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 is Latin for horse.

When did man tame a horse?

About 5-6 thousand years ago, people first began to tame wild horses.

About 4-5 thousand years ago, man first sat on a horse.

In the beginning, a man rode the rump of a horse, holding on to the mane, and using a kind of "cordeo" on the base of the horse's neck made from the hair of the same horses or fibers of plant origin.

Later, a person began to put animal skins on the horse's back, which were fastened with bone (later metal) fasteners 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 harness horses to a cart for transporting goods.

How did the word "horse", "mare", "stallion" appear?

These words are exclusively of Slavic origin, they are found in the languages ​​of many Slavic peoples and their roots go back to the Indo-European proto-language.

The closest relatives of the horse are the donkey, the kulan, the mule, the zebra.

Mule

A donkey

zebra

It is very noteworthy that such ancient states, which reached a high level of culture, such as Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, did not know horses for a long time: it was not there, until about the beginning of the second millennium BC. The horse appeared in these states only 2000-1500 years BC as a result of contacts with nomadic peoples, who then conquered these ancient states with the help of a horse.

Very early on, people realized what a great importance a horse can have in military affairs, and began to cultivate it for these purposes. For the first time, the horse as a war horse harnessed to a chariot appeared among the 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 appears with soldiers, riding 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 the cavalry further enhanced the military importance of the horse, and this, in turn, made them take more care of it, its condition and quality. During this period, the beginnings of pedigree work were born 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 life, which caused long-distance movements and the wide, rather than episodic use of the horse under the top, for grazing herds, traveling, sending reports or hasty flight, which was already characteristic of the Central Russian steppes and the Caucasus (III millennium BC). BC) and Western Asia (II millennium BC). We are talking about the appearance of an armed horseman instead of a messenger or herdman, the replacement of a detachment of chariots with cavalry, at first irregular, then regular. In the literature, the point of view has become stronger that if the Indo-Iranians introduced Asia to the horse, then the Iranians - to equestrianism. Studying the written sources of Assyria (descriptions of military campaigns, the composition of the troops 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 pommel 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 forage conditions, led to the fact that already in the first millennium BC in a number of Asian states (Khorezm, Bactria, Parthia, etc.), wonderful breeds were created light, dry, fast-paced and very beautiful horses. The horses of these states were also highly valued by neighboring peoples; the latter tried in every possible way to get them. So, the Persians at one time collected in the form of tribute annually up to 30,000 horses. The descendants of these ancient horses include the modern Akhal-Teke breed bred in Turkmenistan.

There are quite a few works devoted to horse breeding in Ancient Greece, which are based on a large number of sources (written and visual). This makes it possible to highlight issues that are important for solving the problems of the development and distribution 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 cremations, 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 lamentable cry ... piled up the forest.
They quickly made a fire, the width and the length of the steps,
On top of the fire they laid the dead, mournful in heart.
Many fat sheep and great horned oxen,
They were stabbed near the fire, ritualized ...
In the same place he placed jugs with honey and light oil,
Everything; leaning over them and the bed; four proud horses
With terrible force he threw him on the fire, groaning deeply ...
He stabbed two (dogs) and threw them on the blockhouse of the decapitated;
He threw there twelve glorious Trojan youths,
Killing them with copper.
The log house was extinguished, pouring crimson wine over the space
All where the flame went; and deep ash fell;
Tears pouring, my dear white bones
They collected it in a golden bowl.
Having poured a mound fresh, they parted,

Homer (23.13-257)

Horseback riding and horse riding were known in Homer's time, but in his poems, in all cases, we are talking about chariots and chariot horses (the Trojans are "rich in horses", and "horse fighters", and "tamers of horses", and "courageous horsemen").

Already on the Cretan vase of the 9th century. BC NS. there is an image of an armed horseman, in the second half of the 8th century. BC NS. drawings of this kind (although horsemen are more often shown in peaceful processions than in battles) are becoming more numerous - on vases, metal objects, etc. The landing of the first horsemen was just as inconvenient and inept as in the Caucasus and Assyria. Greeks even in the VIII century. BC NS. used chariots differently from the warriors of Asia Minor. As can be judged from the Attic vases, the Greek soldiers did not know how to shoot not only from a moving, but even from a standing chariot. To fire, they had to jump to the ground.

The art of the geometric style brings to us a leggy horse (which reflected not so much the features of the exterior as the originality of the painting style), with a gracefully curved back and a high tail set. Horse breeding and equestrianism came to the Greeks, apparently from the Danube region, where it was developed earlier; significant, of course, and the role of Asia Minor, as well as Africa in the replenishment of equestrian resources. Obviously, quadrigi (horse racing during the Olympic Games began in 680 BC) came to Greece from Libya. Only in Greek images of the 7th century. BC NS. we see a more comfortable fit for the riders. At the same time (648 BC), riding horses were introduced for the first time at the Olympic Games.

