When did the first horses appear?
Horses appeared about 65 million years ago. Small, no larger than a dog, they were 25-45 cm at the withers. In the process of evolution, the horse “grew”, and about 4 million years ago modern horses of the Equus genus appeared. "Equus" means "horse" in Latin.
When did man domesticate the horse?
About 5-6 thousand years ago, people first began to domesticate wild horses.
About 4-5 thousand years ago, man first rode a horse.
At first, a person rode on a horse's croup, holding on to the mane, and using a kind of “cordeo” at the base of the horse's neck made from the hair of the same horses or fibers of plant origin.
Later, people began to put animal skins on the horse’s back, which were fastened with bone (later metal) clasps on the horse’s chest and protected the person from the effects of the horse’s sweat while riding. A semblance of a bridle appeared. Man began to use the horse for hunting and fighting.
Later, people began to use horses for agriculture, harnessing them to a plow to plow fields or harnessing horses to a cart to transport goods.
How did the word “horse”, “mare”, “stallion” appear?
These words are of exclusively Slavic origin, they are found in the languages of many Slavic peoples and their roots go back to the Indo-European proto-language.
The horse's closest relatives are the donkey, wild ass, mule, and zebra.
Mule
Donkey
Zebra
It is quite remarkable that such ancient states that reached a high level of culture, such as Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, did not know horses for a long time: they were not there until about the beginning of the second millennium BC. The horse appeared in these states only 2000-1500 BC as a result of contacts with nomadic peoples, who then conquered these ancient states with the help of horses.
Very early on, people realized the enormous importance a horse could have in warfare, and began to cultivate it for these purposes. For the first time, the horse as a war horse harnessed to a chariot appeared among nomadic peoples, from whom this method of using the horse quickly and widely spread in the states of Asia Minor, and then in Ancient Greece and Rome. In the future, the military importance of the horse increases more and more.
In the period 1000-500 BC, cavalry appeared with warriors sitting on horseback, but still without a saddle.
The Scythians, nomadic peoples who lived in the vast expanses of the southern Russian steppes, were famous for their cavalry. The appearance of cavalry further enhanced the military importance of the horse, and this, in turn, forced more care to be taken about it, its condition and quality. During this period, the beginnings of breeding work emerged in horse breeding.
The first centuries of the 1st millennium BC mark a number of new achievements that are essential for the further development of horse breeding. This includes the widespread development of iron and the emergence of a nomadic way of life, which caused long-distance movements and the widespread, rather than occasional, use of horses on horseback, for herding herds, traveling, sending reports or hasty escape, which was already characteristic of the Central Russian steppes and the Caucasus (III millennium BC . e.) and Western Asia (II millennium BC). We are talking about the appearance of an armed horseman instead of a messenger or herdsman, the replacement of a detachment of chariots with cavalry, first irregular, then regular. The point of view has become stronger in the literature that if the Indo-Iranians introduced Asia to the horse, then the Iranians introduced horsemanship. By studying the written sources of Assyria (descriptions of military campaigns, the composition of the army and booty), it is possible to clarify the time of the appearance of the first armed horsemen.
The oldest image of a horseman on the top of a bronze pin
The centuries-old work of horse breeders aimed at improving horses in the riding direction, with the simultaneous influence of local climatic and feeding conditions, led to the fact that already in the first millennium BC, excellent breeds were created in a number of Asian states (Khorezm, Bactria, Parthia, etc.) light, dry, fast-gaited and very beautiful horses. The horses of these states were highly valued by neighboring peoples; the latter tried in every possible way to get them. Thus, the Persians at one time collected up to 30,000 horses annually in the form of tribute. The descendants of these ancient horses include the modern Akhal-Teke breed, bred in Turkmenistan.
Quite a lot of works are devoted to horse breeding in Ancient Greece, which are based on a large number of sources (written and visual). This allows us to highlight issues that are important for solving problems of the development and spread of ancient breeds and types of horses in Eurasia. Unfortunately, the lack of osteological materials significantly impoverishes our understanding of ancient Greek horse breeding.
It is best to reconstruct the funeral rite with the burning of corpses, burials of young men, horses and dogs and the construction of a mound according to the texts of Homer’s Iliad:
Three times around the body they overtook the long-maned horses,
With a mournful cry... the forest fell.
They quickly built a fire, a hundred feet wide and long,
They laid the dead man on top of the fire, sorrowful at heart.
Many fat sheep and great crooked oxen,
Near the fire they slaughtered, they performed rituals...
There he placed jugs of honey and light oil,
All; leaning them against the bed; he has four proud horses
With terrible force he threw him onto the fire, groaning deeply...
He stabbed two (dogs) and threw them headless onto the log house;
He also threw twelve glorious Trojan youths there,
Killing them with copper.
The log house was extinguished, pouring crimson wine into the space
Everything where the flame went; and deep ashes fell;
Tears pouring, dear friend white bones
They collected it in a golden cup.
Having poured a fresh mound, they dispersed,
Homer (23.13-257)
Horse riding and horse riding were known in Homer's time, but in all his poems we are talking about chariots and chariot horses (the Trojans are “rich in horses”, and “horse wrestlers”, and “horse tamers”, and “brave horsemen”).
Already on a Cretan vase of the 9th century. BC e. there is an image of an armed horseman, in the second half of the 8th century. BC e. This kind of drawings (though horsemen are more often shown in peaceful processions than in battles) are becoming more numerous - on vases, metal objects, etc. The seating of the first horsemen was as inconvenient and inept as in the Caucasus and Assyria. The Greeks even in the 8th century. BC e. used chariots differently from the warriors of Western Asia. As can be judged from the Attic vases, Greek warriors did not know how to shoot not only from a moving, but even from a standing chariot. To shoot, they had to jump to the ground.
