Redirected from Pony
The Horse, Equus caballus, is a large ungulate mammal, one of the seven modern species of the genus Equus.
|
The evolution of the horse[?] from the very early (ca 55 million years ago) Hyracotherium to the wild equids listed below, is well understood. It is the transition from the wild species existing in the fossil or tundra record, to the myriad domesticated breeds today, that is not well understood.
Domestication of the Horse and Surviving Wild Species The earliest evidence for the domestication of the horse has been found in Central Asia, about 3,000 BCE. There are competing theories about the time and place of domestication. However, wild species continued into historic times, including the Forest Horse, Equus caballus silvaticus (also called the Diluvial Horse); it is thought to have evolved into Equus caballus germanicus, and may have contributed to the development of the heavy horses of northern Europe, such as the Ardennais[?]. The Tarpan, Equus caballus gmelini, became extinct in 1880, but has been "bred back", by crossing living domesticated horses that had primitive features, thanks to the efforts of the brothers Lutz Heck (director of the Berlin zoo) and Heinz Heck (director Tierpark Munich Hellabrunn). The resulting animal is more properly called the Wild Polish Horse.
The only true surviving wild-horse species is Przewalski's Horse, Equus caballus przewalskii prewalskii Polaikov [[]], a rare Asian species. In Mongolia it is known as the taki, while the Kirghiz people call it a kirtag. There are wild populations in Mongolia and you can find more here: http://www.treemail.nl/takh/.
Specialized vocabulary In the English-speaking world, horses are measured in hands. One hand is 4 inches, or about 0.11 meter. Adult horses can range in size from 5 hands (a very small miniature horse[?] or falabella to over 18 hands. The convention is: 15.2 hh means 15 hands, 2 inches in height, measured at the highest point of the withers.
The Origin of Modern Horse Breeds Horses come in an astonishing array of sizes and shapes. The draft breeds can top 20 hands (80 inches, 2.03 meters) while the smallest miniature horses can be as little as 5.2 hands (22 inches, 0.56 meters). These are breed differences, not race differences; the individuals would still be fertile if bred.
There are several schools of thought on how this amazing range of size and shape came about. These schools grew up reasoning from the type of dentition and the horses' outward appearance. One school, which we can call the "Four Foundations" is that the modern horse evolved from two types of early domesticated pony and two types of early domesticated horse; the differences between these types accounts for the differences in type of the modern breeds. A second school is the "Single Foundation"--that there was only one breed of horse domesticated, and it diverged in form after domestication by human selective breeding (or in the case of feral horses, ecological pressures). Finally, there are those geneticists who are evaluating the DNA and mitochondrial DNA to construct family trees.
The list of horse breeds provides a partial alphabetical list of breeds of horse extant today, plus a discussion of rare breeds conservation.
Polo is another European tradition that has become international, differing from racing and the other competitions in that it is a team sport.
The horse is one of the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar. It is thought that each animal is associated with certain personality traits.
See also: list of horse breeds, horse tack, horse teeth, Trojan Horse.
Horse is also the name of a game played with a basketball.
Horse is also a slang term for the recreational drug heroin.
Horses is the name of an album by Patti Smith.
Search Encyclopedia
|
Featured Article
|