1964-Voice Of The Tennessee Walking Horse 1964 October Voice | Page 28

Walking Horses West i By Virginia Lamb About fifty million years ago, in the plains of the western United States, there lived a very small animal, just about the size of a fox. This very small animal had four toes on its front feet and three on the hind feet. Its head vaguely resembling a tapir, its back scat­ tered with stripes and a long slen­ der tail. This animal is called EOHIPPUS, meaning dawn horse, and was the earliest ancester of the horse. Little Eohippus, after several thousand years, changed in size and looks, as did the coun­ tryside it roamed in, and millions of other animals as well. This ani­ mal was larger than Eohippus, be­ ing about the size of a Collie dog. It is known as MESOHIPPUS, meaning middle horse. This horse had lost the extra toe on its front feet, had begun to develop a mane and a fuller tail and closer re­ sembled a horse. Gradually, this horse lost the extra toes on its front and hind feet. As it developed fur­ ther, the middle toe grew larger and became a hoof. The side toes became only short bones along the leg. The teeth of Mesohippus changed, too, becoming better fit­ ted to eat grass. When the hoof began to develop, MESOHIPPUS became known as PROTOHIPPUS, about the size of a donkey and in looks closely remembled a cross between a donkey and a zebra. Its head was much larger and courser, 28 with longer ears, the body being oddly striped. By the time what is now known as the Ice Age, the horses had developed into horses such as we see today. The earliest horses lived in what is now the United States. Their descendants spread all over the Northern Hemisphere. By the Ice Age, they lived on all the con­ tinents except Australia. For some reason, still unknown, horses dis­ appeared entirely from the West­ ern Hemisphere. When the first settlers came to North America, they found no horses. The Indians did not know about horses until the Spaniards came to Mexico in 1519 headed by Hernando Cortez. The later explorers also used horses on their expeditions and probably left some of them behind which eventually became the ancestors of the wild horses of the western plains. At first, the Indians were afraid of the horses. They thought the Spaniards were Gods and this helped the Spaniards to conquer the Indians. After 1600, the Indians began to use the horses, although not very much for many years. The horse became the most impor­ tant asset the Indians had on the western plains. They were used in hunting buffalo, moving the tribe from place to place, and in war with other tribes, as well as the white man. TAMING THE HORSE The horse has been used by man since before the time of history. The cave man hunted the horse for food. It is not known exactly when the horse became tamed, but Genesis, the first book of the Bible, EOHIPPUS — Four toes on front feet — Three toes on hind feet — Size of Fox. MESOHIPPUS — Three toes on all four feet — Size of Collie dog. mentions the use of horses for pull­ ing war chariots. Horses were par­ ticularly important in war, as a mounted soldier could often charge and defeat enemy foot soldiers. The Greeks and Romans were ex­ pert horsemen, using horses for war, racing and sports. War invasions were successful because horses were used. The Goths used horses to defeat the Roman legions. Attila the Hun was the leader of cavalrymen mounted on small wiry horses from Asia. In 1066, William the Conqueror used mounted knights in his in­ vasion of England. Horses were not new to Englanders, however. Many of the Saxon tribes in Eng­ land had known of horses before, but the Norman invasion showed the importance of the large, power­ ful horses which carried the knights. The English began to breed such horses. Unlike the horses you see in todays movies carrying knights, these horses were what is known today as draft horses, weighing around 2,000 pounds and sometimes more. They had to be big and powerful, since a knight in full armor would weigh an easy 400 lbs. The horses has made even more important contributions to agricul­ ture and commerce than to war. The Arabian, dating back to 1635 B.C. have been imported into all the important countries where horses have been developed. The modern horse has been greatly im­ proved during the past 600 years, being developed into the types we now know and use today. Until late in the 900’s, the horse was considered to be too valuable in war, transportation and sports VOICE of The Tennessee Walking Horse