Fight with a horse in ancient times

The poet Alkman (end of the 7th century BC) compares Greek girls in his poems with racehorses - Venetian, Kolaksay and Ibenin. However, we know about the Venetian horses from other sources, since in the middle of the 1st millennium BC. NS. The Venetians of the Adriatic were famous as horse breeders. Their horses brought the Spartans their first victory at the Olympic Games at this time. Venetian horses were imported to Sicily to create their own breed on their basis. Ibenin horses should be understood as Celtic, but Kolaksai horses are certainly Scythian, and Alkman's testimony coincides in time with the appearance of the Scythians in the international arena and is associated with their Near Asian campaigns.

Communication with the Scythians, interest in their horses and riding technique for Greece were constant and traditional, since the results of the Greco-Persian wars forced the Greeks to seriously think about the need to master horse riding skills. According to Andokides, "for the first time then we organized a detachment of horsemen and bought 300 Scythian archers."

Scythian horseman (IV century BC)

The first-class image of a large oriental type horse is the so-called Xanthian relief found in Lycia, a tombstone made by a Greek master in the 70s of the 5th century. BC NS. This bas-relief depicts a funeral chariot pulled by a pair of small, graceful horses, in front of a young man is leading a large riding horse, whose height, apparently, is about 150 cm. The horse is distinguished by a large, but dry, beautifully shaped head on a long, high-set neck, muscular chest; a beautiful top line, which is not broken by a soft rather large saddle-blanket with a propping and a girth; dry, slender and strong legs, braided tail set low. The mane is enclosed in a felt (?) Nape (similar to Pazyryk's) sewn along the length. Equestrian equipment is close to what we see on horses from Persepolis, but Persian horses were distinguished by a hunch-nosed 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 share the same features.

Antique image of the head of an oriental horse

Already in the images of the XVII-XVI centuries. BC NS. from Mycenae we see horses harnessed to chariots, resembling ponies, with a fluttering mane and tail (the Greeks always considered the custom of cutting a mane and tying a tail to be characteristic of barbarians). On vases of the geometric style, we see riding and chariot horses, which do not differ in height and exterior. The artist depicts them emphatically slender, with a long and narrow body, a pronounced shoulder, thin-legged, with a high setting of a small thoroughbred head, a thin neck and a long tail set high.

In the early Greek images, the so-called European small horses predominate (after all, when sitting on a horse, the Greek took it by the mane between the ears, which can only be done with a very small horse stature). These horses are well known to us from the frieze of the Parthenon.

In Roman times, the types of horses used for various purposes were already clearly delineated. Thus, Varro and Seneca emphasize that the exterior and dressage of a horse should be different depending on whether it is intended for war, racing and competitions for agility, for the tribe or as a harness. Oppian in the "Book of Hunt" cites dozens of horse breeds, giving them a comparative characteristic in terms of agility, endurance, exterior, origin. The zootechnician reached a very high level in Roman times. Much of what distinguishes modern horse breeding has developed already in those distant times.

The Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus, who is characterized by careful handling of historical facts, wrote: “After all, the old, fiction and the miraculous are called myths, history, whether ancient or new, requires truth, and the miraculous has no place in it or it is rare. As for the Amazons, about them always - both before and now - the same legends were in use, completely wonderful and incredible. "

Legends 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 participated, most likely, in the Near Asian campaigns. Not without reason, as L. A. Elnitsky showed, "the geography of the Amazons' campaigns along Diodorus coincides with the geography of the Scythian and Cimmerian campaigns along Herodotus." In Herodotus, we read the legend about the origin of the "woman-controlled" Savromats.

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 coast of the Sea of ​​Azov to the lands occupied by the Scythians, the Amazons drove herds of horses and began to live by robbery. "Since then, Sauromat women have retained their ancient customs," writes Herodotus, "with their husbands and even without them, they ride out on horseback, go on a hike and wear the same clothes with men."

Back in the XIV century. BC in Asia Minor, in the Hittite state, horse breeding was already so highly developed that even a special treatise appeared - "Notes of the Mitanian Kikkuli" on the methods of keeping, using, and most notably, 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 horse breeding. The first centers where selection and breeding work led to the formation of ancient highly specialized riding horse breeds were Media and Persia, that is, those areas where the Turkmen and Persian horses were later formed. Especially widely known for their qualities and beauty are the non-sean horses, named after the vast plain of Neseus in Media. "The Nesean horses were the largest and the best, and they were used by the Persian kings." These riding breeds of horses of Central Asia for many centuries and our time served as an inexhaustible source, from where breeding material was drawn for improving local horses and creating new riding breeds in many European countries, from Ancient Greece, Rome, ending with the countries of Western Europe.

This image shows the Assyrian archer already using the bridle, but not yet using the saddle.

Assyrian cavalry

The Scythians had a great influence on the development of the fighting qualities of the horse. The 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 the "History" of Herodotus. Being unsurpassed warriors and riders, they were engaged in horse breeding, making selection and selecting the most powerful and hardy animals.

