According to James Lydon, "There can be little doubt that the hobelar as a type of soldier originated in Ireland .. between the fully armoured knight on the 'equus coopertus' and the lightly armoured archer on the 'equus discoopertus' there was an intermediate stage.
More recently, however, this view has been challenged by Robert Jones, who believes that the ancestor of the hobelar was a form of second class cavalryman called a muntator.