said: “It is a fascinating thought that once upon a time a horse was born that was turned grey and then white and the people that observed it were so fascinated that they used the horse for breeding so that the mutation could be transmitted from generation to generation.”

The fascination was strong: the white horse was a talisman, an emblem of good over evil. Its magic goes back to the dawn of majesty, cavalry and heraldry. In classical mythology the Sun was pulled in a chariot by horses including Lampos (shining like a lamp) and Phlegon (the burning one). Their names suggest that they were white and later artists have painted them so. Aurora, the dawn, drove two white horses: Eoos (dawn) and Phaeton (the white shiner).

Bookmakers notice with gratification that a white horse, however broken in wind and limb, attracts the money of the occasional punters for the Grand National. Seriously horsey people style white horses as grey in similar equine colour-coding and one-upmanship to the one that describes the red coats of huntsmen as pink.

All ancient horse-scribes agree that a white horse was a rarity and a particular prize, in the same way that white elephants are royal treasures in Thailand and other elephant-breeding states. The Roman cavalry brought the white horse to their Antonine Wall and beyond. The Saxons, had the white horse as a standard. A galloping White Horse is the heraldic device of the House of Hanover. During the reign of the first two Georges the White Horse replaced the Stuart emblem of the Royal Oak on many public house names and signs.

Outside Britain also it has been a case of white horse good: dark horse problematic. Hector's horse was Galathe (cream-coloured). Prince Gautama (the Buddha) rode a white horse called Kantaka. Muhammad rode a white mule, Fadda. Siegfried's horse was Grani (a "grey"). Odin rode Sleipnir, a horse that was not only white but had eight legs. Napoleon rode his white stallion Marengo at Waterloo. Vernet painted them in Napoleon Crossing the Alps.

The white horse is the favourite mount for emperors and generals, for religious leaders and politicos. It is a four-legged British national emblem.

Part of the landscape

The white horse was the standard of the ancient Saxons. Hence it gallops as the county emblem of Kent. And from them come the white horses that decorate the Downs and hills of southern England. These are carved into the hillside by removing the turf, thus revealing the underlying chalk. The most famous of these is at Uffington in Berkshire, pictured right, which is said to commemorate King Aldred the Great's victory over the Danes in 871. It measures about 350ft (107m) from nosebag to crupper and gives its name to the Vale of the White Horse, west of Abingdon. The annual scouring of the White Horse to refresh its whiteness was a local ceremony. Remember "Tom Brown's Schooldays": "And then what a hill is the White Horse Hill! There it stands right up above all the rest, nine hundred feet above the sea, and the boldest bravest shape for a chalk hill that you ever saw."

Another famous white horse cut into the turf is at Westbury, commemorating the Battle of Ethandune (Edington).

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