The art of the geometric style brings to us a horse that is emphatically long-legged (which reflects not so much the features of the exterior as the originality of the painting style), with a gracefully curved back and a high-set tail. Horse breeding and horsemanship came to the Greeks, apparently from the Danube region, where it was developed earlier; Of course, the role of Asia Minor and Africa in replenishing horse resources is also significant. Obviously, quadrigas (racing on them during the Olympic Games began in 680 BC) came to Greece from Libya. Only in Greek images of the 7th century. BC e. we see a more comfortable riding position for riders. At the same time (648 BC), horse racing was introduced for the first time at the Olympic Games.
Fight involving a horse in ancient times
The poet Alcman (late 7th century BC) compares Greek girls in his poems with racehorses - Venetian, Kolaksay and Ibenin. However, we know about Venetian horses from other sources, since in the middle of the 1st millennium BC. e. The Veneti of the Adriatic were famous as horse breeders. Their horses brought the Spartans their first victory at the Olympic Games. Venetian horses were imported to Sicily to create their own breed on their basis. The Ibenin horses should be understood as Celtic, but the Kolaksay horses are certainly Scythian, and Alkman’s testimony coincides with the appearance of the Scythians on the international stage and is associated with their Central Asian campaigns.
Communication with the Scythians, interest in their horses and riding techniques were constant and traditional for Greece, since the results of the Greco-Persian wars forced the Greeks to seriously think about the need to master horse riding skills. According to Andokid, “for the first time then we organized a detachment of horsemen and bought 300 Scythian archers.”
Scythian horseman (IV century BC)
A first-class image of a large horse of the eastern type is the so-called Xanthian relief found in Lycia, a tombstone made by a Greek master in the 70s of the 5th century. BC e. This bas-relief depicts a funeral chariot drawn by a pair of small, graceful horses, in front of which a young man leads a large riding horse, whose height is apparently about 150 cm. The horse is distinguished by a large, but dry, beautifully shaped head on a long, high-set neck, and a muscular chest; an excellent top line, which is not disturbed by a soft, rather large blanket saddle with a bolster and a girth; dry, slender and strong legs, braided, low-set tail. The mane is enclosed in a felt (?) neckpiece stitched lengthwise (similar to the Pazyryk one). The horse equipment is close to what we see on the horses from Persepolis, but the Persian horses were distinguished by a hooked head and a narrow, elongated body.
Horses of the Asian type are depicted in the quadriga of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus and in the Temple of Zeus at Olympus; they are distinguished by the same features.
Antique image of the head of an oriental horse
Already in the images of the 17th-16th centuries. BC e. from Mycenae we see horses harnessed to chariots, reminiscent of ponies, with flying manes and tails (the Greeks always considered the custom of cutting the mane and tying up the tail to be characteristic of barbarians). On vases of geometric style we see riding and chariot horses that do not differ from each other in height and appearance. The artist depicts them as emphatically slender, with a long and narrow body, prominent shoulders, thin legs, with a high-set small thoroughbred head, a thin neck and a high-set long tail.
In early Greek images, the so-called European small horses predominate (after all, when mounting a horse, the Greek would take it by the mane between the ears, which can only be done if the horse is very small in stature). These horses are well known to us from the Parthenon frieze.
In Roman times, the types of horses used for various purposes were already clearly differentiated. Thus, Varro and Seneca emphasize that the conformation and dressage of a horse should be different depending on whether it is intended for war, racing and agility competitions, for breeding or as a draft horse. Oppian in his “Book of Hunting” lists dozens of horse breeds, giving them comparative characteristics in terms of agility, endurance, exterior, and origin. Animal science reached a very high level in Roman times. Much of what distinguishes modern horse breeding took shape already in those distant times.
The Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus, who is characterized by careful handling of historical facts, wrote: “After all, antiquity, fiction and the miraculous are called myths, but history - whether ancient or modern - requires truth, and the miraculous has no place in it or is rare. As for the Amazons, the same legends have always been in circulation about them, both before and now, all wonderful and incredible.”
The tales about the Amazons are replete with vivid details, vivid events and are important for us in that they can be associated with the Saurmatians, on the territory of modern Ukraine, right up to the Don and who, apparently, participated in the Central Asian campaigns. It is not without reason, as L.A. Elnitsky showed, “the geography of the Amazons’ campaigns according to Diodorus coincides with the geography of the Scythian and Cimmerian campaigns according to Herodotus.” In Herodotus we read a legend about the origin of the “female-ruled” Sauromatians.
Having defeated the Amazons, the Greeks put them on ships and wanted to take them away by sea. The Amazons rebelled, seized power on the ships, but since they did not know how to control them, the wind brought them to Meotida - the Sea of Azov. Having reached the shores of the Sea of Azov to the lands occupied by the Scythians, the Amazons stole herds of horses and began to live by robbery. “Since then, Sauromatian women have maintained their ancient customs,” writes Herodotus, “together with their husbands and even without them, they go hunting on horseback, go on campaigns and wear the same clothes as men.”
Back in the 14th century. BC in Asia Minor, in the state of the Hittites, horse breeding was already so highly developed that even a special treatise appeared - “Notes of the Mithanian Kikkuli” on the methods of keeping, using, and, what is especially noteworthy, training horses.
