The equestrian statue may have been an Italian invention, but the British have embraced this phenomenon most enthusiastically throughout the ages. There are hardly any kings or queens of the House of Stuart and the succeeding House of Hanover and House of Windsor without an equestrian statue; even today. British field marshals also account for quite a number of the equestrian statues in the UK.
The British know what an equestrian statue needs: a good setting. Most statues have the room they require and are enrichments for parks, country estates and city squares. This even applies to statues in the middle of heavy traffic, for example the three in a row on Whitehall in London are well placed and give this main road its own character. Many of the statues in the UK are attractive and some have both high artistic and historic value. The same can be said of some equestrian sculptures.
As with some other colonial powers, the UK nowadays houses a number of statues from places elsewhere in the world where they were no longer wanted. I even found one of them in a private garden in the countryside. Disputes about the artistic value of the statues are utterly ‘British’, and the subject of many ‘letters to the editor’.
In short: there are few countries in the world where equestrian statues have had such a broad interest and appreciation throughout the ages as in the UK.