Millions of people all over the world today rely on horses for various purposes. From riding for leisure and sports, to equine therapy for patients and using horses in our day-to-day life and work, the human race would be missing some wonderful experiences without the existence of the noble and loyal horse.

Although documented evidence shows humans began to domesticate horses around 4000BC, the evolution of horses as a species dates back a staggering 55 million years. This opens the debate on whether the horse can be described as a native animal of one particular continent or country.

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What is a native animal?

By biological definition, a native animal is any species that is indigenous to a specific region or ecosystem, on the condition that its existence there is the result of solely natural processes and hasn't involved any human intervention.

Considering this definition and the evolutionary history of the horse, it seems the native horse is an indigenous species of North America. Decades of research have suggested that today's horses started out as a species known as the Eohippus.

Remains have been found in archaeological digs in North America, with the earliest scientific reference dating from 1876, when American palaeontologist Othniel Marsh called its skeleton Eohippus Validus. The name comes from the Greek words for "dawn horse".

This description was further validated by 19th century English biologist and palaeontologist Richard Owen and was highlighted in a 1932 scientific paper written by Sir Clive Forster Cooper, the director of the British Museum's Natural History department.

While Eohippus is recognised as the ancestor of the modern horse, it was much smaller. It has been described in early scientific papers as being the size of a small fox terrier. However, modern researchers say it was more likely to have been the size of a large dog, such as a Labrador Retriever.

 

Evolution of the horse

The species has evolved over millions of years, with later variants including the Mesohippus around 40 million years ago. Skeletons have again been found all over North America, showing that the species stood 60cm high.

It was known to be the first tridactyl horse in the history of the species' evolution - meaning its legs and feet were beginning to develop into the shape that we recognise today, although it didn't have a hoof at this point.

Unlike the earlier Eohippus, Mesohippus' teeth contained a gap behind the front teeth - this is where the bit rests in today's bridles. The species grazed on fruit and twigs. Its cranial cavity was considerably larger than that of the Eohippus, meaning its brain was a similar size to that of the modern horse.

By the Miocene era, the species had evolved into the Protorohippus, which was about the size of a donkey, according to skeletons found in North America.

This further evolved into the direct ancestor of modern horses and part of the Equini tribe of herbivorous animals, the Dinohippus. The distribution of Dinohippus fossils is widespread, spanning across North America.

There are more than 30 archaeological sites from Florida through to Alberta in Canada and Central Mexico. The weight range of the Dinohippus varies from 493.8 lbs to 1,251 lbs, according to the body mass of skeletons that have been unearthed.

 

Oldest species today

Today's horse, the Equus genus, is said to have evolved directly from Dinohippus. The species spread into the Old World (the common name for Africa, Asia and Europe) in the days before its population came into contact with Oceania and the Americas, and then entered South America as part of the Great American Interchange.

This was the name given to an important evolutionary event that occurred when the volcanic strip of land, the Isthmus of Panama, rose up from the sea bed. This led to land species and freshwater fauna migrating from North America to South America via Central America and vice versa.

The strip of land bridged the formerly separate continents, causing the migration to accelerate significantly some 2.7 million years ago. The Equus genus diversified into various other species, such as zebras and asses.

Still in existence, Przewalski's horse (also known as the Dzungarian horse or the Mongolian wild horse) is the oldest sub-species of horse. It is a rare species that is classed as endangered today. A native of Asia, Przewalski's horse has never been domesticated and it is the only true wild horse alive in modern times.

First described in scientific journals of the 19th century by the Russian explorer Nikolay Mikhaylovich Przhevalsky, after whom the species was named, it evolved around 500,000 years ago, once roaming freely in the steppes of the Mongolia-China border.

After becoming seriously endangered in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. a combined venture between the Zoological Society of London (founded in 1826) and Mongolian scientists has saved the species from extinction. Of 15 Przewalski's horses captured in 1900, some bred successfully, leading to a captive population of 13 horses in 1945.