The period from 500 BC and the beginning (first two centuries) of our era is characterized by the development of horse breeding and breeding in horse breeding. The first centers where selection and breeding work led to the formation of ancient highly specialized riding breeds of horses were Media and Persia, i.e. those areas where Turkmen and Persian horses were later formed. The Nessean horses, which received their name from the vast plain of Nesseus in Media, became especially widely known for their qualities and beauty. "The Nesian horses were the largest and the best, and they were used by the Persian kings." For many centuries and in our time, these riding horse breeds of Central Asia served as a kind of inexhaustible source from which breeding material was drawn to improve local horses and create new riding breeds by many European countries, from Ancient Greece, Rome, to the countries of Western Europe
This image shows the Assyrian archer already using a bridle, but not yet using a saddle.
Assyrian cavalry
The Scythians had a great influence on the development of the fighting qualities of the horse. Scythians (Greek: Σκύθαι) are nomads who in the past occupied the territories of Ukraine, Moldova, parts of Kazakhstan and Russia. Information about the Scythians comes mainly from Herodotus's History. Being unsurpassed warriors and riders, they were engaged in breeding horses, making selections and selecting the strongest and hardiest animals.
Scythian legend says that this people descended from the marriage of Hercules with a snake woman. From this union three sons were born: Agvafirs, Gelon and Scythian. And only the youngest of the three brothers was able to fulfill the will of his mighty father - to girdle himself with a belt with a gold buckle and be able to pull the bow of Hercules. It was he who became the ancestor of the Scythian tribe, giving his name to the entire people.
Scythian fight
The formation of a specifically Scythian culture by archaeologists dates back to the 7th century BC. In the 70s VII century BC e. The Scythians invaded Media, Syria, Palestine and, according to Herodotus, “dominated” in Western Asia, where they created the Scythian Kingdom - Ishkuza, but by the beginning of the 6th century BC. e. were driven out from there. Traces of the presence of the Scythians are also noted in the North Caucasus. The main area of settlement of the Scythians is the steppes between the lower reaches of the Danube and Don, including the steppe Crimea and areas adjacent to the Northern Black Sea coast. The northern border is unclear.
Most often, references to the Scythians were found in Greek sources, for example, in the “Father of History” - Herodotus. And everywhere it was primarily about the Scythian horsemen. Back in the 7th century BC, the Scythian cavalry, pursuing their enemies - the Cimmerians, invaded Transcaucasia, the Middle East and Asia Minor. Together with the Assyrians who entered into an alliance with them, the Scythians destroyed Media and Babylon, ravaged Syria and Asia Minor. And from that time on, the Scythians followed the glory of invincible warriors.
Scythian king, with his wife, son and guard.
Heavily armed Scythian horseman.
Scythian cavalry
By the end of the 3rd century BC. e. the power of the Scythians was significantly reduced under the onslaught of their kindred Sarmatians, who came from beyond the Don. The capital of the Scythians was moved to Crimea, where on the river. Salgir (within the boundaries of modern Simferopol) Scythian Naples arose, probably founded by King Skilur. In addition to the Crimea, the Scythians continued to hold lands in the lower reaches of the Dnieper and Bug. The Scythian kingdom in Crimea reached its peak in the 2nd century. BC e., when the Scythians sought to take over the foreign trade in grain, they subjugated Olbia and a number of possessions of Chersonesos.
The Scythian kingdom, centered in Crimea, existed until the second half of the 3rd century. and was destroyed by the Goths. The Scythians finally lost their independence and ethnic identity, dissolving among the tribes of the Great Migration. The name “Scythians” ceased to have an ethnic character and was applied to various peoples of the Northern Black Sea region.
The second most skilled horsemen after the Scythians at that time were the Sarmatians or the earlier name Sauromatians..
Sauromatai (sauromatai) are the first Sarmatian people noted in written history. In the 5th century BC.
Herodotus claims that the Sauromatians were the children of the Scythians and Amazons who lived north of the Caucasus. Their language is a corruption of Scythian, since the Amazon mothers never knew it perfectly.
The history of the Sauromatians reflected in written sources begins with the following event. In 507 BC. The Sauromatians acted as allies of the Scythians, who were attacked by the Persian king Darius I. A detachment of Sauromatians advanced far to the west, reaching the Danube, trying to interfere with the actions of the Persian army.
Sarmatian horsemen
The Sarmatians were considered excellent warriors, they created heavy cavalry, their weapons were swords and spears. They were always on horses. The Sarmatians were very dexterous warriors; they had more skill for robbery than for open war.
In Ancient Greece and Rome, selection and breeding work led to the formation of various types and breeds of horses intended for a variety of uses; for military purposes, in economic life, in sports. However, neither in Ancient Greece and Rome, nor in other countries was the horse used for agricultural work as a traction force.
In Western Europe, the transformation of wild horses began later and went in a different direction than in Central Asia. Even in Historical times, there was no specialized cultivated horse for a long time in Central and Northwestern Europe. Mostly small forest horses were common here. Only in the Middle Ages, in the horse breeding of some countries of Western Europe, the process of differentiation and specialization of the horse began in relation to the needs of a heavily armed knight rider. It led to the enlargement of the horse. However, the invention of gunpowder and the experience of military clashes with the light, mobile cavalry of the eastern peoples also changed the requirements for a military horse in Western Europe. There was a need for a horse that was light, fast, and had a good gallop. To obtain such a cavalry horse, it was necessary to resort to the importation of oriental horses and, with their help, began to develop new types and breeds of riding horses, among which the so-called thoroughbred English horse received particular importance.
In Western Europe, the horse first began to be used as a traction force in agriculture, gradually displacing the ox. Since the XI-XII centuries. AD, the process of horse penetration into the agriculture of Northern France, the Netherlands, and England takes place. In Northwestern Rus', as chronicles testify, horses already in the 15th century. used for plowing, sometimes in the same team with an ox.