Scythian legend says that this people originated from the marriage of Hercules with a snake woman. Three sons were born from this union: Agvafirs, Gelon and Scythian. And only the youngest of the three brothers was able to fulfill the will of his mighty father - to gird himself with a belt with a buckle of gold and be able to pull Hercules' bow. It was he who became the ancestor of the Scythian tribe, giving his name to the whole people.

Fight of the Scythians

The formation of a specifically Scythian culture by archaeologists dates back to the 7th century BC. In the 70s. VII century. BC NS. the Scythians invaded Media, Syria, Palestine and, according to Herodotus, "ruled" in Asia Minor, where they created the Scythian Kingdom - Ishkuza, but by the beginning of the 6th century BC. NS. were driven out of 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 the Transcaucasus, the Middle East and Asia Minor. Together with the Assyrians who entered into an alliance with them, the Scythians smashed Media and Babylon, and ravaged Syria and Asia Minor. And since that time, the glory of invincible warriors followed the Scythians.

Scythian king, with his wife, son and guards.

Heavily armed Scythian horseman.

Scythian cavalry

By the end of the 3rd century BC. NS. the power of the Scythians was significantly reduced under the onslaught of their kindred Sarmatians, who came from behind the Don. The capital of the Scythians was moved to the Crimea, where on the river. Salgir (within the boundaries of modern Simferopol) Scythian Naples arose, probably founded by Tsar Skilur. In addition to the Crimea, the Scythians continued to hold the lands in the lower reaches of the Dnieper and Bug. The highest prosperity of the Scythian kingdom in the Crimea reached in the II century. BC e., when the Scythians sought to seize the foreign trade in grain into their own hands, they subjugated Olbia and a number of possessions of Chersonesos.

The Scythian kingdom with its center in the 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 Nations Migration. The name "Scythians" ceased to be ethnic in nature and was applied to various peoples of the Northern Black Sea region.

The second, after the Scythians, skilled riders at that time were the Sarmatians or earlier the name of the Savromats ..

The Sauromatai are the first Sarmatian people noted in written history. In the V century. BC.

Herodotus claims that the Sauromats were the children of the Scythians and Amazons who lived north of the Caucasus. Their language is a distorted Scythian, as the Amazon mothers never knew it perfectly.

The history of the Sauromats, reflected in written sources, begins with the following event. In 507 BC. the Savromats acted as allies of the Scythians, who were attacked by the Persian king Darius I. A detachment of the Savromats 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 have always been on horseback. 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 various uses; for military purposes, in economic life, in sports. However, neither in Ancient Greece and Rome, nor in other countries, the horse was not yet used in agricultural work as a pulling force.

In Western Europe, the transformation of wild horses began later and proceeded in a direction different from that in Central Asia. Even in Historical times, there was no specialized cultural horse for a long time in Central and North-Western Europe. The small forest horse was prevalent here. Only in the Middle Ages in horse breeding in some countries of Western Europe began the process of differentiation and specialization of the horse 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 combat 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 light, fast horse with a good gallop. To obtain such a cavalry horse, it was necessary to resort to the importation of oriental horses and, with their help, to start breeding new types and breeds of riding horses, among which the so-called thoroughbred English horse was of particular importance.

In Western Europe, the horse first began to be used as a traction force in agriculture, gradually replacing the ox. Since the XI-XII centuries. AD, the process of horse penetration into the agriculture of Northern France, the Netherlands, England is taking place. In North-Western Russia, as the chronicles testify, horses were already in the 15th century. used for plowing, sometimes in the same harness with the ox.

Arabian horse with a rider from a noble family. (18-19 centuries)

Cavalry in Russia as an independent and then decisive combat 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 the needs of agriculture. The horse became a necessary domestic animal, apparently, 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 since the widespread introduction of the horse into military use, at least as a vehicle, its transformation into a "living weapon" has been a matter of several decades. Moreover, the creation of the first state entity - Kievan Rus - required a kind of universal and mobile force capable of effectively operating throughout the country. The first horseback trips were recorded in the annals 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 Kiev state, military operations were carried out mainly by the infantry. In the middle and in the second half of the 10th century, the ever more significant pressure from the southern neighbors of Russia, the nomads, and the formation of the feudal organization of society led to the advancement of cavalry to the fore, later subdivided into light (archers) and heavily armed (spearmen). The main weapon of the rider is a spear, bow and arrow, sword and saber.

The Arab author Ibn Rust, who wrote in 903-913. notes that the Slavic king had "beautiful, durable and precious chain mail." The Byzantine chronicler Leo the Deacon, describing the wars of Prince Svyatoslav with the Greeks in Bulgaria, records entire units of the Russians, built in a phalanx, dressed in chain mail (“long chain shirts”), helmets covered with long shields (from shoulder to knee). Especially Arab authors note the excellent double-edged swords of the Russians. There are cases when residents of the large Transcaucasian city of Berdaa, which suffered in 943-44. attacked by the Kiev troops, after their departure, they dug out 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 - the standard bearer of the "black hoods".
(Black klobuḱ karakalpak - black hat) is the general name of the Turkic vassals of the Kiev princes settled in Porosie since the end of the 11th century.)

