Wild Horses

Over millions of years many species and sub-species of horse ancestors emerged and many became extinct. Eventually the Equus caballus, the species we recognize as the horse, emerged. It was still a very primitive ancestor of our modern horse. There is evidence that this species developed for another million years. All that time those primitive horses seem to have existed and evolved with no human interaction. They might be considered ‘wild’ horses in the truest sense of the term.  

The primitive horses,  Equus caballus, living before the Ice Age were truly undomesticated. Some survived the Ice Age and once the ice receded about 10,000 years ago some areas had no primitive horses left. There is evidence that 6000 years ago, people living on the steppes of Mongolia survived on herds of horses. They used the horse flesh for food, the hides for tents and clothing, the dried dung for fires, and the mares’ milk was fermented into a fiery brew. Thus began human involvement with horses. 

Eventually those primitive horses were hunted to extinction, or so it was thought. Then, the Asian Wild Horse was discovered still living in Mongolia in 1879 by Col N M Przewalski. These horses are referred to as the Przewalski Horse. They have primitive features, and genetically, have 66 chromosomes instead of the 64 of our modern horse. They are considered the descendants of those horses of the steppes of 6000 years ago. Today they are being bred in captivity and reintroduced to the steppes.  

There are no known herds of the primitive, free-roaming horses today other than the Asian Wild Horses called the Przewalski Horses. There are free-ranging horses and ponies in several parts of the world.  Their origins are not proven beyond being descendants of the modern day horse having escaped and living in wilder conditions. We refer to these as our wild or feral horses. 

Our wild horses are undomesticated in the sense that they do not get handled by humans for the purposes of riding or working. Some herds get rounded up annually. In different regions they are rounded up for different reasons – some to be given various types of care, and sometimes for population control. The rest of the time these wild horses sustain themselves.  

Studying wild horses, or horses living in free-ranging habitats, has been the source for many of those wanting to learn more about the horse as a species. Its’ been found that horses, by nature, prefer to live in herds; they maintain a working and changing social structure within that herd; they move about and physically interact with members of their herd and others as well. These free-roaming wild horses are our best living example of how the horse, as a species, thinks, acts, and works to survive.