An Arabian horse with a rider from a noble family. (18-19 centuries)
Cavalry in Rus' as an independent and then decisive fighting force arose in the 10th century. The Slavs, like many northern and western peoples, widely used horses as a means of transportation, as well as for agricultural needs. The horse apparently became a necessary domestic animal already at the dawn of the history of the Slavs in the first centuries of our era. Nevertheless, the Slavs did not know how to fight on horseback and in the early Middle Ages they preferred to fight on foot, like their grandfathers and great-grandfathers. It should be noted that from the moment the horse was widely introduced into military use, at least as a vehicle, turning it into a “living weapon” was a matter of several decades. Moreover, the creation of the first state formation - Kievan Rus - required some kind of universal and mobile force capable of operating effectively throughout the country. The first horse campaigns are recorded in the chronicles under 907 and 944. By the time of Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich, that is, by 980, the cavalry was a completely independent military force.
In the initial period of the existence of the Kyiv state, military operations were carried out mainly by infantry. Increasingly significant pressure from the southern nomadic neighbors of Rus' and the formation of a feudal organization of society led in the middle and second half of the 10th century to the promotion of cavalry to the fore, which was later subdivided into light (archers) and heavily armed (spearmen). The horseman's main weapon is a spear, bow and arrows, sword and saber.
Arabic author Ibn Rust, writing in 903-913. notes that the Slavic king had “beautiful, durable and precious chain mail.” The Byzantine chronicle Leo the Deacon, describing the wars of Prince Svyatoslav with the Greeks in Bulgaria, records entire units of Russians, built in a phalanx, dressed in chain mail (“shirts made of long chains”), helmets covered with long shields (from shoulder to knee). Especially Arab authors note the beautiful double-edged swords of the Russians. There are known cases when residents of the large Transcaucasian city of Berdaa, which was subjected to fire in 943-44. attack by the Kyiv troops, after their departure they dug up the mounds where the Russians were buried in order to get their precious swords, buried with the dead.
“Black hoods” (XII-XIII centuries): 1 - noble warrior; 2 - leader of the "black hoods"; 3 - standard bearer of the "black hoods".
(Black hoods Karakalpak - black hat) - the general name of the Turkic vassals of the Kyiv princes settled in Porosye starting from the end of the 11th century.)
Cossack times.
The Zaporozhye army consisted of infantry, cavalry and artillery. The Cossack cavalry was light cavalry, which was armed mainly with sabers, pikes and carbines.
One of the main advantages of the Zaporozhye Cossacks was surprise.
Many fortresses and battles were won through speed and onslaught in half a day.
And the main guarantee of an unexpected and quick attack were horses.
Cossack horse equipment: 1. Saddle with full extension. 2. Sakva (leather and canvas). 3, 5. Buckles. 4, 8. Bit. 6. Horseshoe. 7. Bell. 9. Stirrups. 10. Girth.
Registered Cossack horse hundred
During the Zaporozhye Sich, the horse shared the hardships and hardships of the Cossacks on long marches, and during the battle, the life of the Cossack often depended on whether the horse rested before the battle or not.
Horses became an integral part of Cossack life.
Many songs have been written about them, such as: “Oh, someone’s kin is standing, and his mane is black...” and so on.
Or “Why didn’t you come, because you didn’t come, I didn’t let you in, even though I didn’t know the stitches, I didn’t let my mother in...”
The history of the horse goes back 60 million years. It was then that in the humid and dense forests of America lived Eohippus (Eochippus, as other scientists call it, or Chiracotherium, as others call it), the size of a small dog. Neither in height, nor in its arched back, nor in its long tail did this animal resemble a horse. And of course, he did not have hooves - he had fingers: 4 on the front legs and 3 on the hind legs. And his teeth were completely different - adapted not for grinding grass, but for pinching and grinding the leaves of young shoots.
Anchitheria - descendants of Eohippus - were already larger, the size of a modern pony. They, too, of course, did not yet have hooves, but there were three toes on each foot. All the ancestors of the horse, originating in America, moved to Europe and Asia. However, they did not take root either in Europe or in Asia. And in America, the development of horses went on as usual.
25 million years ago, an event occurred on our planet that greatly influenced its animal world: treeless spaces began to appear. Before this, the entire land was covered with forests, and, naturally, animals were adapted to life in them. But then treeless plains with dry, fairly hard soil began to appear, and some animals were forced to adapt to different conditions.
Several more forms of the ancestors of the wild horse changed before horses with a predominance of one toe appeared. They became hipparions.
Hipparions were very numerous, but they did not yet have hooves. They appeared, like many species, in America, and then, through Alaska and the isthmus that then connected America and Eurasia, they penetrated into Europe, Asia and even Africa. The question of whether hipparions are the direct ancestors of horses or whether this is a side branch has not yet been resolved. But one way or another they were already closer to modern horses than anyone. And about 5 million years ago, pliohyppus - one-toed horses - appeared.
Changes began to occur on Earth again: in the savannas, where hipparions lived in abundance, the highly moist soil on which succulent plants grew was replaced by dry steppes. And the hipparions, supplanted by the pliohippus, began to die out. Pliohippus quickly populated Europe, Asia and Africa. Thus, “through a series of gradual changes we reach the one-toed horse, from forms resting on the ground with 3 almost dense, bone-through cylinders, we move on to forms in which... these 3 thin dense cylinders are replaced by one hollow tube inside, that is, the very “an advantageous device that combined lightness and low cost of nutrition with great strength,” wrote Vladimir Onufrievich Kovalevsky, to whom the world owes knowledge of the history of the modern horse.
But all the changes took place with horses in the Eastern Hemisphere.
