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,
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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