Cossack times.

The Zaporozhye army consisted of infantry, cavalry and artillery. The Cossack cavalry was a 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 at the expense of speed and onslaught in half a day.

And the main guarantee of a sudden and quick attack were horses.

Cossack equestrian equipment: 1. Saddle with full folding. 2. Sakvas (leather and thick). 3, 5. Buckles. 4, 8. Bit. 6. Horseshoe. 7. Bell. 9. Stirrups. 10. Girth.

Registered Cossack Horse Hundreds

At the time of the Zaporizhzhya Sich, the horse shared the hardships and hardships of the Cossacks in long marches, and during the battle, whether the horse rested before the battle or not, the life of the Cossack often depended.

Horses have inseparably entered Cossack life.

A lot of songs have been composed about them, such as: "Oh, someone is worth it, and the mane is black ..." and so on.

Or "Why don't you come, yak misyats zishov, I checked you, I didn't know the horse, I didn't know the stitches, the mother didn't let ..."

Equid-hoofed animals (a detachment of the class of mammals) have endowed mankind with only two types of domestic animals; horse and donkey. Both are equines.

The donkey became domesticated earlier than the horse, about 6 thousand years ago in Egypt. His ancestor was an African wild donkey, which has now survived only in some places in Ethiopia and Somalia. He is there under the protection of the law against killing 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, used as beasts of burden. But with the advent of the horse, domestic Asian donkeys began to disappear rather quickly. And in addition, 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 an eogippus in the forest, he would never have thought that this is the ancestor of our horse, he was no more tall than a fox. The head was small, the neck was short, the back was humped, the skin was striped, and the paws were four-toed (front) and three-toed (hind). The eohippus lived in the damp forests of North America 50 million years ago. He ate leaves. There were several varieties of eohippus, some of them migrated to Europe early (apparently, across the "bridge" that then existed to the north * between Canada, Greenland, Iceland and Scandinavia). The European descendant of the eogippus - paleotherium with a mighty constitution resembled a rhinoceros.

The first horses in Europe were unlucky, they all died out here. But in America their kind still flourished. From the eohippus came the orohyppus, and from it the three-fingered mesohippus, which was already the height of a sheep. An important event happened here 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. Mesohippuses emerged from the forest thickets and risked a new life under the open sky of the prairie. They began to eat grass.

In the steppe they were pursued by the fast-footed ancestors of wolves. There was only one salvation: to learn to run faster than predators. The extra toes became a burden (it's easier to run on one toe!), And the fossil bones show how the ancestors of horses began to atrophy toe after toe, until there was only one left on each leg. The horse has turned into a one-hoofed animal.

But this did not happen immediately. From the mesohippus came the merigippus, and then the slender hipparion (growing slightly lower than the zebra). The two underdeveloped side toes on his feet did not touch the ground. The three-toed hipparion ran, therefore, already on one finger.

Hardly any other ungulate animal has met such colossal herds as the hipparion. Hordes of millions of these elegant horses across the isthmus, which 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 "fauna of the hipparion" the entire complex of living creatures that lived in the same steppes at the same time as these horses.

The hipparions did not manage to get into Africa, South America and Australia: then these countries were separated from North America, Asia and Europe by wide straits and seas.

Several million years passed, and all hipparions became extinct.

A happier fate awaited the cousin, so to speak, the "brother" of the hipparion (of course, in the evolutionary, not everyday sense) - pliohippus. It is from him that our horses originated.

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 are larger than the largest draft horse, others are smaller than a dwarf pony. But a million years ago, all horses in America died out 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.

In the ice age, several tens of thousands of years ago, wild horses were found all over Europe. Together with mammoths and reindeer, they often went to dinner with troglodytes, primitive people who lived in caves. This is evidenced by the "kitchen" waste of our ancestors - huge heaps of shattered bones, studied by anthropologists. In one of them, the remains of ten thousand eaten horses were found. Our ancestors, apparently, did not suffer from a lack of appetite.

Wild horses lived side by side with domesticated ones in Europe for a long time. The Roman Varro (II 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 legends contain many dramatic episodes in which wild horses act. Siegfried from "The Song of the Nibelungs", for example, kills a wild horse Skelkh, and the sea giant Ise hunts on the shore on dappled-gray horses (this color is unusual for wild horses, says Professor E. A. Bogdanov, a well-known connoisseur of 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 horse monks were especially fond of.

"You have allowed some to eat the meat of wild horses, and the majority of the meat from domestic ones," Pope Gregory III wrote to St. Boniface in the 8th century. "From now on, holy brother, do not permit this at all."