In America there were also horses, and their world was very diverse - from dwarfs to giants, from lightweights to heavyweights. And suddenly - about 10 thousand years ago - all the horses became extinct. Why is unknown, but in all of America there is not a single horse or animal left that is at all similar to it. However, many, many years passed and the descendants of Eohippus returned to America - real horses, which had long been domesticated.
But who then was the ancestor of this domestic horse?
Until recently, the ancestors of the horse were considered to be its wild relatives - the kulan, Przewalski's horse and tarpan. They used to think that there were more ancestors, but then they settled on 3.
Kulan. Why not? He is like a horse in many ways. He is handsome - slim, lean, muscular. True, his head is somewhat large, but this does not spoil him. And it certainly doesn’t interfere with racing through the steppes, deserts, and mountain paths. (It is believed that the wild ass is one of the fastest among ungulates: it can reach speeds of up to 65 kilometers per hour, and over short distances - more than 70).
It is unpretentious: it feeds on dry grass in summer and frozen grass, pulling it out from under the snow, in winter. This, by the way, is a typical sign of a horse - even the scientific name of domestic horses - "cabo" - comes from the Latin word "caballus", which means "dig".
He is brave. If he runs away, it’s not out of cowardice - it’s just that this method of defense is more reliable for him. But if there is no way out, he fearlessly rushes at the enemy, using his teeth and very strong hooves.
Kulans easily get along with other animals and with each other. For the winter they gather in groups of several dozen, and in the summer they roam in small schools of 10 - 20 heads. In the schools, the leader keeps order, especially the behavior of the young animals: so that they do not frolic too much when it is not necessary, and most importantly, so that the teenagers do not offend the kids, who are in a special, privileged position in the school.
There is much in the behavior of the kulan that made scientists consider it a direct predecessor of the domestic horse. However, there are signs that deny this. In particular, the structure of the skull and the fact that the kulan, unlike the horse, is difficult to tame. And finally, offspring. Horses and wild ass produce foals. But these crossbreeds themselves do not produce offspring. So there can be no talk of breeding any variety or breed.
The Przewalski's horse is closer to a domestic horse. Reasons for considering it an ancestor: among the ancestors of the domestic horse, there are 2 types - light, thin-boned and larger and heavier. It was believed that Przewalski's horse belongs to the second type. But the Soviet scientist V.I. Gromova, the greatest expert on the history of horses, based on careful research, proved that Przewalski’s horse has nothing to do with modern horses, although it is a close relative. Subsequently, this opinion was confirmed by chromosome analysis: the Przewalski horse had 66 pairs of chromosomes, and the domestic horse had 64.
Tarpan remains. He is indeed the ancestor of the domestic horse. But in 1879 the last free Tarpan died. It was a tarpanikha, who went down in history under the name “one-eyed tarpan”.
Nevertheless... Anyone who was in the Belovezhskaya Pushcha Nature Reserve could see there a small, mouse-colored horse with a standing mane typical of wild horses. This is tarpan.
At the end of the last century, the estate of Lord Zamoyski had a rather rich menagerie. Among other animals, there were tarpans, but in 1908 the owners decided to distribute 20 tarpans to the peasants. From these tarpans a large offspring appeared, in which the signs of wild tarpans were scattered bit by bit. In 1936, Polish scientists decided to put these signs together and recreate the tarpana. They succeeded: horses appeared that were in all respects similar to their wild ancestors, having one of the most typical signs of wild horses - a standing short mane.
Horse history
The history of the horse begins 65 million years ago (Early Eocene) with a small, dog-like Eochippus, or Chiracotherium, with a flexible, arched spine and a long tail. This animal rested on its entire foot, and not on the ends of its toes, of which it had four on its front legs and three on its hind legs. Its teeth were adapted for pinching and grinding leaves and young shoots. Another step in evolution is the anchytheria, small three-toed horses as tall as ponies. They are originally from America, and from there they migrated to Eurasia.
In the Miocene (26 million years BC), the ancestors of horses took a new path of development - they adapted to living in open spaces and feeding on grass. On average, they were close in size to ponies, their skulls became like those of a horse, and their teeth were close to modern ones. The greatest changes occurred in the structure of the limbs at this time. The paw was replaced by a leg supported by a hoof, adapted for jumping and fast movements.
The next link in the evolution of the horse is the hipparion, which resembled small, fleet-footed gazelles or three-toed horses of medium height. And only in the Upper Pliocene (7 million years BC) did the first one-toed horses appear, which replaced the numerous and diverse three-toed hipparions, and in a number of places (Eastern Europe, Central Asia, North Africa) even lived with them at the same time. During that period, the savannah landscape (with lush vegetation and highly moist soils) was replaced by dry steppes, which contributed to the advantage of one-toed horses over hipparions. In a short time, horses populated Europe, Asia and Africa in abundance. From them came tarpans, zebras and donkeys.
The history of the horse is inextricably linked with the history of mankind. The horse was domesticated later than other types of farm animals - 5th - 6th centuries. BC e. For a long time, horses were used only as a productive animal. The domestication of horses cannot be attributed to one specific place; it had several centers of distribution - both in Europe and in Asia. The role of these animals was very important for humans, including for waging wars, so horse breeding developed very rapidly.
Many animals that now exist on Earth are descended from creatures that were much larger than them. A horse is the opposite.
The first known ancestor of the horse was a small animal no larger than a dog. It was a hyracotherium, or “low horse.” The remains of these horse ancestors have been found in many parts of our planet. The first Hyracotherium horses were small and not very similar to modern horses. Photo wikipedia.org
Hyracotherium, an animal with a flexible curved spine and a long tail, rested on its entire foot; it had 4 toes on its front paws and three on its hind paws. It lived in the forest and moved on soft soil, feeding mainly on leaves and young shoots.
