Horses in history
Horses first appeared on Earth about 55 million years ago. These “Dawn” horses didn’t look remotely horse-like. They looked more like small deer, with dust-brown coats covered with parallel tracks of fawn-like white spots, a short neck, roached back, and toes instead of hoofs. And they loved fruit. As horses evolved, they got bigger, their backs leveled out, and their toes merged into a single hoof. But it’s important to note that there was not one single line of descent from the Dawn horse directly to modern horses. Several different species of “horse” have existed at the same time, but most died out, often because they couldn’t adapt to a rapidly changing environment.
The most severe environmental impact occurred in the New World, when an asteroid struck near the Gulf of Mexico about 66 million years ago. It wiped out not only horses, but also dinosaurs. In the rest of the world, especially Europe and Asis, horses continued to evolve. They were re-introduced to North and South America by Columbus on his second trip to the New World in 1493. Today, all the indigenous horses found on islands off both coasts — including Cuba in the Atlantic and Santa Catalina in the Pacific — are gaited. Some, like the ones on Santa Catalina, simply died out. Others, like the original Florida Cracker horses, were deliberately bred to trot, not amble. The remaining horses remained gaited — which means their original “foundation” sires and dams, bred in Spain, were gaited as well. And most of these island horses are so much smaller than today’s recognized horse breeds that they can accurately be called “ponies.”
Around 3100 BCE, when Ancient Egypt was at the height of its power, horses were still too small to ride. But the Egyptians — who fought with bows and arrows — recognized their potential. A warrior would hitch two horses to a chariot, and fasten the lines around his waist to free his hands. In early civilizations all over the world, horses were bred for warfare, hunting, and — as their numbers increased — travel, although in rural Asian households, mares are still kept for their milk. By the time Alexander the Great conquered Egypt in 332 BCE, the Greeks had developed horses big enough to ride. In 350 BCE, Xenophon, a Greek philosopher and military man, wrote the first known how-to book on horse training — with kindness, never punishment. The ancient Greeks rode bareback — and often barefoot. Their only tack was a leather bridle and reins, a jointed snaffle bit, and a saddle pad. No saddle. No stirrups.
Ancient Greece fell to the Roman empire in 146 BCE. Roman horses — still ponies but still getting bigger — were also ridden bareback, and while the Romans eventually came up with a rudimentary saddle, they still didn’t have stirrups. Although Genghis Khan and his nomadic Mongol troops are rarely studied in world history these days, he and his descendants successfully invaded China and got as far as the Danube River in Germany before being defeated. It’s been said that the Mongols conquered more land in 25 years than the ancient Romans did in 400. Historians generally credit the Mongols’ success to their fast horses and their riders’ accuracy with a bow and arrow. But there’s another reason they were so successful, and a few historians credit one small innovation that changed warfare as much as the invention of guns and rifles. Around 200 BCE, Mongol horsemen invented stirrups.
This country has always depended on horses, from the American Revolution to Afghanistan. Today, the very idea of a “war horse” sounds quaint. And once cars were invented, people could travel without horses. Today, we use our horses for recreation, and thanks to Xenophon, they expect kind treatment. As they should. They have more than earned it.
Joan Fry is a lifelong horse lover and the author of “Backyard Horsekeeping: The Only Guide You’ll Ever Need” (The Lyons Press, Revised Edition, 2007). She can be reached via email at joan@joanfry.com.
This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Hoof Beats: Horses in History