But gourmet monks ignored the prohibition of the holy father. For a long time in monasteries, wild horse meat was known as a delicacy. Eckegard, abbot of the St. Gallen monastery and Switzerland, in a book - a collection of table prayers, among others, recommends to his brothers in Christ this: "May the meat of a wild horse under the banner of the cross be delicious for us!"

Until the beginning of the 17th century, some cities in Europe contained detachments of shooters who hunted wild horses that devastated the fields. And in the forests of East Germany and, apparently, Poland, even 150 years ago, one could meet a wild horse (or a wild one? 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 this is Chernigov I have done: a wild horse has tied his arms in the forest, ten and twenty live horses, and besides, while riding along the Ros, I had the same wild horses with my own hands" - this is how the brave Kiev prince Vladimir Monomakh wrote about "Teachings children ".

This means that wild horses were also found in Russia in the XII century. Were carried out later. In 1663, historians say, the Cossacks tied the future hetman Ivan Mazepa to a wild horse for some offense, and he rushed him off to the steppe. But Mazepa managed to somehow free himself from the ropes and 44 years later raised a mutiny in Ukraine against Peter I.

In Ukraine, wild horses survived until the second half of the last century. These were the famous tarpans, horses, about which they once wrote and talked a lot, but now they are almost forgotten. Even the inhabitants of those places where wild horses "walked in the wild" a hundred years ago have not preserved any memories of them.

Tarpan (or scooper, the word is Tatar) is a medium-sized, but hardy and courageous horse. His color was mousy, ash-gray with a dark belt 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, dark transverse stripes were also noticed - a slightly perceptible zebroid.

More recently, Tarpans lived in the southern Russian steppes, forest-steppe and forests of Lithuania and Belarus (in Belovezhskaya Pushcha, writes Professor V.G. Geptner, they met 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 up at that time. And across the lush grasses, along the feather grass and fescue, across the desert expanse of the steppe, herds of free wild horses galloped. There were usually ten to twenty animals in the herd, and the herd was always led by an old and strong stallion.

Many animals that exist on Earth today were descended from creatures that were much larger than them. The horse, on the other hand.

The first known ancestor of the horse was a small animal no larger than a dog. It was hyracotherium, or "low horse". The remains of these horse ancestors have been found in many parts of our planet. The first horses of the Hyracotherium 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 the entire foot, on its front legs it had 4 toes, and on its hind legs, three. He lived in the forest and moved on soft soil, feeding mainly on leaves and young shoots.
Another step in evolution is the anchiteria, small three-toed horses that first appeared 35 million years ago. This animal resembled a pony in its size. The Anchiteria are from America, from where they migrated to Eurasia along the so-called Bering Bridge - an isthmus that periodically appeared on the site of the Bering Strait during cold spells, when the general level of the World Ocean dropped, exposing the seabed near the coast. After the warming, the waves flooded the land again, and the horses, cut off from their homeland, moved forward, settling in all corners. This is how the tarpans, the wild horses of Asia and the zebras of Africa, appeared.

The climate has changed
In the middle of the Miocene, a cooling began on our planet. The conditions in which the ancestor of the horse evolved over millions of years has changed. The climate has become drier, the vegetation is rougher. A radical change in the development of this branch of the animal world was the appearance of land areas free of forests. Wet soils were replaced by areas covered with grass and shrubs. Rainforests 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 the structure of the body; the strength of the teeth has increased, the jaws have become more massive. As a result, the facial part of the skull was extended, and the eye sockets and skull were 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 movement on hard ground. Gradually, the limbs of the ancestors of horses took on outlines similar to those of today; one toe became dominant, which increased in size and became horny, gradually turning into a hoof. And only 15 million years ago, the first single-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 did America's horses disappear?
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 direct ancestor of the modern horse remains unclear. The main contenders for this title were considered three types: 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 regarded as the direct “mother” of the domestic horse. Another confirmation of this theory was obtained by the methods of modern chromosome analysis. The chromosome set of these animals differs by a pair of chromosomes, as, for example, the chromosome set of humans and monkeys differs. The wild horse tarpan, exterminated by man, is who, in fact, most likely was the ancestor of the domestic horse. In the wild, the tarpans died in 1879. However, in captivity, people managed to preserve these animals, for example, in Belovezhskaya Pushcha.

Pony Miners
Ponies are not at all 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. It is the most widespread breed in the world and also the strongest and most resilient. It was formed about 2 thousand years ago in the north of Scotland (Shetland Islands). Since the beginning of domestication, Shetland ponies have been used for ordinary rural work, transporting peat and various goods, and then for hard labor in coal mines. During the year, each horse traveled about 4500 km underground and transported more than 3000 tons of coal and rock to the surface.
The fell breed was born 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 retreat of the Romans, fell ponies were very popular with the poor English, who could not afford to keep a large horse.
Moreover, fellas 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 acquire ponies as an excellent assistant for housekeeping.