Every Przewalski's horse in existence today is said to have descended from these 13 horses. The species has been successfully reintroduced into its natural habitat in Mongolia. Now, around 300 of the horses are believed to exist in the wild, with around 1,500 living in captivity.

A rare Przewalski's horse has been bred through artificial insemination in recent years. It took almost seven years to achieve this, but it is an encouraging sign that the endangered species' population may continue to rise.

 

Horses in Mexico

In modern times, Spanish Conquistador Hernán Cortés is credited with introducing domesticated horses from Cuba to Mexico. He was a key player in the generation of colonisers responsible for the first phase of the Spanish colonisation of the Americas in the early 16th century.

In 1519, when he was a young man of 34, Cortés set out from Cuba to find out more about Mexico. On an expedition in search of gold, he took 16 horses with him. By June 1519, he had established the Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz settlement.

More reinforcements and horses from Cuba steadily arrived and within two years, Cortés and his men had conquered the Aztecs. Spanish settlers arrived at the Mexican mainland over the next few decades, bringing livestock with them. They moved inland and southwards, establishing more settlements.

Their livestock was allowed to roam freely and the horses bred naturally in the wild. This led to the species known today as the Galiceño horse, bred in a coastal area of Mexico that remained relatively isolated, thanks to high mountains and dense clouds. The horses have descended directly from those brought by Cortés and have remained relatively pure.

 

Are wild horses protected?

In the United States, elders of the Native American tribes say their ancestors have kept horses throughout history. The oldest surviving account of domesticated horses in the American south-west was written by a Buddhist monk, Hui Shen, in the 5th century AD. He wrote of the native people having horses and wagons.

Explorers in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries reported seeing Native Americans on horseback in North America. There have been herds of horses roaming free across the US for centuries, with the descendants of those species captured and domesticated by indigenous people.

Today, laws are in place to protect the wild horse population of the United States. The Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act 1971, signed by President Richard Nixon, provides protection for "unbranded and unclaimed" horses and small donkeys known as burros on public land across the nation.

The law was put in place after a decline in the 20th century of the feral horse population of America, caused by ranchers and hunters, who complained that the horses were threatening human interests. Herd numbers had severely declined from the 1930s.

The 1971 Act permits herd management, which involves rounding up excess numbers of wild horses and adopting them out to private owners to live safely on their land.

In the UK, there are no species like the Przewalski's horse, which are deemed to be totally wild. However, the ponies on Exmoor and Dartmoor and in the New Forest are permitted to live in the wild, although they are all officially "owned" by various people. In the New Forest, they are rounded up twice a year to be checked and marked.

 

Uses

Since horses were domesticated, they have been used by humans for various purposes. They are used today to ride for pleasure by individuals and by sports people, such as show jumpers and horse racers - the latter being a wealthy industry and a major source of income for betting shops. Other equine sports include cross-country, dressage, polo and rodeo events.

Charities such as Riding for the Disabled work hard to provide life-changing experiences with horses for disabled children and adults, while horses are used for equine therapy for patients with various medical conditions, including depression, to boost their physical and emotional wellbeing.

Horses have traditionally been used in battle, including cavalry horses and the war horses of the Great War and World War II. These practices were commonplace until the mid-20th century, when mechanised transport and technology replaced the need for horses on the battlefield.

Horses have been widely used in agriculture (particularly to help plough the fields) and in transport. Before the days of motor cars, horses were used as the major means of transport for both individual riders and for pulling carriages - they would pull private carriages and public buses before the introduction of motorised transport.

They are still used by the police across the UK to help officers watch and protect crowds in cities after events such as football matches, or during protest marches. In many rural parts of the US, horses are still employed as ranch horses and for cattle drives, as they were by our ancestors.

In some nations, horses are used as pack animals to carry goods on their backs, in panniers or side-bags. They are able to cross rugged and difficult terrain, where wheeled vehicles cannot go due to a lack of roads.

For many people, horses are kept simply as pets, to live out their days in safety and comfort. The horse has been the unsung hero of the human race for many years and has helped shape society as we know it today.

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