HORSES

Horses, Zebras and Asses are all belong to the Equidae family. They are swift and intelligent and the most widely distributed animals. Within the Genus Equus are seven species. Two species of horses, three species of Zebras and two of Asses. They live in a small family group of three or four adults and their off springs.

The species have a long heads, necks and wiry, slender legs, carrying the bodyweight on a single toe of each 
hoofed foot. Their powerful running muscles at the top of the legs give enough speed and have the strength to outrun most predators. Their highly developed senses make them spot the danger. Their Eyes are high on the head to give them a wide viewing angle. They can swivel their ears to receive the faintest sound. The olfactory organ (Jacobson’s organ) can distinguish the slightest smell on the breeze.

Horses are herbivores and feed on grasses and sedges. At the front of their mouths, strong incisor teeth crop the vegetation. Their pointed, enamel-covered molars at the back of the mouth grind and crushing the plant fibres.

Their stomachs are a hind-but fermentation and the food is only partly digested.  Therefore it passes through quickly and not all nutrients are extracted. To make for this loss they have to eat greater amount of vegetation.

Man has a relationship with horses for around 22,000 years. Evidence of horses found in Ice Age dwellings in France. Also there plain drawings on cave walls showing horses being hunted. Following this mankind developed to rearing horses for food.  From around 5,000 BC archaeological finds show that they were used for carrying and pulling wagons.

The more mankind tried to breed horses they also escaped and returned to the wild. Those feral horses are more close to their ancestors.

In Europe there is the small sturdy pony which doesn’t measure higher than 145cm. 

The Exmoor pony roaming the moors

NEW FOREST PONY

New Forest ponies roaming freely over the heather moorlands and bogs of the New Forest, England. They eat grass when it is available in spring and summer. During the winter months they adapted to eat of gorse, holly and brambles.

WELSH PONY

The Welsh ponies are now grazing in the woodlands.  They are bigger than the hardy Welsh mountain pony which lived for centuries on the hills. Nowadays they are classed into three breeds. Their height are from 127 to 137cam at the whither.

Norwegian Fjord ponies the mountains. They have adapted their physical strength over 1000 of years.

HIGHLAND PONY CHAMPION

Highland ponies in Scotland have a stocky body and short, sturdy legs, a small head and a thick warm winter coat to survive the harsh environment. Another characteristic is their long forelocks to fall over their faces. This protects their eyes.

STEPPEN TARPAN

In the big forests of Popiellno State Reserve in Poland lives the closest relative of the wild Tarpan Horse. Till 19^th Century this ancient breed ran across the steppes of Russia which are south of the Ural Mountains. It is thought that they were the foundation of many today’s breeds of European breeds. As always overhunting brought them close to extinction.  Some were brought into reservations but they mostly died or were domesticated.  Those living nowadays had been re-created by selective breeding programmes which came from related Tarpan stock from the Polish reserves.

PRZEWALSKI HORSE

The only truly wild horse is the Przewalski horse. It was never cross bred. It was first discovered in the north-west Mongolia. Its characteristics are short, dun-coloured and a dark, upright mane. Their much bigger heads are also having bigger brains than the domestic horse.  It has a shrill whinny sounds which can travel over wide area of the Gobi Desert. At the moment it is also close to extinction. S breeding programme in zoos managed to establish several herds and they will be released into the wild.

PRZEWALSKI HORSE

EVOLUTION OF HORSES

Equine evolution

The theory and belief of Charles Darwin is now more and more accepted. The very fact that plant and animals had and still do adapt to the changing of their environment makes it convincing. The theory is that at first a simple form of life existed and it changed over millions of years into various form of animals and plants. This means that all forms of life on earth have one single ancestor. The following illustration proves that there is truth in it

HYRACOTHERIUM SKELETON

The evolution of the horse started with hyracotherium. It lived 70-60 million years ago. It was about the size of a fox, at two feet (60cm) in length. It stood 8-14 inches (20cm) high at the shoulder and weighed 50 pounds. It had four hoofed toes on each front foot and three hoofed toes on each hind foot. The toes were padded. The hyracotherium had a short face with eye sockets in the middle and a short diastema (space between front teeth and cheek teeth). The skull was long, and it had 44 long teeth. It had slender long legs which were useful for running, and it usually inhabited swampy, wooded areas.

MESOHIPPUS SKELETON

The next creature in the evolution of the horse was the mesohippus, which lived 35-25 million years ago. It was a little larger than hyracotherium and had longer legs. It was discovered that it had one toe less, according to the skeleton. The face was longer and larger, and the eyes were rounder and wider apart. It developed another tooth for grinding, and the teeth had a single gap behind the front teeth where the bit now rests in the modern horse. The brain was more or less the same size of a modern horse. It seemed to be better equipped for grazing on dry grasslands.

MERRYCHIPPUS SKELETON

The merrychippus lived 25-10 million years ago, in herds. It was about one meter tall. The muzzle was longer and the jaw deeper. The eyes were wider and the larger brain was capable of more complex thought. It was the first horse which had the distinct head of today's horse. The foot was formed with ligaments and hooves. It was the size of a typical pony of modern times.

PLIOHIPPUS SKELETON

The last in the chain of evolution was the piohippus, and it lived 7-2 million years ago. The single hooves enabled it to be very fast on is feet. It was a strong horse.

EQUUS

The equus lived less than two million years ago. It looked like the native British pony breed and was the forerunner of today's modern horses