The history of the horse is 60 million years old. It was then that in the humid and dense forests of America lived an eohippus (eohippus, as other scientists call it, or hirakotherium, as others call it), the size of a small dog. Neither the height, nor the arched back, nor the long tail, this animal resembled a horse. And of course, he had no hooves - he had toes: 4 on the front 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.

The Anchiteria - the descendants of the Eohippus - were already larger, the size of a modern pony. Of course, they also did not have hooves yet, but there were 3 toes on each foot. All the ancestors of the horse, appearing 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 took place on our planet that greatly influenced its fauna: treeless spaces began to appear. Before that, the entire land was covered with forests, and, naturally, animals were adapted to live in them. But then treeless plains with dry, sufficiently hard soil began to appear, and some of the animals were forced to adapt to other conditions.

Several more forms of wild horse ancestors changed before the "one-toe-dominated" horses appeared. They were 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, which then connected America and Eurasia, they penetrated into Europe, Asia and even Africa. The question has not yet been resolved whether the hipparions are the direct ancestors of horses or are they a lateral branch. But somehow they were already closer to modern horses than anyone else. And about 5 million years ago, pliohippus appeared - one-toed horses.

Changes began to take place on Earth again: in the savannas, where hipparions lived in abundance, the highly moistened soil, on which succulent plants grew, was replaced by dry steppes. And the hipparions, supplanted by the pliohippus, began to die out. Pliohippus quickly settled in Europe, Asia and Africa. So, "by a series of gradual changes we come to a one-fingered 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 an advantageous device that combined the lightness and cheapness of food with great strength, "wrote Vladimir Onufrievich Kovalevsky, to whom the world owes its knowledge of the history of the modern horse.

But all the changes took place with horses in the Eastern Hemisphere.

There were horses in America too, and their world was very diverse - from dwarfs to giants, from lightweights to heavyweights. And suddenly - about 10 thousand years ago - all horses became extinct. Why is not known, but in all of America there is not a single horse or animal that is in any way similar to it. However, many, many years passed and the descendants of the eogippus returned to America - real, long ago domesticated horses.

But who, then, was the ancestor of this domestic horse?

Until recently, the ancestors of the horse were considered its wild relatives - the kulan, the Przewalski's horse and the tarpan. We used to think that there were also ancestors, but then we stopped at 3.

Kulan. Why not? He looks like a horse in many ways. He is handsome - slim, lean, muscular. True, the head is a little too big, but this does not spoil it. And it doesn’t interfere at all with racing across the steppes, deserts, mountain paths (it is believed that the kulan is one of the fastest among ungulates: it can reach speeds of up to 65 kilometers per hour, and at short distances - more than 70).

It is unpretentious: it feeds on dry grass in summer and frozen, taking it out from under the snow in winter. This, by the way, is a typical sign of a horse - even the scientific name for domestic horses - "kabo" - comes from the Latin word "caballus", which means "digging."

He dared. If he runs away, then not from cowardice - it's just that this method of protection 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 dozens, and in the summer they roam in small schools - 10 - 20 heads each. In the schools, the leader keeps order, especially the behavior of the young: so that they do not frolic when it is not necessary, and most importantly, so that 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 advantage 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, the offspring. From the horse and kulan, foals appear. But these hybrids themselves do not give offspring. So there can be no question of breeding some kind or breed.

The Przewalski's horse is closer to the 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 connoisseur of horse history, proved on the basis of careful research that Przhevalsky'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 one - 64.

The tarpan remained. 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 as the "one-eyed tarpan".

Nevertheless ... Anyone who was in the Belovezhskaya Pushcha nature reserve could see there a small, mousey color, with a standing mane typical of wild horses. This is tarpan.

At the end of the last century, there was a rather rich menagerie in the estate of the Zamoyski gentry. Among other animals, there were tarpans in it, 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 tarpan. They succeeded: horses appeared, in all respects similar to their wild ancestors, having one of the most typical features 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 hirakotherium, with a flexible arcuate curved spine and a long tail. This animal rested on the entire foot, and not on the ends of the toes, which he had four on the front and three on the hind legs. His teeth were adapted for pinching and grinding leaves and young shoots. Another step in evolution is anchiteria, small three-toed horses as tall as ponies. They come from America, 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 life in open spaces and to feed on grass. On average in size, they were close to ponies, their skulls became like those of a horse, their teeth are close to modern ones. The greatest changes took place in the structure of the limbs at this particular time. The foot has been replaced by a hoof-supported foot adapted for jumping and fast movement.

The next link in the evolution of the horse is the hipparion, which resembled small, fast-footed gazelles or three-fingered horses of medium height. And only in the Upper Pliocene (7 million years BC) did the first one-toed horses appear, which supplanted 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 savanna landscape (with lush vegetation and highly moistened soils) was replaced by dry steppes, which favored the advantage of one-toed horses over hipparions. In a short time, horses have settled in abundance in Europe, Asia and Africa. 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 NS. 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 foci of distribution - both in the countries of Europe and in Asia. The role of these animals was very important for humans, including for the conduct of wars, so horse breeding developed very rapidly.