Another step in evolution is the Anchytherium, small three-toed horses that first appeared 35 million years ago. This animal resembled a pony in size. Anchiteria come from America, from where they migrated to Eurasia along the so-called Bering Bridge - an isthmus that periodically appeared in place of the Bering Strait during periods of cold weather, when the general level of the World Ocean dropped, exposing the seabed off the coast. After warming, the waves again flooded the land, and the horses, cut off from their homeland, moved forward, settling in all corners. This is how tarpans, wild horses of Asia and zebras of Africa appeared.
The climate has changed its face
In the middle of the Miocene, cooling began on our planet. The conditions in which the horse's ancestor evolved over millions of years have changed. The climate became drier, the vegetation coarser. A radical turning point in the development of this branch of the animal world was the appearance of land areas free of forests. Wet soils gave way to areas covered with grass and shrubs. Tropical forests gave way to endless plains. The horse's ancestors began to live in open spaces.
New living conditions led to the development of new instincts and changes in body structure; The strength of the teeth increased, the jaws became more massive. As a result, the facial part of the skull elongated, and the eye sockets and skull moved back. The neck has lengthened to make it easier to reach the ground. With long legs, it became easier to run away from predators; the foot adapted to moving on hard ground. Gradually, the limbs of the ancestors of horses took on shapes similar to those of today; one finger became dominant, which increased in size and became keratinized, gradually turning into a hoof. And only 15 million years ago the first one-toed horse appeared, a famous example of which is the hipporion. From this ancestor originates the classification of the domestic horse and all its surviving relatives.
Where have America's horses gone?
It still remains a mystery to scientists why horses became extinct in America, because this is the homeland of their ancestors. Animals disappeared about a hundred centuries ago, and this happened in the shortest possible time. Horses reappeared on the American continent only with the Spanish conquistadors of Columbus. But these were already quite familiar modern ungulates.
The question of the immediate ancestor of the modern horse remains unclear. The main contenders for this title were considered three species: tarpan, kulan and Przewalski's horse. At first glance, it seems that the Przewalski's horse is most closely related to the domestic horse. However, it has been proven that the latter cannot be considered as the direct “mother” of the domestic horse. Using modern chromosome analysis methods, further confirmation of this theory was obtained. The chromosome set of these animals differs by a pair of chromosomes, just as, for example, the chromosome set of humans and monkeys differs. The wild Tarpan horse, exterminated by man, was in fact most likely the ancestor of the domestic horse. Tarpans disappeared from the wild in 1879. However, in captivity, people managed to preserve these animals, for example, in Belovezhskaya Pushcha.
Miner ponies
Pony is not a toy horse for children to ride, they were once used to do hard work. Their ancestors are wild horses (Equus ferus caballus). Ponies lived in areas with a harsh climate and little food, so they are very hardy and unpretentious. A striking representative of the pony is one of the oldest breeds - the Shetland pony. This is the most common breed throughout the world, as well as the strongest and most resilient. It was formed about 2 thousand years ago in the north of Scotland (Shetland Islands). From the beginning of the domestication of Shetland ponies, they were used for ordinary rural work, transporting peat and various goods, and then for hard work in coal mines. Each year, each horse traveled about 4,500 km underground and brought more than 3,000 tons of coal and rock to the surface.
The Fell breed originated in northern England and has been known since the Roman conquest of Britain. At that time, these small horses were used to transport building materials and products. Later, after the Roman retreat, Fell ponies were very popular among poor Englishmen who could not afford to keep a large horse.
Moreover, the fells are capable of developing the same speed as their tall relatives.
Now these cute horses are bought mainly for children. Moreover, the cost of a pony is not much different from the price of a tall animal (from 350 to 2500 dollars). But there are also those who buy a pony as an excellent assistant for housekeeping.
The odd-toed ungulates (an order of the class of mammals) have given humanity only two species of domestic animals; horse and donkey. Both are from the equine family.
The donkey became domesticated before the horse, about 6 thousand years ago in Egypt. Its ancestor was the African wild ass, which now survives only in some places in Ethiopia and Somalia. He is protected there by a law prohibiting the killing of wild donkeys.
The horse was domesticated only in the third millennium BC. Its ancestral home was the southern Russian steppes, and its wild ancestor was Tarpan.
In ancient times, Asian wild donkeys were also tamed in Lower Mesopotamia and Babylonia. They were harnessed to carts and used as beasts of burden. But with the advent of the horse, domestic Asian donkeys began to disappear quite quickly. And besides, they were supplanted by the more “powerful” domestic donkeys of Africa, more suitable for heavy work, which soon appeared in Asia.
If a person saw Eohippus in the forest, he would never have thought that this was the ancestor of our horse. He was no taller than a fox. He had a small head, a short neck, a humped back, a striped skin, and four-toed (front) and three-toed (back) paws. Eohippus lived in the damp forests of North America 50 million years ago. He ate leaves. There were several varieties of Eohippus, some of which migrated to Europe early (apparently across the “bridge” that then existed to the north* between Canada, Greenland, Iceland and Scandinavia). The European descendant of Eohippus - paleotherium with a powerful physique resembled a rhinoceros.
The first horses in Europe were unlucky; here they all died out. But in America their family still flourished. From Eohippus came Orohippus, and from it the three-fingered Mesohippus, which was already the size of a sheep. Here an important event occurred in the history of the Earth: the damp tropical forests that covered most of the planet began to disappear everywhere. Steppes and meadow grasses appeared. Mesohippus came out of the forest thickets and risked starting a new life in the open air of the prairie. They began to eat grass.