Since ancient times, one of the most important animals that have been domesticated by man is the horse. Without it, it is impossible to imagine many episodes from the history of our civilization: migrations of peoples, great battles and conquests of entire countries ... Of course, the domestication of this animal did not take place in a couple of years, and the ancient ancestors of the horse gave us a modern "version" of their descendant relatively recently ...

By the way, who were they, these same ancestors? If almost everyone knows something about horses, then this topic is practically unknown. To correct this sad misunderstanding, we have prepared this article.

Hyracotherium, 54-38 million years ago

This is the time of the Eocene. At that time, the most ancient representative of the horse family walked the Earth. Almost the entire surface of the planet is covered with dense tropical forests, numerous inhabitants of which were perfectly adapted to life in such conditions. Mammals already existed at that time, but they preferred to be smaller and behave as quietly as possible, and left their shelters only at nightfall.

The most ancient ancestors of the horse, the hyracotherium, were just such timid animals. In fairness, it should be said that modern scientists consider this animal to be the progenitor of horses only with a big stretch. Firstly, it belongs to the ancient family of the Paleotherium, which gave the ancestors not only of modern horses, but also of the long-extinct brontoteria. Secondly, this animal was as much as 20 centimeters at the withers, and there were no hooves on its legs. In short, he looked much more like some rare breed of cats than horses.

And this was justified: the most ancient ancestors of the horse were similar to their descendant only in that they were herbivorous. But! They ate exclusively on the foliage of small shrubs, since grass in those distant centuries was not found on the surface of our planet. By all other indications, they were typical forest dwellers who had no way to the steppe. It is hyracotherium that is the most ancient ancestor of the horse.

However, it should be emphasized once again that he had absolutely no features of its modern look. To some extent, the hyracotherium can be considered the ancestors of a huge number of animals, many of which we probably will not know anything about. Just imagine: by the beginning of the Pleistocene, there were more than 200 species of artiodactyls alone, and this (for those times) was far from the limit!

Approximately the same situation was observed with equids. Today, there are a maximum of one and a half dozen species on the planet, whereas in that historical period, their number may have numbered hundreds of species and a wide variety of subspecies!

Mesohyppus, 40-32 million years ago

But if you look at the structure of his skull and teeth, it turns out that in front of us is a typical one that ate almost exclusively on foliage and small twigs. He did not particularly need the grass. Significant changes in its appearance are associated with dramatically changed habitat conditions: if the hyracotheria lived in dense forests that reliably protected them, then the mesohyppuses had already been forced to move to a rare forest-steppe zone.

The spaces have become much larger, the number of enemies has also increased. Accordingly, these ancient ancestors of the horse were forced to run a lot, so as not to serve as a decoration for someone's table. Thanks to this, their lateral fingers gradually began to atrophy, which only prevented them from quickly moving along the surface of the earth, the digestive system became coarser and increased its length, and the teeth became stiffer and shorter.

Do not forget about the aforementioned brontoteria, which were the largest equid-hoofed animals that have ever lived on Earth. Unlike the "horses" of that period, these animals most of all resembled modern rhinos and over the centuries they only became larger and more massive. By the way, they also had a horn on their heads, but, unlike rhinoceros (y comes from the skin), it really was bone.

At the end of the Oligocene, the climate began to undergo changes that were not very pleasant for the inhabitants of the planet: it became drier, and there were fewer forests with lush foliage. The giant and gluttonous Brontoteria simply died out of hunger, but the history of horses at that time was just beginning. They became more and more diverse, new evolutionary branches appeared. Of course, many of them became dead ends, but still some gave rise to animals that have survived millions of years.

Myohippus, 36-24 million years ago

Mesohippus gradually died out, replaced by myohippus. At that time, for the first time, really large open spaces appeared (like modern prairies), but at the same time huge forests were preserved, which this beast was able to take advantage of. He is one of the rarest mammals that had two very different subspecies at once, forest and steppe. Gradually, the forest subspecies migrated to the territory of North America, from which Anchiterium originated. But the real ancient horses of that period are its steppe varieties.

The main difference from the mesohippus was that not only the fingers, but also the teeth of the myohippus were strengthened. They have become much stronger and tougher. Ideal for grinding large quantities of tough steppe grass. By the way, it was precisely the adaptability to the digestion of hard and poorly nutritious food that served the horse ancestors a good service at the beginning of the global cold snap. The species that preferred tender leaves and young tree branches were dying out in droves.

Anchiterius, "bastard offspring." 24-5 million years ago

So who was the same Anchitherium, descended from the forest "version" of the myogippus? Most of all, he resembled a mesohippus, which by the time of his appearance was already completely extinct: there were three fingers on his naga, he ate branches and foliage. As you might guess, the evolution of the horse in his case ended: he did not become the ancestor of these animals in their modern form.

Parahippus, 24-17 million years ago

In general, the parahippus already most of all resembled those modern horses, of which he was the ancestor. In his "arsenal" there are completely new legs and teeth. More precisely, they were not so much new as significantly improved. For the first time, this animal began to run not on the entire area of ​​the foot, but on its short, thickened toes.

The fact is that in the Miocene there were even fewer forests, but the number of steppes covered with herbaceous plants increased sharply. Accordingly, there were practically no shelters at all, and therefore the ancestors of the horses had to accelerate even more.

It is worth making a digression here. The history of horses knows several cases of how equids at this time went a different way. It's about tapirs. They are also distant ancestors of their (horses), who chose to leave with the retreating jungle, rather than adapt to the difficult conditions of the steppes.

Merikgippus, 17-11 million years ago

Merikgippus was in many ways similar to parahippus. In the shoulders, this "mini-horse" had already reached a meter, and on the legs were real hooves. The teeth of this animal were ideally adapted for eating grass, but not foliage, as in its many relatives.

It is worth noting that in those days the forests began to gradually revive. Theoretically, the merikgippus could once again become a forest dweller, having switched to easy-to-obtain foliage. But myohippus and anchiteria still lived in the forests, and therefore the food niche was completely occupied. Thus, the ancestors of horses and related animals were often in a state of intense biological confrontation, since they used the same food base.

It is possible that in the event of a full-scale return of the forests on our planet today, it would be the descendants of the Anchiterians and other forest dwellers who would live, but the climate continued to become more and more severe. Be that as it may, but practically no one returned to the forests, where the oldest ancestor of the horse originated (we talked about some exceptions to this rule above).

Hipparion, 15-2 million years ago

There were about 20 species of these animals, and for the first time they could be considered true horses, without special reservations. Most of all, they resembled modern horses, they were approximately the same in size. Their legs still had the third and fourth toes, but only in the form of rudimentary processes. These were the real ancestors by right can be considered extremely successful from a biological point of view.

These species lived almost on the entire surface of the planet. The main mystery for paleontologists is the reasons for their extinction. It was an extremely successful species, perfectly adapted to the conditions of its habitat. Some scientists believed (and still believe) that these animals should be considered the main branch of the evolution of equids, while the evolution of the horse was a side branch. In principle, there is still no clearly accepted opinion about the reasons for their extinction. Perhaps this is due to all the same climatic changes.

Pliohippus, 12-5 million years ago

And now we will consider a really dead-end branch in the development of the pliohippus family. For a long time it was believed that it was he who was the true, direct ancestor of all modern horses. But later paleontologists and biologists found that the structure of his skull was too different from that of an equine.

However, there was no particular mistake: after all, this animal was a direct descendant of the Merikhippus, like the hipparions. Most likely, pliohippuses were a kind of transitional form between forest and steppe representatives of the family. At a time when the climate was relatively balanced and mild, they easily got along with everyone, but then the cold snap continued, and this species simply could not withstand competition with its more specialized relatives.

Perhaps it was at that time (about 2 million years ago) that our "wild" ancestors first met each other. It is very likely that this meeting was of an exclusively gastronomic character. In those centuries, Australopithecines lived on the planet, and they were hardly interested in taming horses.

5 million - 8,000 years ago

Do you think that by the beginning of the Pleistocene modern horses completely survived the "oldies" in the person of hipparions and astrohippus? Not at all. At that time, there were more and more cloven-hoofed herbivores, with which the ancestors of horses did not have very good relations, since they used a common food base.

In addition, at that time in South America, extremely ancient and primitive forms of equids were still preserved, which in other places had become extinct long ago. But then the time of the Pleistocene came, and another ice age came to the planet. Many species appeared (like Elasmotherium) that could exist only in the harsh conditions of that climate. Scientists today agree that the extinction of such animals was not associated with human activities at all, but with completely natural reasons.

But we are describing the history of the appearance of horses. How does all this relate? The fact is that due to a sharp cold snap, many old species (jerikhippus) finally died out completely, and therefore the ancestors of real horses received "complete freedom of action", beginning to actively develop and capture new spaces.

Four million years ago - today

Of course, all archaic species did not become extinct in one season. So, the pliohippus disappeared only five million years ago, so in a historical sense they lived almost yesterday.

Since even Australopithecines appeared no earlier than 3 million years ago, people are not to blame for their extinction. First, the planet was getting colder. Secondly, the digestive system which was many times more perfect entered the scene. By the way, the reason for the extinction of many mammoths is the same food, and not a man with his primitive spears. The lack of food made the ancient horses "drier" and faster, and many of their species simply disappeared.

Horses in those days have already acquired a modern look and characteristic features of the internal structure. The climate became more and more temperate, so that they began to settle over large areas. Further evolution of horses followed the path of atrophy of the remnants of the third or fourth toes, as well as the development of the gastrointestinal tract. Today, the evolution of this species has not stopped, but has been seriously complicated by the influence of humans on this process.

Who knows how different appearance horses would have if they still lived in the savannas and prairies of the world, where man never appeared!