In the steppe they were pursued by the fleet-footed ancestors of wolves. There was only one salvation: learning to run faster than predators. The extra toes became a burden (it's easier to run on one toe!), and fossil bones show how the horse's ancestors began to atrophy one toe after another until there was only one left on each foot. The horse turned into a one-hoofed animal.
But this did not happen right away. From mesohippus came merigippus, and then slender hipparion (slightly shorter than a zebra). The two underdeveloped side toes on his feet did not touch the ground. The three-toed hipparion therefore ran on one toe.
Hardly any other ungulate animal was found in such colossal herds as the hipparion. Millions of hordes of these elegant horses crossed the isthmus that at that time connected Chukotka and Alaska, penetrated from North America to Asia, and then to Europe. Countless herds of hipparions galloped across the plains of Eurasia. Their fossil remains are so numerous that paleontologists called the “hipparion fauna” the entire complex of living creatures that lived in the same steppes at the same time as these horses.
Hipparions were unable to get into Africa, South America and Australia: at that time these countries were separated from North America, Asia and Europe by wide straits and seas.
Several million years passed, and all the hipparions became extinct.
A happier fate awaited the cousin, so to speak, “brother” of hipparion (of course, in an evolutionary, not an everyday sense) - pliohippus. Our horses originated from him.
Once upon a time, herds of pliohippus inhabited all of North and South America, Europe, Asia and Africa (by that time these continents were again connected by isthmuses). Among the ancient horses there were very interesting varieties: some were larger than the largest draft horse, others were smaller than a dwarf pony. But a million years ago, all the horses in America went extinct for some unknown reason. In Africa, only zebras and donkeys survived, and in Europe and Asia - two wild species, the history of which is now closely intertwined with the fate of man.
During the Ice Age, several tens of thousands of years ago, wild horses were still found throughout Europe. Together with mammoths and reindeer, they often ended up for lunch with troglodytes, primitive people who lived in caves. This is evidenced by the “kitchen” waste of our ancestors - huge heaps of crushed bones, examined by anthropologists. In one of them they found the remains of ten thousand eaten horses. Our ancestors, apparently, did not suffer from lack of appetite.
Wild horses lived side by side with domestic horses in Europe for a long time. The Roman Varro (2nd century BC) and the Greek Strabo (he lived a hundred years later than Varro) write that these animals were found even in Spain and the Alps. Ancient Germanic and Scandinavian heroic tales contain many dramatic episodes in which wild horses act. Siegfried from the "Song of the Nibelungs", for example, kills the wild horse of a skelch, and the sea giant Ise hunts on the shore on dapple-gray horses (such a color is unusual for wild horses, says Professor E. A. Bogdanov, a famous expert on domestic animals, and this, apparently a later addition to the old legend).
In the Middle Ages, the population of many European countries enthusiastically ate the meat of wild horses at festive dinners. It seems that the monks were especially fond of horse meat.
“You allowed some to eat the meat of wild horses, and the majority to eat meat from domesticated ones,” Pope Gregory III wrote to St. Boniface in the 8th century. “From now on, most holy brother, do not allow this at all.”
But the gourmet monks ignored the prohibition of the holy father. For a long time in monasteries, wild horse meat was considered a delicacy. Ekkegaard, abbot of the Saint-Gallen monastery and Switzerland, in a book - a collection of table prayers, among others, recommends this to his brothers in Christ: “May the meat of a wild horse under the banner of the cross be delicious to us!”
Until the beginning of the 17th century, some European cities maintained detachments of riflemen who hunted wild horses that devastated the fields. And in the forests of East Germany and, apparently, Poland, even 150 years ago you could find a wild horse (or feral? This question is now probably impossible to solve).
In 1814 in Prussia, several thousand beaters surrounded the last herds of forest horses in the Duisburg forest and exterminated them. A total of 260 animals were killed.
“And here in Chernigov I acted: a wild horse with my own hands tied up ten and twenty live horses in the forests, and besides, while riding in Russia, I had with my own hands the same wild horses,” - this is how the brave Kiev prince Vladimir Monomakh wrote about the “Teaching children."
This means that in Russia in the 12th century there were wild horses. We saw them later too. In 1663, historians say, the Cossacks tied the future hetman Ivan Mazepa to a wild horse for some offense, and it sped off into the steppe. But Mazepa somehow managed to free himself from the ropes and, 44 years later, raised a rebellion in Ukraine against Peter I.
In Ukraine, wild horses survived until the second half of the last century. These were the famous tarpans, horses that were once written and talked about a lot, but are now almost forgotten. Even the inhabitants of those places where wild horses “roamed free” a hundred years ago did not have any memories of them.
Tarpan (or scoter, this is a Tatar word) is a small, but hardy and brave horse. His color was mousey, ash-gray with a dark strip along the ridge. The mane, tail and legs up to the “knees” are black or black-brown, and on the front legs of some tarpans there were also dark transverse stripes - a slightly noticeable zebroid pattern.
Until quite recently, tarpans lived in the southern Russian steppes, forest-steppes and forests of Lithuania and Belarus (in Belovezhskaya Pushcha, writes Professor V.G. Geptner, they were found at the end of the 18th century), in Ukraine, throughout the steppe Crimea, Ciscaucasia, Don, Lower Volga region , perhaps even to the Urals.
Our steppes were not yet plowed. And herds of free wild horses galloped across the lush grasses, feather grass and fescue, across the deserted steppe expanse. There were usually ten to twenty animals in the herd, and the herd was always led by an old and strong stallion.
The history of the horse dates back 65 million years (early Eocene). It is from this period that they belong finds of the remains of the ancestor of modern horses - Eohippus, which lived in North America, as well as its European relative Hyracotherium. Eohippus He was 30-50 cm tall, he had an arched back, a long tail and a large head, the front part of which was very elongated. The front legs were elongated and ended with four toes, and the hind legs with three. It lived in swampy forests, feeding mainly on leaves and sometimes insects and small animals. His teeth were adapted for pinching the leaves of young shoots and grinding them. Permanent teeth eohippus were low with bumps on the chewing surface. It is by the structure and arrangement of teeth that scientists have determined eohippus the first ancestor of the modern horse.
Larger, about the size of a greyhound dog, mesohippus, found in Oligocene deposits, already had only three fingers on both limbs, but his lateral fingers still reached the ground. The crowns of the molars were low, although they had a flat, folded chewing surface, allowing him to chew tough leaves. He lived in the forest and in his lifestyle resembled tapirs.
Merigippus was the closest to the modern horse. The height of the merigippus at the withers is on average 90 cm. The foot was still three-toed, but the load was transferred to the middle finger. The molars were covered with strong enamel made of bone tissue. Merigippus had a keen sense- this is a trait that characterizes the modern horse and serves as its protection. Merigippus was one of the most long-lasting links in the evolutionary chain of horses.
Merigippus
Anchitheria- were already larger, the size of a modern pony, their 2 side toes were significantly shorter than the middle one. They first appeared in America, then migrated to Eurasia.
25 million years ago, cooling began, and treeless spaces appeared. Before this, the entire land was covered with forests, and, naturally, animals were adapted to life in them. New living conditions led to the development of new instincts. The structure of the body also did not remain unchanged: did the jaws become more massive? tooth strength has increased. As a result, the facial part of the skull elongated, and the skull and eye sockets moved back. The neck has lengthened to make it easier to reach the ground. With long legs, it became easier to escape from predators, and the middle toe increased in size and became keratinized, gradually turning into a hoof.
This is how the first one-toed horse, the hipparion, appeared 15 million years ago. From this ancestor originates the classification of the domestic horse and all its surviving relatives.
Hipparions were very numerous, but they did not yet have hooves. They appeared, like many species, in America, and then, through Alaska and the isthmus that then connected America and Eurasia, they penetrated into Europe, Asia and even Africa. The question has not yet been resolved whether hipparions direct ancestors of horses or is it a side branch. But one way or another they were already closer to modern horses than anyone. And about 5 million years ago they appeared pliohyppus- one-toed horses. had the proportions of a modern horse.
Changes began to occur on Earth again: in the savannas, where they lived in abundance hipparions, the highly moist soil on which succulent plants grew was replaced by dry steppes. AND hipparions, repressed pliohyppus, began to die out. quickly populated Europe, Asia and Africa. Descendants pliohyppus became those whom science classifies as members of the equine family of the equid order, - zebras, Przewalski's horses, donkeys, wild asses, half-donkeys and the horses themselves. All of them are distinguished by long and thin limbs with one third toe protected by the hoof.
Horses were one of the most common species on earth, but in Europe ancient horses became extinct at the beginning of the Oligocene, leaving no descendants: they were probably exterminated by numerous predators. In America, ancient horses continued to develop. Subsequently, modern horses evolved from them, which penetrated through the Bering Strait into Europe and Asia. In America the ancestors of horses became extinct at the beginning of the Pleistocene and appeared there again only with the arrival of colonialists from Europe.
The question of the immediate ancestor of the modern horse remains unclear.
Until recently, the ancestors of the horse were considered to be its wild relatives - kulan, Przewalski's horse and tarpan. Previously they thought that there were more ancestors, but then settled on these three.
Kulan, or dzhigetai, is a typical representative of steppes and semi-deserts. Kulans lived over vast areas of Mongolia, North-West China, Kazakhstan and in the regions of Turkmenistan. Now they are rare. Kulans are somewhat larger than onagers, but less kiangs the largest of half donkeys, living on the plateaus of Southwestern China and Tibet. The average height of kulans is 115 cm; Their body is light and their limbs are thin. Kulan has great running agility ( It is believed that the kulan is one of the fastest among ungulates: can reach speeds of up to 65 kilometers per hour, and over short distances - more than 70). In the 30s, an interesting attempt was made in the Soviet Union to domesticate kulans and cross them with horses, but the resulting hybrids turned out to be fruitless.
Przewalski's horse is closer to a domestic horse. Reasons for considering it an ancestor: among the ancestors of the domestic horse, there are 2 types - light, thin-boned and larger and heavier. It was believed that Przewalski's horse belongs to the second type. But the Soviet scientist V.I. Gromova - the greatest expert on the history of horses - based on careful research, proved that Przewalski's horse has nothing to do with modern horses, although it is a close relative. Subsequently, this opinion was confirmed by chromosome analysis: the Przewalski horse had 66 pairs of chromosomes, and the domestic horse had 64.
Tarpan remains. He is indeed the ancestor of the domestic horse. But in 1879 the last free Tarpan died. It was a tarpanikha, who went down in history under the name " one-eyed tarpan".
Nevertheless... Anyone who was in the Belovezhskaya Pushcha Nature Reserve could see there a small, mouse-colored horse with a standing mane typical of wild horses. This is tarpan.
The estate of Lord Zamoyski had a rather rich menagerie. Among other animals, there were tarpans, but in 1908 the owners decided to distribute 20 tarpans to the peasants. From these Tarpanov a large offspring appeared, in which signs of wild ones were scattered bit by bit Tarpanov. In 1936, Polish scientists decided to put these signs together and recreate tarpana. They succeeded: horses appeared that were in all respects similar to their wild ancestors, having one of the most typical signs of wild horses - a standing short mane.
Loading...